A voice behind the Youth Climate March

Photo: Kevin Sanchez Farez

While juggling through classes as a freshman at Georgia State University, Zeena Abdulkarim also commits to saving the planet from its climate crisis.

“I haven’t had a choice other than to be an activist my whole life,” Abdulkarim said. “I’ve had to be an ambassador for my communities—being Muslim, a first-generation immigrant, being black, being a woman. I haven’t had the option of just being passive.”

Zero Hour is a movement that demands action from elected officials to combat the climate crisis. Abdulkarim helps lead the front in Georgia along with fifteen other youth activists.

Young people across more than 3,600 locations organized climate strikes ahead of the U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York.

“I’m ashamed of our adults. I’m ashamed of our world leaders. I’m disappointed, but I’m feeling inspired. Not by them, [but] by my own generation, by the activists of my generation, by the community organizers,” Abdulkarim said. “Because I realize, the world leaders in our existence in our globe are actually the youth.”

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