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b"Although many climate conversations talk about impacts on future generations, all too often those younger generations are not at the table or in the room. So how are young people taking charge of their climate future? For Isha Clarke, a high school student and activist from Oakland, California, by speaking truth to the senior U.S. Senator from her state.\\n\\n\\u201cI think that truth is respectful and that you can speak truth in a way that is compassionate and authentic,\\u201d says Clarke, who recently gained fame for a viral video in which she confronts Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein over the Green New Deal.\\n\\n\\u201cI think the conversation now isn\\u2019t really about Senator Feinstein anymore,\\u201d Clarke says as she reflects on that experience and the ensuing coverage, \\u201cit's really about politicians in general and power holders in general, who aren\\u2019t and haven't been taking the necessary steps to reverse this climate crisis. \\n\\nFeeling a similar frustration at her elders\\u2019 failure to act more urgently, 14-year old Sarah Goody organized a climate strike in San Francisco.\\n\\n\\u201cWhy study for a future that\\u2019s not gonna exist?\\u201d says Sarah in response to passers-by who question why she\\u2019s sitting on a sidewalk rather than in a classroom, \\u201cI need to be here now and fighting now for my future.\\u201d\\n\\nSitting alone outside iconic buildings can be a lonely endeavor, so other slightly-less young activists have found their climate calling by getting involved in more organized movements.\\n\\n\\u201cI see [it] as a civic duty to be involve to be socially engaged in whatever way I can,\\u201d says Morrisa Zuckerman, Bay Area chapter coordinator for the Sunrise Movement, the grassroots organization behind the Green New Deal. She and her colleagues have been pressing lawmakers and candidates to make climate action a top priority \\u2013 and it\\u2019s working.\\n\\n\\u201cThis Democratic presidential primary is talking about climate change in a way that I don't think any of us necessarily expected,\\u201d enthuses Ben Wessel, Youth Vote Director at NextGen America, the environmental advocacy organization founded by billionaire activist Tom Steyer. \\n\\nWessel has been impressed by the diversity of motivations that have recently been drawing young people to climate politics. \\u201cThis is one intersectional movement that has to address our racial injustices our climate injustices and our economic injustices,\\u201d Wessel says, \\u201cI actually think the Democratic primary electorate is recognizing that more than ever before.\\u201d\\n\\nElections have consequences; but without more fundamental changes, shifting political winds can erase hard-fought carbon reductions. That\\u2019s why for Julia Olson, Executive Director of Our Children's Trust, the most effective climate solution lies in judicial rather than legislative action. \\n\\nOlson is chief legal counsel for plaintiffs in Juliana versus United States, the lawsuit brought by 21 young people accusing the federal government of violating their fundamental rights under the Fifth Amendment to life, liberty and property by knowingly promoting and subsidizing an energy system that damages climate.\\n\\n\\u201cWhat we hope to do through our case in lifting up the voice of youth in the Judiciary,\\u201d Olson explains, \\u201cis to secure the binding constitutional mandate that forces the people in the presidency and in the legislature to actually adopt laws and policies that comply with its constitutional obligation.\\u201d\\n\\nGuests:\\nIsha Clarke, Student Activist\\nSarah Goody, Student Activist\\nJulia Olson, Executive Director at Our Children's Trust; Chief Legal Counsel for plaintiffs in Juliana v. U.S.\\nBen Wessel, Director, NextGen Rising\\nMorissa Zuckerman, Bay Area Chapter Coordinator, Sunrise Movement\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices"