There are many different things that an environmental activist goes about to reach their goal. For a teen environmental activist to reach this goal and make a difference in the world, they usually need to have money or donated supplies. They also need to gather a group of peers to help and educate others of their issue to get more people on board. These are usually the most effective ways for these teen environmental activists to get their issue to be successful.
The first cause that environmental activists must have is that they get money or donated supplies for their project. It does not matter if it is through a grant, fundraiser, or something else. One example of somebody who was very successful when he used his resources, such as applying for grants to get money, was Clay McMullen. “Clay, now 17 has won nearly 50 grants totaling $180,000 from organizations ranging from Walt Disney Co. to the Environmental Protection Agency to Sea World.” (Teresa Dixon Murray, 2011). This piece of evidence also demonstrates how someone very successful like Clay, who ended up planting school gardens installing emission control devices in many school buses, and doing many other amazing projects, had to have money to have these accomplishments. A second example of this is when Jonny Cohen got donations from many different companies to create device designed to redirect the airflow in buses, saving a lot of money. He needed some materials to be able to experiment on. The article says, “Through the help of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, and the Cook-Illinois Bus Company, which donated a bus for Cohen's experiment, they now have a model that is inexpensive and easy to install, enabling widespread adoption.” (Forbes) This piece of evidence also demonstrates that when an activist gets money or donations they are able to get a lot of work done. Though it is not truly necessary to have money or donations to get an issue further than an idea, it is a really helpful and important key to getting the effect that you want.
The second cause that most teen environmental activists encounter is that they gather a group of peers to help move their cause along. It is really helpful to have other people working with you to get more ideas and opinions. An example of one person doing this is when Jonny Cohen gathered a group of peers to work on his GreenShields project, “Cohen and his team went through various iterations to improve their GreenShield.” (Forbes) This example illustrates how having a team of people to help you can be a very important part of activism. With a group of people you can get work done a lot faster than when you are independent. Cohen and his team were probably able to get a lot more done than if he had worked independently on this project. Another example of this cause is when a group of teens worked together to educate people of global warming, “They're a group of teens dedicated to raising awareness of global warming.” (Ryan Merchant). This group of teens in “Inconvenient Youth” was working together to get a project done and they probably would not have been able to make very much progress if they had not been working with each other. These pieces of evidence all show that when you work as a group you can get a lot more done, be more creative, and get a lot more opinions.
The last cause that an environmental activist typically encounters is that they have to educate others of their issue and get more people on board to be successful. If they did not have anybody else with them then they would not get very far and there word would not be spread. One example of this is Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, who was a very good educator. He even won Youth Change Maker of the Year prize from President Obama. This means that he was probably making a significant change in the world. His main goal was to put a price on plastic bags and educate others of all environment issues out there. In the article, Robin Nieryrck says, “He's organized over 100 high-impact rallies, events and conferences around the globe, has spoken for TED, and is one of the youngest people to speak on a United Nations Panel.” (Robin Nieryrck, 2015). This example models how, in order to be successful you have to show people that your issue is important. If you cannot get anyone else on your side, your issue will go nowhere. The second example of this is Team Marine. This is a team of teens in Santa Monica who were determined to ban plastic bags to save the environment. A member of the group says, “So we gathered 40 students to March through the streets of Santa Monica and promote the use of reusable bags and banning plastic bags.” (Whole Foods Market, 2008) This group of peers sure had the right idea to get out there and promote their cause in the streets. This got lots of people on their side when they did not give up and had so many people promoting the cause. This is why it is very important for teen activists to educate the world and get their ideas out their.
The result of all of these causes is that the environmental teen activists are able to change the thing that they thought was wrong with the world and were able to educate others of the problem, hopefully to continue the project in the future. The effect of all of these teen activists was amazing. They were able to get a lot done and make many improvements on our world. One example of a teen environmental activist who was a very successful was Johnny Cohen. The article says, “The newest GreenShield model, the V4, increases gas mileage 10 to 20%, saves about $600 per bus per year, costs only $30, and takes minutes to install.” (Forbes) This illustrates that when all of the causes are put together the effect is great! This project was a great success and was able to reach the goal, making an important change in the world. The second example of this is when and Greg Woodburn founded a nonprofit organization to collect and clean up running shoes for kids who did not have any. “By the end of the first year, he was able to collect and clean-up more than 500 pairs of running shoes, which were sent to kids in inner-city Los Angeles, as well as overseas to Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya.” (Lori Brown, 2010). This also demonstrates that when the three causes were put to use, the result was that a great Improvement in something happens. This is exactly what the effect of teen environmental activism of any kind does.
In conclusion, teen activists have many different causes to come to their general goal, to change something that they think is wrong with the world. But these were only some of the typical environmental activists causes. These three main causes are that they have to have money or a donation of some sort, a group of peers to help them reach their goal, and also need to educate others of their goal to get more support. Activists would not get very far if they did not get money. Most activists also usually gather a group of peers, though they could do the project independently. The last cause is that they have to get more people on board with their goal and to do so you have to educate others. These are all of the causes to come to the effect of changing something in the world that you do not think is right. Overall, teen environmental activism can have great effect when you do indeed put all these causes together and so we should keep on doing what we’re doing and change our world for the better.
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