Jamie Margolin: Zero Hour for the planet

By Marisela Valero @lavalero

Jamie Margolin was born in 2001, in Seattle, Washington, is daughter of Colombian immigrant. In 2017, she founded with Nadia Nazar the youth climate action organization Zero Hour , and has been co-executive director of the organization ever since.

Zero Hour. Photo CNN

Margolin has dedicated her activism career to fighting for the most vulnerable communities.

He decided to start it up after witnessing the damage caused by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and how difficult it was to breathe in Seattle after the Canadian wildfires. She was also one of the plaintiffs in Aji P. v. Washington, against the state of Washington for its inaction against climate change on the grounds that a stable climate is a human right.

Right after graduating high school, Margolin published her first book  Youth to Power: Your Voice and How To Use It, for teaches young people all about to start and sustain ecological and social movements, just like Margolin has been doing with Zero Hour.

Jamie is a great activist. Photo The Zero Hour

Margolin tells Shondaland, “I got involved in climate action mostly because of the fallout of the 2016 election. It was really devastating to see how the bad guys won. So I decided to step up and take action on an issue that I care about.”

 The mission of Zero Hour is to center the voices of diverse youth in the conversation around climate and environmental justice. Zero Hour is a youth-led movement creating entry points, training, and resources for new young activists and organizers (and adults who support our vision) wanting to take concrete action around climate change. Together, we are a movement of unstoppable youth organizing to protect our rights and access to the natural resources and a clean, safe, and healthy environment that will ensure a livable future where we not just survive, but flourish.

A big youth Ecological Movement .Photo The Forward

Margolin says that is necesary a huge shift in policy, specifically the passing of the Green New Deal, for any real change. “The Green New Deal is a template for a lot of importants actions to be taken,” she says. She wants to see, than soon as posible, an end to the fossil fuel industry, as well as protecting the Amazon and Congo rainforests, along with other parts of biodiversity. “The Amazon rainforest is the lungs of our planet and it is mostly protected by Indigenous people. So we have to be dedicated to Indigenous rights advocacy and deforestation efforts if we’re going to save the planet.”

Los jovenes alzan su voz para generar cambios en las politicas ecologicas. Photo Zero Hour

Finally, Jamie coments that the road to learning to be a youth activist was hard. “No one really teaches you how to do this,” she says. “You just have to learn by doing, but then you make a lot of mistakes along the way, which is what I did. I still make a lot of mistakes because trial and error is sometimes the best way to learn”.

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