Tree, and thats the tale of the amazon rain forest in which a man goes down to the forest and cuts down a tree and all the animals whispering in his ear while hes sleeping and he wakes up and he has an epiphany and he doesnt cut the tree down. And its about power for one person to do good or harm. Lending her talent as an artist, lynn has devoted much of her recent work to climate change, even publishing a book specifically designed for children and parents. I think that my interest in the environment grew out of my love for nature. I had an experience when i was a little kid where i had these woods that i loved and i came pack and they were bulldozing it. They completely destroyed it. It was a really traumatic experience and thats when i began thinking the adults dont really know what theyre thinking. I began to question. When i was first illustrating childrens books and i would go out and i would talk to kids about the rain forest or about rivers or about endangered species, sometimes they get really upset. Sometimes they would cry. And i realize this isnt really being very effective. I came to realize that if i shared with them Success Stories of other kids and as im traveling around the country, there are so many kids coming up to me and saying we saved this tract of land or we cleaned up our local river. These stories, these are really powerful. And i realize when kids are engaged like that, thats the gift i wanted to give them. I wanted to show kids that they had power. And i could do that simply by sharing their stories, what they were doing. And sharing those stories effectively meant going beyond books to films that can easily be seen online. Her series, young voices for the planet, shows how young people can make a global difference. Ill race you come back. Lets to the creek. We went down two hills. Do you hear that . Thats the broad shoulder hawk. Its really close. Do you want to go find it . Come on. Lets go this way. I love birds because theyre so interesting. They are beautiful. They all have personalities. I think the reason that a lot of people have chosen birds as the symbol of the environment is because they have a sense of freedom. They can fly. They own the air. My dad has a family that lives on the coast of the gulf of mexico. Those beaches are beautiful. Or at least they were. The animals there were amazing. The it was going back to them. And the brown pelicans. And the gray her win who has heron who has become my best friend. She will swallow the fish headfirst. Catastrophic disaster at sea. A column of fire blasting into the sky. The explosion happened aboard a mobile offshore drilling unit called the deep water horizon. More than 175 million gallons of oil have spewed into the gulf. When i first heard about the oil spill, you know, it broke my heart. My dad and my grandfather were talking. Olivia heard that it was spilling into the gulf. They were as angry as could be because they grew up loving those pristine beaches and those waters and seen those birds. After we spoke to my fatherinlaw, we had dinner and olivia, i had never seen her so upset. I started breaking down crying at the table and i couldnt help it. Its the thought that was running through my head was its nesting season for the birds. What are we going to do . She knew immediately that the brown pelicans would be feeding their babies, that they would not leave their nests. I knew those birds were going to be affected and some of them wont make it. Thinking about it, that whole night, i decided to write a letter. It was signed 11 years old and would like to help. The letter basically said i will do 500 drawings for people who donate, they would get drawings. And who most . Maybe ill raise 200. Ill try. Ive drawn ever since i was a little girl and ever since i could hold a pencil. The donations started a couple of weeks after the explosion of the rig. The drawings were called for. It took me three months to finish them. [laughter] it was such a media whirlwind. First, it went to the mobile press register. Then it spread to the u. K. The guardian u. K. Published an article saying school shames b. P. From there, it went viral. And then it was going crazy. My mother was getting like 100 emails an hour. Belgian newspapers, italian tv. My mom was having a heart attack. People. 144 Million People have seen my story two months. 144 Million People. It tells you people love to help but they just dont know how. Thats why i think they need a role model like a youth that says even a child could do it, so could i. I could make a difference. Her illustrations are just beautiful. They really are. 11yearold girl. Whats really astonishing is how that message that kids can make a difference made global big time. And that was so important. Yes, the 200,000 that cleaned off all those hundreds of birds, that was really great but also that kids now know millions of kids now know that kids can make a big difference. Olivia encouraged us to meet with our representatives in washington, d. C. To advocate for alternative energy and the birds. We actually met with ken salazar. We should stop offshore drilling. Stop relying on other countries. Have you ever seen a solar panel break down and it ends the whole ecosystem and destroys the whole way of life for people and animals . Have you ever heard of a solar sill . You dont have to do what i did. But everything that you do for our planet helps. She just sees the big picture and she has the love for the birds. She understands that she has the power to maybe influence the way we allow Oil Companies to pollute. And she knows that theres a bigger policy issues and that we need to support Renewable Energy legislatively through congressional mandate. Ive always enjoyed living in the brook shirs because i find it to be a very unique closeknit place to live. We have a very expensive vegetable garden. Weve been getting beef and pork from a local farmer. And we get our own eggs from our chickens. So in eighth grade, i saw what the High School Students were doing with the Student Initiative and i thought it was fantastic and i knew i wanted to be a part of it the second i got into high school. I first started working with the food project my junior year. My friend, sophie randolph, graduated last year. She started the Food Initiative with zoe borden. We both felt that an issue was school lunches. If i have to eat pizza, i will. But i dont know. Its never looked appealing to me. Im a vegetarian and they dont really offer vegetarian options in the cav feara. We represent the student body. They want better lunches. I eat almost every day in the cafeteria. We saw a lot of processed foods in our lunches. It doesnt have as many nutrients as fresh foods. We get served cut peaches in syrup but we have these amazing peaches that are growing out here. We have great apples that grow actually right next to us on a Windy Hill Farm and were getting served apples in plastic bags that are presliced. Why not tap into our Natural Resources . That really started the discussion that if it was even fees tangible to the lunch area and everyone said yeah, we should do that. Its really hard for schools to change because there are all these rules like health code and in the school cafeteria. People are really up against the wall. But these kids were able to figure out a way that they could basically provide a lunch for the students for almost the same price. We planned a local lunch pilot day. June has this phenomenal personality and we thought that instead of using canned vegetables, we should supply local vegetables are sauteed, squash, onions, garlic, cheese. Yep. The lurch was fantastic. And lunch was fantastic and people really loved it. Our cafeteria purchases through cisco, which in turn gets their food from other sources. Who knows where . Shipping this food all around this world to get into our cafeteria creates a huge amount of c. O. 2. A main contributor of global warming. For example, locally grown apple travels 61 miles whereas conventionally sourced apples travel 1,726 miles. So, you can see how much carbon thats really creating. Its a lot of carbon. We all really care about decreasing our Carbon Footprint which we live in its such a beautiful someplace and we want to preserve that. Project sprout was started five years ago by three student who is decided that they wanted more local and fresh vegetables from the cafeteria. Here is our greenhouse and here we grow radishs and lettuce during the winter. Other root vegetables that go up through the cafeteria. Carrots, spinach, tomatoes. People come out on saturdays where theres kids from the school or people around the community. We weed the garden, plant the garden, harvest. That food in turn, gets served in the cav feara. They bring in lunches from the local garden, like fresh veggies and food. So thats kind of nice. One of our main problems at project sprout is our main growing season is in the summer when school is not in session. So weve been working with the brookshire coopt to cooop to create a bartering system. They will sell that produce and in the summer, when they need it in return, well simply give them that product in exchange. Once we had the pilot lunch under or belt, we were granted one day a month that we could totally take over the menu. Pressure food will have more nutrients and kids will have more energy during the day. Kids can be engaged, they can do meaningful work in what is that other kids cant possibly. One of the main concerns at food that Food Services have was they didnt have enough staff. You have to prepare fresh foods. You cant just unfreeze it. You cant just take it out of a can. So it was more work and so thats where we step in and so i we will help with the extra work. We have students in the cafeteria mixing after codeos, teachers cutting vegetables. But they were concerned we werent food safe certified so we said we will get food safe certified. Charlie and i went to a ninehour seminar. We went what temperatures foods need to be cooked at. How to avoid contamination. We all passed with flying colors and received our credit accusation. Certification. We planned a rotating schedule so each one of us can plan without a local chef each month. In october, i worked with brian to get the red line. I went to the red line inn and we worked out menu. The red line ordered a prize winning steer from the local fair. And brian said we want to use it for the local meatloaf. And he had all the local farms delivered to him and he got all of it and delivered to us and he cooked it with us and students also helped out and it was a good day. Not only was our meatloaf grassfed, it was a really great opportunity for us to show students where our food is coming from. We realize that local food day every month was a big process. We want to move of it the Student Hands into the cafeteria hands because that would be a way tah make it longlasting. So were aiming toward to get a local few items in our lunches a few times a week. We purchased more from local farms and local Grocery Stores than obviously. That gives them some business and increase their local economy and i think thats a great goal to work towards. Our generation, wear the ones that will going to have to be the Problem Solver for tomorrow. And why not start here and reduce our Carbon Footprint and buy creatively . And that was creatively. This is not in the movie because since after the movie was done, they started a store in their school. So they make food from all local ingredients and they its part of the business course at the school. And theyre providing fresh local organic a lot of vegetarian food for the students all day. They to come by and have really good food. Because the sea level change, miami, out of all the cities in the world will have the greatest economic loss. At a certain point, is there anything we can do . We have to start thinking that. Were the green team melissa, maddie, melissa and nicole wanted to go beyond the classroom with what they had learned about energy and Environmental Science and make a difference in their school and community. We started by turning off computers. Recycle. Turn off lights. We weather stripped the doors and windows so the air cant escape so conserve airconditioning. We turned off the about units and opened the windows and doors. There are so many Little Things that you can do that will save energy and money. We have the green thermometer. We received energy that we were saving. It became a Nonprofit School that reduce our Carbon Footprint. We saved tens of thousands of dollars. We learned how our action affected the environment. Were able to vastly decrease the amount of energy our school used. Going green is a winwin situation for everybody. My eighth grade year, we saved 39,000. And then the year after that, we saved another 14,000. We made a presentation for School Board Members about how the entire district could be more environmentally friendly. And they also saw the financial benefits of going green. The savings were astronomical. It was exciting to go to School Board Members. You could say look, you have no idea how much money you could be saving. Whats really interesting about this story, i think, is that it didnt just stop there. Nicoles father owned buildings in miami. And at first, he was not supportive of what they were doing. Then, when they saved 53,000, he went out and he exchanged the airconditioning units in his buildings for energy store. And he saved a lot of money, thousands of dollars. And so, not only did those girls affect their school, they ended up helping their parents save money and their Community Save money and the businesses save money. So you can see how what kids can do can cascade down through a community and really, make a huge difference. Small changes that add up to big savings. You can save millions of dollars and this is just one small county in florida. Can you imagine if any other county did this . Can you imagine if every other state did this . Its right on every level. If you keep trying, you cant lose. Youre saving money and more importantly, youre saving the planet. Kids do have power. Kids have a say in what happens. I felt like i could change things. I could strap on my capabilities. My name is felix. Im 11 years old from germany. Two years ago, after the warm weather, my teacher ask me to give a presentation about the climate crisis. Felix came home and said hey, i have to make a power Firm Presentation next week. I said but you need to do that. I have no idea how to do that. Finally, he worked out by himself. He was researching on the internet and he learned about i found out that this man planted 30 Million Trees in africa in 30 years. So i thought if he can plant 30 Million Trees, we students in germany can also plant one Million Trees. This is the first tree we have planted. Its an apple tree. This tree was that size when we planted it two years ago. Each tree that we plant takes up 10 kilos of co2 every year. And each tree is a symbol for climate justice. Weve already done six plants at the academy. At the academy, there are scientists giving presentations, sometimes im giving presentations. My presentation is about climate justice. Client justice means that every person in the world is allowed to pollute the air with two tons of carbon. Now as of today, in the u. S. America pollutes the air with 20 tons of carbon a year, an average german or european, 10 ons of carbon a year. And africa, a half a ton. Today, im working together with thousands of other students in germany and many other countries to plant one Million Trees in each country. Were learning about different kinds of trees. Were here in the forest and were planting some trees to help climate change. We have already planted 29 0,000 trees in germany. And 550,000 trees are already pledged. There are adults and politicians that changed how to talk and really understood what i talked about. He knows that children can do something. They can change a lot. And they can make a difference. [applause] if the adults dont do enough, we have to do it because we will live on earth for another 80 or 90 years. And our children will live even longer. Felix really cares about future generations. And at the end of the movie, of all the movies, this is the one that where tears flow because it is when he sits there in the woods in this beautiful forest and he says that if the adults arent going to do something, then we have to do it. Then it just hits you. It really gets to your heart. All the young people who i filmed possess a huge sense of compassion for the rest of the world and empathy. So, they have the ability to think beyond themselves and their own personal wants and needs and they have a sense of themselves in a continuum that its not just were here now, but there are generations to come. And so, each ending is very its sort of turning it over to the audience and saying now, you can make a difference. Yes, we made a difference, but you can make a difference. So, for instance, in olivias oil spill, at the end, she says you dont have to do what i did, but whatever you do counts. And alex says kids have power. So at the end of each movie, thats the end of the message is that kids have power and kids can make a difference. Captioned by the National Captioning Institute www. Ncicap. Org 05 01 23 05 01 23 [captioning made possible by democracy now ] amy from new york, this is democracy now recently we have seen very many comments what the pentagon papers showed was the war was not winnable. And that is why i gave the pentagon papers. Actually, none of the people who went to prison to protest the war did so because they thought the war was not winnable. They did it because they