Twenty-one year-old activist Vic Barrett is fighting hard for a future for all of us. Barrett witnessed the reality of climate change firsthand, as he was among the many people impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Barrett’s activism began in high school when he started working on climate justice issues. In 2015 Barrett, age 16, attended the COP21 UN Conference on Climate Change in Paris. A year later he addressed the General Assembly for the signing of the Paris Agreement.
Barrett is among 21 youth activists suing the government to take action on climate change in the case Juliana Vs. United States. The suit states that the government violated youth rights by allowing activities that harmed the climate and calls for progressive changes to current carbon dioxide emissions. Vic interrupted a US Fossil Fuel panel at COP24 in Katowice, Poland in order to bring in the voices of frontlines communities and took part in acts of protest to highlight the voices of those most vulnerable. Barrett also spoke at and led the NYC Climate Strike in September 2019, a protest with an attendance of 350,000. Barrett understands that it is his generation that will be impacted by the policies and decisions of older generations refusing to combat climate change.