Youth Climate Activists
IN THE NEWS
BC teen turns nature walks into climate action
Leonie Murdoch, 18, of Nanaimo, BC believes people will protect what they know and respect — and so she leads guided walks and publishes Instagram videos that focus on wildlife within their own environments.
Vet student teaches youth how climate change impacts wildlife and human health
Veterinary medicine student Mikayla Astroff earned a Starfish Canada 2026 Climate 75 Fellowship for her work helping youth understand the impacts of climate change on our ecosystems.
Meet the young researcher trying to stop an invasive crab from threatening Pacific marine ecosystems
Sofia Panzetta is helping restore balance to Pacific marine ecosystems. As climate change warms the ocean, the invasive European Green Crab thrives, threatening the health of clams, mussels and even salmon stocks.
Vancouver sound artist turns music, stories and science into blueprint for living with nature
Mendel Skulski applies the art of conversation in service of a livable future. As a sound artist, this young Vancouverite co-produces Future Ecologies, a podcast exploring our relationships with the natural world, layered with stories, science, music and soundscapes.
Young wildlife biologist shows communities how 'conservation begins with connection'
Jacob Gerard, a 23-year-old wildlife biologist, storyteller and photographer from Ajax, Ont., has created a beautiful web-based story map called Neighbours of the North to help people protect the wild creatures that live among them.
Saskatchewan student explores industry and Indigenous land restoration concepts
Mackenzie Burnett explores the overlap between extractive industry and Indigenous concepts of land restoration. She also draws people into conversations about climate solutions in her work with Climate Justice Saskatoon and the Saskatoon Climate Hub.
This volunteer is creating a world that buzzes with life
Danielle Romaine is creating a beautifully flowered world that buzzes with life. The 27-year-old from Montreal, Que., volunteers with Let's Plant, a project of Sierra Club Canada in partnership with Dutchman’s Gold, an Ontario-based honey and beehive wellness company, to help plant 10 million wildflowers and plant seeds across Canada. In 2025, she ensured 500,000 seeds were planted in Quebec.
Meet the 12-year-old who found a better way to keep beaches clean
Dane Currie is cleaning up for good. The 12-year-old from St Catharines, Ont., and his Thursday classmates, the Green Herons, got tired of doing beach clean-ups, so they figured out how to stop pollution at the source. They are 2025 winners of the I-SEA National Youth Climate Activism Award for their Earth Day video.
Students learn to love the ocean
Kanchan Lal helps young people fall in love with the ocean. As managing director of Vancouver-based Sea Smart, she oversees programs that inspire thousands of students to explore, understand and protect marine life and coastal ecosystems.
Loving the life of bees
Liam Sisson wants to teach you about bees. This 19-year-old University of British Columbia science student from Kelowna, B.C., spends his summers keeping bees and hosting guided beekeeping tours for visitors.
Wandering and learning about Canada's wild spaces
Graeme Hopkins is passionate about immersing young people in nature. This 20-year-old from Saskatchewan takes groups of youth, aged 13 to 18, into wild spaces in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
From sugarcane paper to shoreline cleanups: How one teen built a climate movement
Alexandra Chow encourages students to collaborate, so they increase their impact on the climate crisis. This 18-year-old from Vancouver was a 2024 winner of The I-SEA Youth Climate Activism Award for bringing together high school students from seven Vancouver schools.
Mapping the great outdoors
Lesley Johnson creates maps to help us explore Canada’s nature trails, as manager of geographic information system (GIS) mapping for Trans Canada Trail.
Honouring invasive plants by turning them into art
Joshua Ralph honours the lives of invasive plants. This 25-year-old, Vancouver-based artist hosts workshops teaching participants to make art supplies from plants removed in the work of restoring and rewilding.
Her school of thought? Plant a pocket forest.
Serena Chin wants a forest in every city. This 16-year-old in Grade 12 led the environmental team at Richmond Secondary School to plant the first Miyawaki pocket forest in Western Canada.
Riverbank cleanup needs a traffic cop
“I was curious about the cars. In 2023, I researched how they got there and how to get them sustainably removed as my Grade 12 capstone project. Fixing it seemed relatively simple but no one was doing it. One day, I just decided if not me, then who?”
A class act for nature
Caio Krause Conradt is just 17, but he has already begun to empower the next generation.
This new Canadian from São Paulo, Brazil, is a 2023 Youth Climate Activism Award recipient, hosted by I-SEA, for his work engaging students in high schools and at the elementary level.
Student Kasey Chen schools others on all things green
This 17-year-old Grade 12 student from Victoria, B.C., is a recipient of a 2022 Youth Climate Activism Award for her work raising awareness about the importance of recycling at her high school, reclaiming habitat from invasive species and encouraging native plant gardening, and lobbying all three levels of government on youth concerns about climate change.