An Interview with the 15-Year-Old Who is Suing Obama for Not Stopping Climate Change
Rural America In These Times
Xiuhtezcatl Tonatiuh is 15-years old. He’s also an “indigenous change agent” and “eco hip-hop artist” who serves as the youth director of Earth Guardians, which describes itself as a “tribe of young activists, artists and musicians from across the globe” who are “co-creating the future.” Tonatiuh says he was politicized at age 6, when a viewing of Leonardo DiCaprio’s climate documentary, 11th Hour, left him “devastated.”
Currently in Paris for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, where 15,000 official delegates from more than 190 countries have gathered in the hope of addressing climate change, Tonatiuh made headlines yesterday when he announced that he and 21 other young people are suing the Obama administration for failing to “adequately protect the climate for our generation and those that follow.” Last year, In These Times spoke with Tonatiuh, who was then going by the name Xiuhtexcatl Martinez. Read that interview here.
I hope you found this article important. Before you leave, I want to ask you to consider supporting our work with a donation. In These Times needs readers like you to help sustain our mission. We don’t depend on—or want—corporate advertising or deep-pocketed billionaires to fund our journalism. We’re supported by you, the reader, so we can focus on covering the issues that matter most to the progressive movement without fear or compromise.
Our work isn’t hidden behind a paywall because of people like you who support our journalism. We want to keep it that way. If you value the work we do and the movements we cover, please consider donating to In These Times.
