This story is part of Fix’s What’s Next Issue, which looks ahead to the ideas and innovations that will shape the climate conversation in 2022, and asks what it means to have hope now. Check out the full issue here.
Maya Hidalgo knows avoiding the worst impacts of a warming world requires completely revamping a way of life driven by consumer capitalism and built on systemic racism. She also knows that this almost insurmountable task will not be accomplished with the pollyannaish hope that someone else will figure it out.
That is why the 17-year-old spent a large chunk of her junior year trying to get schools in her home state of Minnesota to bring climate justice education into their classrooms. When a bill she and several teens wrote with the help of sympathetic lawmakers failed to get a hearing, she and others from Climate Generation’s Youth Environmental Activists took their campaign directly to school districts. They found some support among teachers willing to try including the topic in their lessons. Although the teens are still waiting for instructors to make that happen, Hidalg... Read more