Ella Shriner doesn't remember learning about climate change. It was always just there _ a somber backdrop to her young life.
But the older she got, the more pressing the issue seemed.
"It's something affecting people, not just the polar bears," said the high school senior from Portland, Ore. "In my lifetime, for sure, it's going to affect everyone personally."
So Shriner became an activist. In 2016, she campaigned for a measure that successfully banned the construction of new fossil fuel storage facilities and export terminals in her hometown. She also joined the Portland Youth Climate Council and is fighting to save old trees growing on land zoned for industrial use.
Recently, she's helped organize the global climate strike, which will take place in cities around the world Friday, just days before the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York.
On a recent Sunday morning, Shriner and a dozen other young activists met at the local Sierra Club office and ticked through the items on their agenda, like deciding what time students should walk out of class and which route to march from Portland City Hall to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, where they plan to hold a rally.
When the question of street permits came up, Shriner agreed that it would be safer to secure them. But she had philosophical reservations.
"We are trying to be a little bit rebellious _ saying this is not working for us," she said to her compatriots seated around a large wooden table. "And we need it to work for us."
Shriner's statement captures the zeitgeist behind the growing wave of youth climate activism: that the reigning economic order imperils young people's future by putting profits ahead of the planet.
The movement has taken off over the last year, led by teenagers like Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old from Sweden who testified before Congress on Wednesday, imploring lawmakers to heed scientists' warnings about climate change. By organizing school walkouts, public protests and social media campaigns, young people have drawn the world's attention to global warming in ways that decades of studies could not.
Underneath the activism lies a simple truth: Young people are incredibly scared about climate change. They see it as a profound injustice and an existential threat to their generation and those that will follow.
"It's hard to not feel hopeless because it feels inevitable," said 16-year-old Lana Perice after the planning meeting in Portland wrapped up.
Youth are struggling to cope however they can. But they are not giving up.
"Even with this inevitability, I feel proud knowing that my generation isn't going down without a fight," Perice said.
