Haven Coleman (born March 29, 2006) is an American climate and environmental activist. She is the co-founder and co-executive director of U.S. Youth Climate Strike with youth activists Alexandria Villaseñor and

Isra Hirsi Isra Hirsi (born February 22, 2003) is an American environmental activist. She co-founded and served as the co-executive director of the September 2019 climate strikes#United States, U.S. Youth Climate Strike. In 2020, she was named in the For ...

. an organization dedicated to raising awareness and catalyzing change concerning the

climate crisis ''Climate crisis'' is a term that is used to describe global warming and climate change and their effects. This term and the term ''climate emergency'' have been used to emphasize the threat of global warming to Earth's natural environment an ...

Early life

Haven Coleman was born in

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

, Colorado. She is a student of

Denver Public Schools The School District No. 1 in the City and County of Denver and State of Colorado, more commonly known as Denver Public Schools (DPS), is the public school system in the City and County of Denver, Colorado, United States. History In 1859, Owen ...

Activism

Coleman first felt the pull towards environmentalism when she was ten years old: after learning that her favorite animal,

sloths Sloths are a Neotropical realm, Neotropical group of xenarthran mammals constituting the suborder Folivora, including the extant Arboreal locomotion, arboreal tree sloths and extinct terrestrial ground sloths. Noted for their slowness of move ...

, are diminishing due to deforestation. She then made significant lifestyle changes inspired by sustainable living. Her training at

Climate Reality Project The Climate Reality Project is a non-profit organization involved in education and advocacy related to climate change. The Climate Reality Project came into being in July 2011 as the consolidation of two environmental groups, the Alliance for Cli ...

educated her further. After seeing the bold environmental activism of

Greta Thunberg Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg (; born 3January 2003) is a Swedish climate activist, climate and political activist initially known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action to climate change mitigation, mitigate the effec ...

and youth climate strikes in Europe, she was inspired to do the same. Thus, since January 2019, at 13 years old, she began protesting in front of businesses or government buildings, such as the Colorado State Capitol. Every Friday she goes on strike to demand political action regarding air quality,

coal plant A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide there are about 2,500 coal-fired power stations, on average capable of generating a gigawatt each. They generate ab ...

retirement,

renewable energy Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...

, etc. She also e-mailed elected officials concerning the issue. She was massively bullied by peers in school who thought her stark activism was strange. Coleman would protest alone until she was able to establish the US Youth Climate Strike together with

and Alexandria Villasenor. Since then, climate strikes have been conducted across many states in the USA. On March 15, an international youth protest with over 120+ countries involved was held. Coleman went viral after speaking to state Senator

Cory Gardner Cory Scott Gardner (born August 22, 1974) is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Colorado from 2015 to 2021. A Republican, he was the U.S. representative for Colorado's 4th congressional district from ...

about carbon polluters on a public forum at the town hall. She implored him to take action and offered to organize a grassroots movement to facilitate, however, Gardner refused. As she made headlines, she caught the attention of

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...

, who invited Coleman to speak for the 24 Hours of Reality campaign organized by

The Climate Reality Project The Climate Reality Project is a non-profit organization involved in education and advocacy related to climate change. The Climate Reality Project came into being in July 2011 as the consolidation of two environmental groups, the Alliance for Cli ...

. Coleman is presently working on Arid Agency, which is geared towards accelerating environmental and social justice campaigns.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coleman, Haven Living people Activists from Colorado 21st-century American women American climate activists American child activists American women environmentalists American environmentalists 2006 births Youth climate activists