Victoria Barrett
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Victoria Barrett
OR:
Victoria Barrett on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

Vic Barrett (born ) is an American
climate activist The climate movement is a global social movement focused on pressuring governments and industry to take action (also called ''climate action'') addressing the causes and impacts of climate change. Citizens and environmental non-profit organizat ...
. He was a plaintiff in the dismissed '' Juliana v. United States'' lawsuit, which has been called likely the most ambitious and aggressive climate change lawsuit filed to date''.'' Barrett also featured in a documentary about the case, ''Youth v. Gov''.


Activism

Barrett traces an early influence to rising watermelon outside his grandparents' home in
Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...
. “It was the first thing about climate change that hit really close to home. And it made me realize the global implications of how climate change affects everyone.” Barrett's first experience with climate activism came after experiencing the effects of
Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy) was an extremely large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...
on
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
neighborhoods in 2012. As a ninth grader in 2013-14 at
Notre Dame School The Notre-Dame school or the Notre-Dame school of polyphony refers to the group of composers working at or near the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris from about 1160 to 1250, along with the music they produced. The only composers whose names ha ...
, an all-girls Catholic high school in Manhattan, Barrett joined the Global Kids organization working to mandate climate education in
New York City public schools The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) is the department of the government of New York City that manages the city's public school system. The City School District of the City of New York (more commonly known as New York City Publ ...
from kindergarten through 12th grade. In 2014, through Global Kids, Barrett took a three-week trip to
Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...
sponsored by and conducted by the
U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs ...
. Though Global Kids, Barrett connected with the
Alliance for Climate Education An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...
. Mentors at those two organizations thought Barrett would be a good addition to the landmark lawsuit that Our Children's Trust was putting together, known as '' Juliana v. United States''. The ''Juliana'' case has regularly been trumpeted as the "trial of the century," a climate Scopes trial, to demonstrate the urgency of climate change and force federal action. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 21 children not old enough to vote. After nine years of legal wrangling, including a stop at the
U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
, the lawsuit was dismissed by the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts for the following federal judicial districts: * Distric ...
on May 1, 2024. In December 2015, Barrett spoke at COP21, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
. In December 2018, Barrett prominently protested at
COP24 The 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as the Katowice Climate Change Conference or COP24, was the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It was held be ...
in Poland, calling U.S. energy policy "a joke." In 2019, Barrett appeared in
Ilana Glazer Ilana Glazer (born April 12, 1987) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, producer, director, and activist. They have received various accolades including a Daytime Emmy Award and a Tony Award as well as nominations for four Primetime ...
's ''Generator Series'' and promoted the September 2019
climate strike Fridays for Future (FFF), also known as the School Strike for Climate ( ), is an international movement of school students who skip Friday classes to participate in demonstrations to demand action from political leaders to prevent climate c ...
and spoke at the NYC strike in
Foley Square Foley Square, also called Federal Plaza, is a street intersection in the Civic Center neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, which contains a small triangular park named Thomas Paine Park. The space is bordered by Worth Street to the ...
. Barrett was nominated for a Pritzker Award from the
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
Institute of the Environment and Sustainability in 2020. He is currently a network organizer for the
Power Shift Network Power Shift Network is a North American non-profit organization made up of a Social network, network of youth-led social and environmental justice organizations working together to build the youth clean energy and climate movement. It runs campai ...
. Barrett has spoken about the power of
storytelling Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing narrative, stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatre, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cul ...
in engaging people in activism. The time commitment, including trips to
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
and
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
for case related appearances, led him to withdraw from his undergraduate studies in political science at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
.


Personal life

Barrett is from
White Plains, New York White Plains is a city in and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is an inner suburb of New York City, and a commercial hub of Westchester County, a densely populated suburban county that is home to about one milli ...
, and resides in
the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...
as of August 2023. He is
neurodivergent The neurodiversity paradigm is a framework for understanding human brain function that considers the diversity within sensory processing, motor abilities, social comfort, cognition Cognition is the "mental action or process of acquiri ...
,
queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...
and of
Garifuna The Garifuna people ( or ; pl. Garínagu in Garifuna) are a people of mixed free African and Amerindian ancestry that originated in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and traditionally speak Garifuna, an Arawakan language. The Garifuna ...
descent. Barrett is also a first-generation American and a
trans man A trans man or transgender man is a man who was assigned female at birth. Trans men have a male gender identity, and many trans men undergo medical and social transition to alter their appearance in a way that aligns with their gender identi ...
who transitioned in 2017, after moving away for college in Wisconsin. Barrett has a tattoo that refers to the
atmospheric carbon dioxide In Earth's atmosphere, carbon dioxide is a trace gas that plays an integral part in the greenhouse effect, carbon cycle, photosynthesis and oceanic carbon cycle. It is one of three main greenhouse gases in the atmosphere of Earth. The concen ...
concentration in parts per million. He has identified
Berta Cáceres Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores (; 4 March 1971 – 3 March 2016) was a Honduran (Lenca) environmental activist, indigenous leader, co-founder and coordinator of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). She won th ...
as a personal hero.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barrett, Vic Living people 1990s births Garifuna people People from White Plains, New York Activists from New York (state) LGBTQ people from New York (state) American climate activists Youth climate activists American transgender men 21st-century American LGBTQ people