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A fridge, toilet seats, and more than 63,000 pounds of trash.

That's what a cleanup team recovered in a monthslong effort to chip away at the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a massive collection of marine debris plaguing the Pacific Ocean.

A half-mile long trash-trapping system named "Jenny" was sent out in late July to collect waste, pulling out many items that came from humans like toothbrushes, VHS tapes, golf balls, shoes and fishing gear.

Jenny made nine trash extractions over the 12-week cleanup phase, with one extraction netting nearly 20,000 pounds of debris by itself.

The mountain of recovered waste arrived in British Columbia, Canada, this month, with much of it set to be recycled.
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But this was not a one-off initiative. In fact, it was simply a testing phase. And the cleanup team is hoping it's only the start of more to come: more equipment, more extractions and cleaner oceans.

Ramping up the cleanup

The catalyst behind the cleaning is The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit trying to rid the world's oceans of plastic.

Boyan Slat, who founded the organization in 2013 at the age of 18, called the most recent testing phase a success, but said there's still much to be done.

The 27-year-old from the Netherlands said the group can enter a new phase of cleanup after testing eased some scalability concerns and proved that the system could accomplish what it was designed to do: collect debris.

"The goal wasn't to maximize catch, otherwise the operation would've looked a lot different," Slat told USA TODAY. "The primary goal was to collect data, not plastic."
From 2018: A giant floating trash collector will try to scoop up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The testing phase was a step forward in completing the organization's lofty set of goals. It hopes to deploy enough cleaning systems to reduce the size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by 50% every five years and to initiate a 90% reduction in floating ocean plastic by 2040.

Netting 63,000 pounds of trash is an eye-popping number, but it pales in comparison to the enormity of the patch, which covers an area twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France, according to The Ocean Cleanup.

The group estimates the inner part of patch contains more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic that amount to roughly 88,000 tons, though the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cautions that it's tough to make a true estimate on its size due to constantly changing borders and content.

The patch is fueled in part by a steady stream of trash and debris that flows from rivers into oceans. A peer-reviewed study published in 2017 estimated between 1.27 million and 2.66 million tons of plastic waste flows into oceans via rivers every year. Another study, published in April, put that estimation between 880,000 and 3 million tons.

If it doesn't wash right back onto shore, debris flowing in from rivers can be pushed by ocean currents and end up in the North Pacific Gyre, one of the world's five major gyres and the glue that holds the Great Pacific Garbage Patch together.

That's where Slat hopes build up a fleet of cleaning systems that can greatly reduce the size of the waste patch over time.

Slat said The Ocean Cleanup will shift its focus back to cleaning the patch on Friday, when Jenny, the prototype cleaning system, gets deployed back into the Pacific to collect anywhere from 22,000 to 33,000 pounds of waste every week.

While Jenny tackles the garbage patch, The Ocean Cleanup will work on a larger, full-scale cleaning system set to be released in summer 2022 that expects to be the blueprint for creating a fleet of systems.

Slat projects they will need 10 full-scale systems to clean the patch at a rate of just under 20,000 tons per year, which would put the group on par to reach its goal of reducing the mass by 50% in five years.

Reducing the existing patch is only one phase of the battle, though.

"We need to clean the legacy, but we also need to tackle the source," Slat said.
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The Ocean Cleanup plans to roll out new devices called "Interceptors" that aim to trap waste in rivers before they enter the ocean. The solar-powered contraptions, which closely resemble a boat, use a long barrier to direct waste towards a conveyor belt that drops all the debris into dumpsters.

Three "Interceptors" are already up and running in rivers around the world: one in Indonesia, one in Malaysia and one in the Dominican Republic. Another one, in Vietnam, is installed but it not yet operational, a spokesperson from The Ocean Cleanup said.

Where does all the waste go?

Getting trash out of the ocean is a herculean task in itself, but perhaps just as important is what to do with it once it's on dry land.

The Ocean Cleanup says 95% of the plastic it collects can be recycled. The organization has already begun turning that plastic into products like sunglasses to be sold on its website. Slat said the group will soon pivot away from sunglasses and is in contact with brands to create other products.

For other objects like wood, glass and the remaining plastic that can't be recycled, the group manages the waste in accordance with local legislations as it explores alternative recycling options, a group spokesperson said.

Turning ocean waste into products is one stream of income for the nonprofit, which will be relying heavily on funding as it looks towards scaling up its fleet of cleaning systems and taking aim at its sky-high goals.

"Honestly, we can go faster if the resources are available. It's really just a question of money," he said.

The Ocean Cleanup says it receives funding from philanthropic, commercial and governmental donations and sponsorships.
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Funding is one of many hurdles that lie ahead for The Ocean Cleanup and for Slat, who embarked on this journey after he went on a scuba diving trip when he was 16 and saw "more plastic bags than fish."

"Last week, seeing the plastic on the ship, seeing all these containers being offloaded, I know it's still a long journey ahead, but ... it was quite a relief," Slat said.

"It's within the realm of possibility for the first time since the invention of plastic that we can clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch."

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They pulled 63,000 pounds of trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, but that's just the start

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A fridge, toilet seats, and more than 63,000 pounds of trash. That's what a cleanup team recovered in a monthslong effort to chip away at the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a massive collection of marine debris plaguing the Pacific Ocean.

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How the oceans can clean themselves: Boyan Slat at TEDxDelft

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There's a lot of discussion in the environmental community around the question of being an activist, and what the roles of this "position". In whatever way people decide to consider who is an environmental activist and who is not, the intention is usually the same: protect the environment in order to achieve a balance between the human-made world and the natural world. Basically, achieve a sustainable way of living to provide a healthy future for next generations. Although the intentions are pretty much the same, the ways to get at these levels are pretty different. It is not like political currents, where there are fights between the different sides. It is more of different approaches and point of views around the same goals.

So, I want to present my personal opinion on how these different points of views are established if you are an environmental activist. And remember, this is just my opinion and feel free to disagree with me. Also keep in mind that I will not talk about the scale of it, that is, the amount of work you need to do to be considered an environmental activist. It will be just about the concept, based on my personal experiences. And I don't convince anyone about anything, I just want to present my point of view in order to help others.

The common image we have about an environmental activist is that person who goes to environmental strikes, in order to protest about problems related to climate change in general. Or that speaks in events, or even in social media. The reason why I don't consider them as environmental activists is because, during the time of protests, they are doing nothing for the environment. Only speaking up doesn't bring anything good for the environment. It's just a bunch of conversation that doesn't take action into account. The word "activist" should be about the sustainable actions you are doing, not the amount or words you speak. So, in my opinion, environmental activists are people who act in face of problems, not just speak. And it doesn't matter if you are cleaning a beach or planting some trees, because the "what" is not the point here. The point is to do something, so pretty much everything that aligns with sustainability and nature conservation can count as action. But, I don't include protests into action.

I know that the main goal of protests is to call people to join the action, and this might happen a lot. But, I don't agree with the way they do so. They have an objective of scaring people by presenting the "cruel truth" about our current damage to the environment. They attack almost everyone, taking a political side in a fight. They want to shame politicians about their disregard for the environmental agenda. They want to attack farms and industries about their harming methods. They want to criticize civil society about its lack of consciousness around the topic. But, that's not the most effective way to change our current world. I'm not saying that I agree with what politicians, farmers, industries and the general population do (and not do) for the environment. In fact, I do have a lot of claims about them and think that the vast majority of environmental issues come from these people. But, I also don't think that attacking is the right way to convince them in regards to sustainability.

Using anger and fury towards this topic just causes more conflicts, not awareness. Fighting for the environment is not what we should have been doing. We need to protect and restore nature, not fight. Fight always presupposes there are two sides, but there shouldn't be such a thing because we need everyone in the same direction if we want to improve our lives on this planet. It is just one side, and is the side of survival. Taking care of the environment is not a political act, it is an act of survival. To achieve our environmental goals we need to bring everyone to the same table, willing to do what we need to do. For that to happen I believe we should rely on appreciation and not on rage.

Appreciation of the beautiful things that nature created and continue to create. Appreciation for our food, water and atmosphere that come from nature and gives us the ways to live on this planet. Appreciation for a single flower or a whole forest, recognizing its importance to us. It's more than just a carbon-capture tool, it's a whole living creature that sustains us. If we were able to appreciate nature in the first place, we will be able to pass forward this knowledge and show other people the greatness of nature and why it has to be secured. The way you convince politicians, farmers, industries and civil society is by showing them how important nature is to us in a way that highlights the beauty of the natural world, not the environmental problems. To do so, you need to talk to them to gather everyone on a topic. Sustainable infrastructure plans for a factory, agroforests for farmers, mobility solutions to urban population, etc. are also great ways to convince these groups. Oh, and if they don't want to talk or don't want to change their views? I didn't say it would be easy. You need to continue, without giving up, until you find someone that is willing to help you, then you find another person, then another person and this goes on and on. There are people out there that want to help you through the sense of appreciation. And I believe that these people exist even in the most hated groups, like farmers and industries.

To give you an example on what I've been writing about, I will share some of a project that exists here in Brazil. The free translation is "Jaguar Institute", a tribute to an animal that is a symbol of Brazilian fauna and which has some relatives throughout the Americas, such as the cougar in North America. It's a feline that looks like a leopard or cheetah (in some ways, it also looks like a snow leopard or a lynx). Search on the internet for Brazilian jaguar and you'll see it. This institute preserves the local fauna of Cerrado (brazilian vegetation), especially jaguars, and to do that they need to engage all the people of the region. So, they build partnerships with local farmers and political figures (the founder said that the biggest partners of the institute are actually the farmers that want to preserve the area and the animals). Thus they can achieve their goals of preserving endangered species, and become a national reference in preservation. Through what? Through the positive convincement, by showing their appreciation of nature.

The intention of this article is not to say that the people that are doing protests are wrong. It's just my opinion that they could be doing something more practical and based on the actual action. And, as I said before, I'm not protecting those groups (politicians, farmers, industries and civil society). I know they are the major contributors to environmental problems.

But, let's say you participate in protests and also take practical actions in your community. Awesome! You are on the best track possible. The only thing you could do, if you want to, is to try to change your speeches. But, how? Try to engage your parents, relatives, friends, peers, anyone in a positive conversation about the things that nature does for us. I'm sure they will listen and, gradually, come closer to help your efforts around protecting the environment. Now, imagine if the people that attack on social media, or protests, or any other communication channel use their voice to highlight the beauty of nature. They would have a giant platform to create a community that acts, not just talk. And they could use it to solve whatever issue they want to.

In conclusion, I think that what defines an environmental activist is someone who tackles environmental problems by getting a lot of people together in a common line that enhances nature and creates a positive community, willing to take practical actions. There's no need to attack anyone or be angry with something. This doesn't bring anything useful for anyone, and even less for the environment. It's the famous quote: "the activist is not the person who says the river is dirty. The activist is the person who cleans up the river"

As final thoughts, I just want to mention that this is my own opinion, based on my own life experiences, and should not be treated as a statement. And I'm not trying to convince anyone about my ideas, I just want to share them with the world. I do that because I want to inspire others to be happy and preserve the environment at the same time. Whatever you choose to do, I wish you all the best with your efforts.

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What does it take to be an environmental activist (personal opinion)?

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There's a lot of discussion in the environmental community around the question of being an activist, and what the roles of this "position". In whatever way people decide to consider who is an environmental activist and who is not, the intention is usually the same: protect the environment in order to achieve a balance between the human-made world and the natural world.

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by Lori Brown: Mary McLeod Bethune once said, "We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends..."

These children, teens and young adults have done more than their fair share for their communities and the environment, proving that age doesn't coincide with the amount of potential impact.

If this group is any indication of what to expect in the future, rest assured we're in good hands.

Alex Lin, Teen Activist

To call the work of Rhode Island teen Alex Lin impressive would be an understatement. This 16-year-old first learned about the environmental problems associated with e-waste after stumbling upon a 2004 Wall Street Journal article on the subject.

Since then, he and his student-led community service team, Team WIN, have overseen the recycling of 300,000 pounds of e-waste, successfully lobbied the Rhode Island state legislature to pass a statewide bill banning the dumping of e-waste, created media centers in developing countries using refurbished computers, secured grants to fund the projects and created a national PSA on the subject of e-waste.

The 2006 bill banning the dumping of e-waste set the stage for a more stringent extended producer responsibility (EPR) bill passed in 2008.

"Now Rhode Island requires manufacturers to take back their computers and televisions and to pay for the collection and recycling of them," Sheila Dormody of Clean Water Action told

Connections that Lin made in international conferences and competitions made it possible for the WIN Network to go global, with satellite WIN Teams in Cameroon, the Philippines, Mexico, Kenya and Sri Lanka.

When asked what he would like the Earth911 readers to know, Alex responded, "I would like to tell your readers reuse whatever you can, and upgrade instead of buying something new. Every little bit counts towards helping the environment!"

Greg Woodburn, Nonprofit Founder and President

Greg Woodburn had been a competitive track and cross country runner since elementary school, competing in multiple national championships, when an injury suddenly derailed him his freshman year of high school.

Unable to race, he realized in its absence just how much he loved the sport. In his words, "while running is hard, running is harder."

While injured, he began to think of underprivileged kids who couldn't enjoy the great sport of running- not because of injury, but because they couldn't afford running shoes.

At just 15-years-old, he started Give Running in 2006, a nonprofit organization that collects and donates used running shoes, in good condition, to underprivileged youth and orphans.

By the end of the first year, he was able to collect and clean-up more than 500 pairs of running shoes, which were sent to kids in inner-city Los Angeles, as well as oversees to Sudan, Uganda and Kenya.

"The feedback from youth in Africa has been especially moving for me. Not only were these the first running shoes any of them had owned, but they were the also first [pair of] shoes many of them had ever had," writes Greg.

The organization has donated shoes to additional countries including Liberia, Mali, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. More than 6,000 pairs of shoes have been donated as of March 2010, exercising the reach of reuse at its finest.

Adeline Tiffanie Suwana, Environmental Educator

Twelve-year-old Indonesian student Adeline Tiffanie Suwana had great care and concern for the environment after seeing the effects of natural disasters and flooding on her country.

She learned about the importance of mangroves in preventing damage during natural disasters and decided to do something to improve mangrove conditions.

She began by forming a community of young people called Sahabat Alam , which means "Friends of Nature." The community is now comprised of 1,700 members throughout Indonesia.

Adeline organizes students to plant coral reefs, help with fish breeding and turtle protection, plant mangrove trees and engage in environmental cleanups and education activities.

Adeline and Sahabat Alam also operate the Electric Generator Water Reel project where they connect remote villages to an electric grid, providing potential economic growth to villagers and improving health and education facilities.

They use clean renewable energy (hydro) to power these villages.

Her ideas have been presented in schools, with cooperation of governmental agencies and have led to the production of a television program on the subject. She was invited as a delegate by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to the 2009 Tunza International Children's Conference and awarded the 2009 Action for Nature International Young Eco-Hero award for her efforts.

Merit Leighton and Marlowe Peyton, The Plastic Patrol

Seven-year-old Merit Leighton and five-year-old Marlowe Peyton of California were watching Oprah's Earth Day show when they learned about the impacts of plastic pollution on the planet's oceans.

After hearing about the mass of trash that's twice the size of Texas floating in the Pacific Ocean, they created The Plastic Patrol, beginning their global effort to make a difference, one kid at a time.

"I couldn't believe the look on their faces," their mother, Suzette, told Earth911 in reference to their reaction to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The kids asked her, "That actually exists on my planet? What can we do? Someone has to do something. We have to tell kids all around the world so they can help."

And so began the work of the Plastic Patrol.

In the words of Marlowe, "We want to help kids clean up the planet by themselves."

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by Lori Brown: Mary McLeod Bethune once said, "We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends..." These children, teens

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Industry giants say their case is misguided. But that isn't stopping a group of high school students from using the legal system to make environmental demands.

Alec Loorz turns 18 at the end of this month. While finishing high school and playing Ultimate Frisbee on weekends, he's also suing the federal government in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

The Ventura, California, teen and four other juvenile plaintiffs want government officials to do more to prevent the risks of climate change -- the dangerous storms, heat waves, rising sea levels, and food-supply disruptions that scientists warn will threaten their generation absent a major turnabout in global energy policy. Specifically, the students are demanding that the U.S. government start reducing national emissions of carbon dioxide by at least six percent per year beginning in 2013.

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"I think a lot of young people realize that this is an urgent time, and that we're not going to solve this problem just by riding our bikes more," Loorz said in an interview.

The youth -- represented, pro bono, by the Burlingame, California, law firm of former U.S. Republican congressman Paul "Pete" McCloskey, a co-founder of Earth Day -- filed the suit, Alec L. et. al vs. Lisa P. Jackson, et. al, in May of last year. Defendants include not only Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson but the heads of the Commerce, Interior, Commerce, Defense, Energy, and Agriculture departments. This Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert L. Wilkins, an Obama appointee, will hear arguments on the defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint.

While skeptics may view the case as little more than a publicity stunt, its implications have been serious enough to attract the time and resources of major industry leaders. Last month, Judge. Wilkins granted a motion to intervene in the case by the National Association of Manufacturers, joined by Delta Construction Company, Dalton Trucking Inc., Southern California Contractors Association, and the California Dump Truck Owners Association.

"At issue is whether a small group of individuals and environmental organizations can dictate through private tort litigation the economic, energy, and environmental policies of the entire nation," wrote National Association of Manufacturers spokesman Jeff Ostermeyer in an email. Granting the plaintiffs' demands, he added, "would carry serious and immediate consequences for industrial and economic productivity -- increasing manufacturing and transportation costs and decreasing global competitiveness." The manufacturers' legal brief says the restrictions being sought "could substantially eliminate the use of conventional energy in this country." It also argues that the plaintiffs haven't proved they have a legal right to sue.

The plaintiffs contend that they have standing to sue under the "public trust doctrine," a legal theory that in past years has helped protect waterways and wildlife. It's the reason, for example, that some state government agencies issue licenses to catch fish or shoot deer, particularly when populations are declining. The doctrine has never before been applied to the atmosphere, and it's a trickier prospect, not least because the sources of atmospheric pollution are so diffuse and wide-ranging, extending to other countries whose actions the United States may not be able to influence.

Defense attorneys have, in fact, have argued that the plaintiffs are essentially seeking for a court to make foreign policy decisions. To this, the plaintiff's attorneys counter that other nations' supposed inaction on climate change shouldn't be used as an excuse for the United States to do nothing. "That is like saying poverty exists everywhere, other countries have poverty, so it is ok for us to permit poverty," attorney Phil Gregory wrote in an email.

While teenagers serve as the public face of the lawsuit, the idea itself came from Julia Olson, an attorney based in Eugene, Oregon. Olson founded an organization called Our Children's Trust after watching the Al Gore documentary An Inconvenient Truth while she was seven months pregnant. Her idea to invite kids to become plaintiffs in a suit against the government was partly inspired by her colleague Mary Christina Wood, director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program at the University of Oregon. Wood has spent her career studying the public trust doctrine, most recently devising a strategy she has dubbed Atmospheric Trust Litigation to apply that theory to the climate.

Wood told Olson about a case from the Philippines, where in the early 1990s a combative environmental attorney named Antonio Oposa represented 43 children, including some of his relatives, in a class action suit to defend the archipelago's small vestige of old-growth forest from logging firms. The children's case against the country's head of Environment & National Resources was ultimately upheld by the Philippines' Supreme Court, inspiring similar suits throughout the world.

Olson and other supporters of the suit believe that having kids as plaintiffs makes a particularly visceral appeal to adults to take action. Indeed, many of the adults involved said that their own children and grandchildren had inspired them. "Becoming a grandfather motivated me to speak out," said climate scientist James Hansen, the director of the U.S. NASA Goddard Space Institute and the man who first brought Loorz and Olson together. Hansen, in his free time, is a conscientious objector to U.S. energy policy who has been arrested three times at peaceful protests.

In support of the children's suit, Hansen has drawn up recommendations as to how the U.S. government can meet the greenhouse-gas reduction goals, through cuts in fossil-fuel-powered electricity and reforestation. "My talents are mainly in the sciences," he said, "but it just became so clear that no one is doing anything to prevent what is becoming scientifically a very clear picture. I didn't want my grandchildren to say that "Opa" (Dutch for "grandpa") knew what was happening but didn't do anything about it."

The tall, lanky Loorz is an especially compelling spokesman for the U.S. children's lawsuit. He became a climate activist at age 12, when, like Olson, spurred to action after watching An Inconvenient Truth -- in his case, twice in one evening. He went on to found an organization called Kids vs. Global Warming, and traveled the world, giving more than 200 speeches at schools and other venues to more than 100,000 people altogether.

The federal suit, which was first filed in California and then relocated to Washington, D.C., was initially coordinated with a dozen similar lawsuits against individual states. Four of those suits have been dismissed, while eight are still active, according to organization spokeswoman Meg Ward. With both the executive and legislative branches having been stymied on any major climate-change progress for more than two decades, the federal lawsuit represents a kind of Hail Mary pass, trusting that courts might bring about a speedier solution.

"The judicial branch is much less influenced by special interests such as the fossil fuel industry," said Hansen, who recalled that U.S. courts have succeeded in breaking such policy logjams in the past, including in the successful cases against tobacco firms and the enforcement of racial integration during the Civil Rights battles.

When it comes to climate change, however, it's unclear how far U.S. judges may be willing to proceed. In 2009, six states, New York City, and several land trusts sued utilities operating fossil fuel-powered electricity plants, in a somewhat similar effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The plaintiffs argued that the emissions' contribution to climate change constituted a "public nuisance," under common law. But last June, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked their effort. Writing for the court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the U.S. Clean Air Act passed by Congress didn't allow for what she called a "parallel track" of enabling federal judges to control emissions.

While the adults continue their argument, Loorz says kids his age are much more worried about climate change than many of their parents might imagine. Indeed, one British survey found that children between the ages of 11 and 14 worry more about climate change (74 percent) than about their homework (64 percent). "I used to play a lot of video games, and goof off, and get sent to the office at school," he said. "But once I realized it was my generation that was going to be the first to really be affected by climate change, I made up my mind to do something about it."

It may seem ironic that the hyper-focused Loorz is one of the more than five million youth diagnosed with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. In this case, however, Loorz contends that it's the grownups who are suffering from disabling distraction. He argues that U.S. politicians are so preoccupied by the lingering economic crisis and this year's presidential campaign that they're ignoring an environmental threat that could ultimately bring about devastating consequences.

"Sometimes I do ask myself, like is there really any chance to solve this problem?" Loorz acknowledged. "I feel a lot of despair sometimes, but when I talk to Dr. Hansen, he says there is still hope, so I have to trust that he knows more than I do about this."

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An Inconvenient Lawsuit: Teenagers Take Global Warming to the Courts

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Industry giants say their case is misguided. But that isn't stopping a group of high school students from using the legal system to make environmental demands. Alec Loorz turns 18 at the end of this month. While finishing high school and playing Ultimate Frisbee on weekends, he's also suing the federal government in U.S.

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Clay McMullen, teen passionate about saving the environment: Community Heroes 2011 (video)

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Clay McMullen, a senior at West Geauga High School, has turned his passion for the environment into a crusade. He is one of The Plain Dealer’s community heroes.

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Fifteen-year-old water protector Autumn Peltier, Anishinaabe-kwe, comes from the Wiikwemkoong First Nation on Manitoulin Island in northern Ontario, Canada. It was there, after observing that Indigenous people on the island could not drink the water in their communities, that she began her fight for clean water.

"It all started by learning why my people couldn't drink the water on Ontario Indigenous lands. I was confused because Canada is not a third-world country, but in my country, the Indigenous people live in third-world conditions," she said when she addressed the United Nations Global Landscapes Forum in September 2019.

Peltier was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prizeby the David Suzuki Foundation in 2017, 2018 and 2019. She was also recognized as an Ontario Junior Citizen for her environmental advocacy work and won a WE Day award for Youth in Action when she was 12. She has shared her message at hundreds of events around the world and has been dubbed a "Water Warrior" for her continued activism.

In 2016, she famously confronted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about his failure to protect Indigenous people's water at a meeting of the Assembly of First Nations in 2016. She was just 12 years old when she told him, "I am very unhappy with the choices you made." Through tears, she added only "the pipelines," to which Trudeau responded, "I will protect the water."

In her U.N. speech the following year, Peltier explained that boil water advisories have existed in some Indigenous communities in Canada for over 20 years. She also mentioned learning about Flint, Michigan and other marginalized communities' struggles to obtain clean water around the world.

Peltier's passion comes, in part, from the tradition in which she grew up. Her great-aunt, Josephine Mandamin, served as the chief water commissioner of the Anishinabek Nation, a position Peltier took on when she was just 14. In her 2019 U.N. speech, Peltier described the spiritual significance of water to her people.

"For years and years, our ancestors have passed down traditional oral knowledge that our water is alive and our water has a spirit," she said. "Our first water teaching comes from our mother. We literally live in water for nine months, floating in that sacred water that gives us life."

During her first U.N. speech in 2018, Peltier urged the general assembly to "warrior up" and take serious steps to defend the planet. In 2019, she called for a banning of plastics and a return to older, more sustainable ways of life.

"We can't eat money or drink oil." she said.

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Autumn Peltier: 'Water Warrior' for Marginalized Communities

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Autumn Peltier is passionate about granting communites acess to clean water. It's a cause she has been fighting for since she was at least 12 years old.