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

climate crisis ''Climate crisis'' is a term describing global warming and climate change, and their impacts. The term and the alternative term ''climate emergency'' have been used to describe the threat of global warming to humanity (and their planet), and to u ...

Early life

Haven Coleman was born in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Colorado. She is a student of

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

Activism

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

sloths Sloths are a group of Neotropical xenarthran mammals constituting the suborder Folivora, including the extant arboreal tree sloths and extinct terrestrial ground sloths. Noted for their slowness of movement, tree sloths spend most of their l ...

, 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 3 January 2003) is a Swedish environmental activist who is known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action for climate change mitigation. Thunberg's activism began when she persuaded ...

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 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts capacity. They generate about a th ...

retirement, renewable energy, 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 Isra Hirsi 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, lobbyist, 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 dis ...

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 politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic no ...

, who invited Coleman to speak for the 24 Hours of Reality campaign organized by The Climate Reality Project. 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 2006 births Youth climate activists