Jamie Margolin (born December 10, 2001) is an American climate justice activist. She is the Co-Executive director of Zero Hour.

Education

Margolin attended Holy Names Academy. She currently studies film at the

New York University Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the ar ...

Activism

In 2017, at age 15, Margolin founded the youth climate action organization Zero Hour with

Nadia Nazar Nadia is a female name. Variations include Nadja, Nadya, Nadine, Nadiya, and Nadiia. Most variations of the name are derived from Arabic, Slavic languages, or both. In Slavic, names similar to ''Nadia'' mean "hope" in many Slavic languages: ...

, Zanagee Artis, and other youth activists. She served as the co-executive director of the organization until September 2020 when she stepped down. She was replaced by fellow founder and youth activist Madelaine Tew. Margolin co-founded Zero Hour in reaction to the response she saw after

Hurricane Maria Hurricane Maria was a deadly Saffir–Simpson scale#Category 5, Category 5 Tropical cyclone, hurricane that devastated the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly Dominica, Saint Croix, and Puerto Rico. It is regarded as the wo ...

in Puerto Rico and her personal experience during the 2017 Washington wildfires. She has garnered some notoriety as a plaintiff in the Aji P. v. Washington case, suing the state of Washington for their inaction against climate change on the basis of a stable climate being a

human right Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

. In September 2018, Margolin was part of a youth group that sued Governor

Jay Inslee Jay Robert Inslee (; born February 9, 1951) is an American politician, lawyer, and economist who has served as the 23rd governor of Washington since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a member of the U.S. House of Representat ...

and the

State of Washington Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

over greenhouse-gas emissions in the state. The case was dismissed by a

King County Superior Court The Superior Court of Washington for King County (more commonly, the King County Superior Court) is the largest trial court in Washington state. It is based at the King County Courthouse, 516 Third Avenue, in downtown Seattle, Washington. It als ...

judge, who ruled the case to be political one that must be resolved by the Governor and the legislature. It has since been appealed

Washington Court of Appeals The Washington Court of Appeals is the intermediate level appellate court for the state of Washington. The court is divided into three divisions. Division I is based in Seattle, Division II is based in Tacoma, and Division III is based in Spok ...

. In September 2019, she was asked to testify on a panel called "Voices Leading the Next Generation on the Global Climate Crisis" alongside

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 ...

for the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

. In 2021, Margolin started a Climate Justice Scholarship.

Journalism

Her writing about climate change has appeared in many publications including ''

HuffPost ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

'', ''

Teen Ink ''Teen Ink'' is a monthly tabloid-format magazine which is marketed to, and written by, teenagers. It is based in Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulto ...

'' and

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

. She was part of

Teen Vogue ''Teen Vogue'' is an American online publication, formerly in print, launched in January 2003, as a sister publication to ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue'', targeted at teenagers. Like ''Vogue'', it included stories about fashion and celebrities. Since ...

’s 21 Under 21 class of 2018. In 2018, she was also named as one of

People Magazine ''People'' is an American weekly magazine that specializes in celebrity news and human-interest stories. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC (company), IAC. With a readership of 46.6 million adults in 2009, ''People ...

's 25 Women Changing the World.

Personal life

Margolin identified as

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

and

Latinx ''Latinx'' is a neologism in American English which is used to refer to people of Latin American cultural or ethnic identity in the United States. The gender-neutral suffix replaces the ending of ''Latino'' and ''Latina'' that are typical o ...

. She identifies as a lesbian and speaks openly about her experiences as an

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

person. Margolin is a member of the

Junior State of America The Junior State of America (formerly the Junior Statesmen of America), abbreviated JSA, is an American non-partisan youth organization. The purpose of JSA is to help high school students acquire leadership skills and the knowledge necessary to ...

Awards and honors

Margolin won a

MTV Europe Music Awards The MTV Europe Music Awards (originally named MTV European Music Awards, commonly abbreviated as MTV EMA) are awards presented by Paramount International Networks to honour artists and music in pop culture. It was originally conceived as an al ...

Generation Change award in 2019. She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2019.

Bibliography

* ''Youth to Power: Your Voice and How to Use It'' (

Hachette Books Hachette Books, formerly Hyperion Books, is a general-interest book imprint of the Perseus Books Group, which is a division of Hachette Book Group and ultimately a part of Lagardère Group. Established in 1990, Hachette publishes general-intere ...

, 2020)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Margolin, Jamie American environmentalists Living people 2001 births BBC 100 Women Hispanic and Latino American writers American lesbian writers Jewish American community activists American people of Colombian-Jewish descent Youth climate activists 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women