17-year-old Jamie Margolin is the founder and co-executive director of Zero Hour, a youth- and women of color-led movement that aims to support new young activists and organizers with the tools, training, and resources that they need to fight climate change and protect our natural resources. Jamie speaks passionately and urgently about the intersectional issues of social justice, environmental protections, climate change, indigenous rights, and more, and isn’t afraid to call out corporate leaders and others who have contributed to our environmental crises.
Jamie Margolin is an American climate justice activist and served as the co-executive director of Zero Hour. Margolin identifies as a lesbian and speaks openly about her experiences as an LGBT person. She has written for various media outlets, such as CNN and Huffington Post.
Her writing about climate change has appeared in many publications including HuffPost, Teen Ink and CNN. She was part of Teen Vogue’s 21 Under 21 class of 2018. In 2018, she was also named as one of People Magazine‘s 25 Women Changing the World.
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.
In September 2018, Margolin was part of a youth group that sued Governor Jay Inslee and the State of Washington over greenhouse-gas emissions in the state. The case was dismissed by a King County Superior Court 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.
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 for the United States House of Representatives.
Follow Jamie on Twitter @Jamie_Margolin and Instagram @jamie_s_margolin