Alec Loorz

Alec Loorz has hung out with ex-governor and movie star, Arnold Schwarzenegger. And he is only 17.

Loorz was dragged by his mother to see Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” when he was 12 years old. It is a cliché but his life was changed by it. Inspired by the message, Alec came home and hammered away on his computer that night to put together a presentation for his school after a friend claimed Gore was a fraud and there was no threat to the planet posed by man’s polluting actions.

Keeping at it

Loorz did well with his presentations to school kids but when he applied to be one of the 1,000 presenters of Gore’s climate change message, he was turned down due to his age.

Undeterred, Loorz created his own presentation and gave it over 30 times before Gore took notice. Eventually, Gore invited Alec to his next training session and Alec became the youngest presenter with “The Climate Project.” Since then, the young activist has gone on to give over 100 presentations to more than 20,000 people and founded his own organization, Kids vs. Global Warming, a project of Earth Island Institute since 2008.

iMatter
Kids vs. Global Warming has a mission is to educate youth on the science of climate change and empower them to take action. Through multi-media presentations to schools, keynote and panel presentations at conferences, videos and social media, Loorz translates the complex science of climate change into terms that motivate youth to get involved with creating solutions.

Another campaign Alec created, the Declaration of Independence from Fossil Fuels, was taken national with the Alliance for Climate Education, where Alec is youth leader. The Declaration is a youth statement requesting that leaders consider the needs of future generations in their decision-making.

Loorz says that “youth have a unique sense of moral authority on this issue. It’s our planet now. And we are going to have to grow up and face the consequences of what the world does, or fails to do.”

Sources: Kid’s vs Global Warming, Brower Youth Awards

Loorz on CNN

Turning the tide speech 2009

Brower Youth Award 2009

Solutions offered on Kids vs. Global Warming website