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On the 25th of September, together with 3 other youths from around the world, I had the opportunity to speak on the Reef Futures panel hosted by International Coral Reef Initiative. There we shared our different experiences of climate change and what led us to become climate activists.

For me, participating was very special as I had the opportunity to hear my friend’s stories and how climate change has impacted them. I observed how our stories can inspire others to start advocating for climate protection.

Some advice I would give youth who want to get involved in climate and ocean advocacy is to look for support. There are a lot of people who can help you. Reach out to an organization, another climate activist, or even a friend who also wants to start taking action. Sometimes starting is actually the hardest part, so don’t be afraid. Instead, make a plan and then jump into it! Whether it is by joining an organization, starting your own organization, or by planning actions in your community — there are many ways to do it!

It is very important for youth to get involved and speak up on stages because our generation is inheriting this blue planet. Therefore, we are going to inherit all of its beauty, but also the problems that have been caused by humans. We are at a crucial moment where decisions need to be made immediately so that effective action can be taken. Change has to occur now because when it’s our time to be the decision-makers, it will be too late to create the necessary change. Thus, young people should be involved because OUR future and OUR lives are at stake. I believe we should advocate for the life we youth and the planet deserve.

*Catarina and fellow H2OO youth leaders present to Girl Scouts at the Reef Futures Conference 2022.*

“In June of this year, I along with my sibling and co-founder of Heirs To Our Ocean went to Lisbon, Portugal, to attend and speak at the UN Ocean Conference. However, what I discovered as we registered for this event was that, because I was not 18 or older, I could not get into the official UN Ocean Conference. I could only speak at, or even attend, the un-official side events.

I was honored to speak at the UNESCO-IOC Ocean Decade side event where I announced Heirs To Our Ocean’s toolkit to be used in development of Youth Advisory Councils for the United Nations Ocean Decade. During my presentation I also spoke to the fact that the age requirement of 18 and older to attend the Ocean Conference was blocking youth engagement.

Overall, I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to be at the Ocean Decade side event and that I was able to connect with and hear from many amazing individuals including other youth activists. I will continue to push for more inclusivity in these spaces where decisions are being made for our future and our children’s future.”
Dakota, H2OO Co-Founder, California USA

*Charley and Dakota at the UN Ocean Conference 2022 in Portugal*.

“At the UN Ocean Conference, I was both lifted and disappointed by my experience. I made many great connections to youth leaders alongside my fellow Co-Founder Dakota, but I also saw how disconnected many countries are from the true needs of our planet.

To be honest, I was disappointed by how the conference seemed to be just another platform for representatives of organizations and member nations to brag about their accomplishments. As a stakeholder, my voice was diminished and dismissed in favor of representatives of member nations. It was ironic that each leader would repeat that they are fighting for the next generation when the next generation did not even have a voice in the room.

I spoke out about how it is important to include youth voices meaningfully in the UN Ocean Decade, because as the next generation, we are fighting for our futures, for our literal lives against the climate and ocean crises.”
Charley, H2OO Co-Founder and H2OO Board Member, California USA

*Charley speaking at the UN Ocean Conference 2022 in Portugal. Photo by IISD/ENB | Kiara Worth*.

On Earth Day, April 22, 2022, H2OO Palau hosted the “Rebirth Our Paradise” activity in partnership with Melekeok State, Ngardok Nature Reserve, and the Ngiwal State Rangers. The activity, led by 3 H2OO youth leaders — Nikka Ngirkelau, Olilai Chilton and Carlos Manuel — consisted of tree planting, a beach sweep & brand audit, and local food making.

A total of 61 participants attended the event, including 36 high school students and college students and 25 3rd and 6th graders. With this event we aimed to promote a healthy lifestyle by making and serving only local foods such as Tapioca, freshly caught fish, local fruits and coconuts, while also spreading awareness to help protect our beloved planet.

Overall, the activity was a great success, and we thank all the people who worked so hard and helped organize this amazing Earth Day event for the youth of Palau.

*H2OO Palau youth leaders prepare trees for planting at “Rebirth our Paradise” Earth Day 2022.*

*H2OO Palau youth leaders participating in “Rebirth our Paradise” Earth Day 2022 tree planting event.*

The Heirs To Our Ocean community is unique in many ways. What stands out most to me is that the organization understands that, in order to take on big and intersectional challenges, like harm to humans due to the climate crisis and corporate and government corruption, we need each other.

Since Heirs began in 2016, it has provided both hope and a home — a place of being for hundreds of youth leaders around the world seeking connection in a time where disconnection from each other and our natural world is the new standard.

H2OO provides a space where young people can voice their concerns about the present and future knowing the adults in the community will not only hear them, but will amplify their voices, provide them with opportunities to connect and learn, and fund their actions that, without a doubt, are making the world they are inheriting a healthier and safer place for all life. I am 27 years old, and the mission and vision of H2OO is incredibly important to me too.

The opportunities and impact H2OO made this year could not have been done without each and every member of our community. As this year comes to an end, I invite you to take one more important step before 2021 officially comes to a close to build our collective power to support the transformational change, bold actions, and healing H2OO’s youth leaders seek. Consider supporting in any way you can, whether it is sharing this movement with friends and family helping us build our network of supporters, volunteering your time and expertise, and/or by making a tax-deductible gift to H2OO.

We have power in our voices, both young and old, because we have made the hardest choice of all when faced with a global crisis stemming from widespread disconnection: we chose to come together around shared values to work for a better future, a future where we’ve slowed the pace of climate change and can grow and learn safely amongst the wonders of nature, as those before us did.

Thank you to all of you who continue to join us in making the Heirs’ transformational vision a reality!

I am Catarina Lorenzo, 14 years old and from Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. I am a surfer, climate activist, and an Heir of Heirs To Our Ocean (H2OO). On June 8, 2021, I had the incredible opportunity to speak at the United Nations World Ocean Day event! Heir Kalina from Taiwan and I were the two H2OO youth leaders who participated in “A Brave New Ocean” event where I shared about my connection with the ocean and my perspective of how the ocean impacts everyone’s life each day.

My generation and the generations to come are going pay the biggest price for the actions and inactions of the present. The climate crisis, pollution, destruction, and human greed is destroying the biodiversity of the ocean and planet including harming humans. I pointed out that we have very little time for action, but there IS still time.

If we act NOW, without empty promises and meaningless words but instead with effective action, we can still protect the life we have and restore and reverse the damage done.

The Ocean is calling, and we need to listen to that call.

*Kalina and Catarina present at the UN Ocean Decade launch event “A Brave New Ocean”.*

“Our RAISE initiative released a research-backed paper ‘Regeneration for the Next Generation‘ this fall and developed their 2022–2023 strategic plan informed and guided by experts.

A year ago, core RAISE members in the U.S. realized two things:

(1) We must do something now considering our governmental leaders are not and our future depends upon a change in systemic practices including industrialized agriculture; and

(2) Before we launch into action, we have learning to do.

For the last year, we have researched, interviewed, conversed, watched, attended workshops, processed, evaluated, analyzed, dug into the Earth with our hands. And we wrote. We wrote a research and advocacy paper, “Regeneration for the Next Generation”, as a first step to launch a movement and seek policy change that protects the Blue Planet we youth are inheriting.

Why are we looking at changing how we grow crops as a committed initiative? Because removing harmful agricultural practices will mitigate the climate crisis, clean our water, protect our coastal ocean ecosystems, create food security, and protect people from the many ways in which industrialized agriculture methods harm us and our future. Please read our paper ‘Regeneration for the Next Generation‘ to learn more.”
Dakota, Age 15, RAISE Initiative Co-Chair 2022-2022

“The RAISE team — Regenerative Agriculture and Indigenous Systems for our Environment — gathered for a strategic planning retreat in October 2021 where we met each other for the first time and bonded in person and in purpose.

During the 2.5 day retreat, we honed in on what actions we wanted to take, developed SMART goals and objectives, and by the end of the 2.5 days we had a plan for the remainder of 2021 through 2023! Thereafter we created a timeline and have set action items. We have four main goals focused on: (1) Connect and work with California farmers to support a shift toward indigenous crop-growing practices/regenerative agriculture, (2) Expand and diversify the youth RAISE team, (3) Create a diverse advisory board of experts, and (4) policy advocacy. Prior to attending the goal-setting retreat, we attended workshops in campaign design and decolonizing agriculture.

Our sleeves are well rolled up! Just this week, December 16, 2021, we presented a poster at the AGU Conference. Learn about RAISE by watching the 17-minute long video below featuring two of our team members! And, stay tuned for more, as our abstract was accepted for the virtual Ocean Sciences AGU meeting in February 2022!”
By Brigette, Co-Chair RAISE Fall 2021–2022, California USA

RAISE Initiative presents at AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting 2022.

With the climate crisis came unpredictable weather, hunger and forced-child marriages in Uganda and beyond, but the youth leaders in the H2OO Kampala Uganda chapter found a solution and are forging a path forward!

“Uganda’s economy is made up largely of agriculture which is now stressed due to industrial and technological changes as well as human impacts and behaviors that have exacerbated the climate crisis. This has had major consequences in communities around Uganda as it has affected livelihoods, caused social disruption, deprivation, and hunger as a result of increased food insecurity. We meet as a chapter to help solve these challenges. We believe these challenges require solutions that improve lives and health while protecting the environment to mitigate the harmful impacts of climate change.”
Sumaeya, Age 22, H2OO Uganda Chapter Member

“A solution we have been working on for the past year is called Climate Smart Urban Farming (CSUF). The project aims to empower people, especially girls, in urban settings to learn how to grow food using discarded plastics found littering our communities. The outbreak of the pandemic may have led to the closures of institutions worldwide, but our mouths remained open needing food for our survival, and our minds remain open to solutions for adaptation and change.”
Latifah, Age 18, H2OO Uganda Chapter Member

*H2OO chapter member speaks about COVID and resulting food insecurity faced in Uganda.*

*H2OO Uganda Chapter member Rita, films for SEAL 2020.*

The Kentucky Heirs had an impactful 2021 year working on and helping pass KY HJR11, organizing several local creek sweeps, setting up E-waste drives at local schools and throughout the community, and speaking and presenting at multiple public events and meetings to raise awareness about the dangers of e-scrap in landfills.

We have fostered our strong relationship with partner EcoCell and also delivered our collected e-waste for safe recycling and repurposing. HJR11 has been in research commission with the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, and studies on the economic impact and feasibility of adopting an electronic waste disposal program have been conducted. We are hoping this resolution will be re-introduced during this next legislative session in 2022!

For next year we are working on educational programs and community events to open more minds — needed especially here, inland, in our land-locked states — for healthy change and to empower others to take a stand and create change to address the global water crises and save our world’s oceans, waterways, and therefore humanity as a whole.

*Jens, Freya, Caecilia, Lars and Lucia in front of Kentucky Capitol.*

*H2OO Kentucky Chapter members speak with their state lawmakers in 2020.*

Youth leaders from the Berkeley Chapter supported by Chapter Advisor and teacher Jacqueline Omania took big strides inspiring their community and others to #breakfreefromplastic!

*Youth leaders of the H2OO Berkeley Chapter who helped pass the Disposable Free Dining Ordinance in their city.*

“Berkeley Heirs had quite an exciting year!

They spoke at 2 school board meetings in support of reusables in the Berkeley Unified School District as single-use plastic should not be used in school meals, and they succeeded in pushing through a reusables pilot program at 3 schools.

The United Nations Plastic Waste Partnership also chose to feature Berkeley Heirs for their PLASTIC IS FOREVER exhibition in Geneva, Switzerland, that will travel to Stockholm and Rotterdam and then be installed in the Halls of the Environment in Geneva making an impact with international policymakers. Berkeley Heirs participated in beach sweeps and brand audits at the Berkeley Marina and Albany Beach working to hold corporations accountable for plastic waste.

Lots of speaking opportunities this year! Berkeley Heirs participated in a panel for Children’s Environmental Health Day on “Ditching Disposables: Eliminating Harmful Chemicals in Foodware for Healthier Kids + Planet” hosted by the Center for Environmental Health (CEH). Heir Mabel spoke in the Brains On Podcast. Heir Shanza spoke in the “Eat Your Peas not PFAs”. Additionally the Berkeley Heirs joined a KQED Special Report on plastic pollution, and they helped pass the Climate Literacy Resolution for K-12 Climate Education in the Berkeley Unified school district.

They closed out the year strong receiving the Berkeley Mayor’s Proclamation for their work on reducing plastic waste in their school district. Congratulations to the Berkeley Heirs!”
By Jacqueline Omania, H2OO Berkeley Chapter Advisor

Youth leaders from the Lagos Nigeria Chapter had an eventful year participating in skill-building opportunities and brand audit campaigns working to hold top polluters accountable for their waste.

By Deborah & Dominion, H2OO Youth Leaders, Nigeria

Heirs from Lagos Nigeria kicked off 2021 by attending the H2O21 Water Summit that took place over four Saturdays Feb 13th- March 6th where Heir Deborah wrote a poem titled “TROUBLED WATERS”. We attended H2OO’s Policy Advocacy Retreat in preparation for the Ocean Climate Action Plan “US Hill Day” on April 13–14. At the Hill Days we spoke to US lawmakers. We also participated in the Manchester International Festival and we engaged in tackling plastic pollution as we led a team of about 20 youth in Nigeria for the H2OO Operation Global Sweep campaign and CNN’s CallToEarthDay campaign and attended the International Coastal Cleanup.

In the coming year, we hope to be able to work with many more youth especially in coastal communities and internationally.

In 2021, Heirs to Our Ocean (H2OO) Palau established its own non-profit organization — H2OO Palau NGO! Despite all the challenges we faced with Covid-19 we managed to create this hub to use the vision and mission of H2OO to share it with our community incorporating Palau’s cultures and ways. We intend to be part of the collective of organizations that bring awareness and knowledge about our environment and the world to our community.

Most especially we want to bring empowerment and passion to the youth of Palau, as they will be the next generation of environmental leaders who can lead with empathy and take action that will change both today and impact our futures positively.

Starting off as a non-profit organization isn’t easy.

We are taking one step at a time to work towards strengthening the network, knowledge, and opportunities Palau can give to her people.

We look forward to 2022!

I believe engagement in youth leadership summits, especially virtual ones, is crucial to developing close-knit connections with other like-minded, passionate youth. This summer, I, along with fellow youth of Heirs To Our Ocean (H2OO) — Charley (California), Lois (Guam), and Carlos (Palau) — spoke at the Taiwan International Ocean Youth Leadership Camp. Although the deadlines to submit recordings were tight, my team managed to pull through, effectively rehearsing our parts in a short period of time.

During our recorded presentation, it was clear that many attendees were interested in H2OO’s work, values, and accomplishments, as they raised many questions for us to answer. I was glad to meet more Taiwanese youth who had competent knowledge in how organizations work and was excited to imagine them applying this to future endeavors for our futures.

One of the Taiwanese youth joined Heirs to Our Ocean, and we both partook in the organizing committee for H2OO’s Operation Global Sweep!

I can proudly say that H2OO’s values reflected positively onto the attendees, and I hope that we can continue to uphold these principles of empathetic leadership instilled in youth-led initiatives while working toward better policy through our advocacy efforts!