Reflection

Reflection

As a kid growing up in New York City, I often didn't feel like anyone else in my environment cared about climate change, and I wanted to go to an environmental camp in Hawaii to meet more people who cared as much as I did, and learn from people who knew more than me. There, I learned about the ecology of the planet and the effects of climate change in an entirely different way. We were required to use reef safe sunscreen that was approved by the camp, even though we weren't swimming in the ocean, because of the devastating effects sunscreen chemicals can have, as the camp explained. Most of the sunscreens people brought were not actually reef safe, even though the label said they were. Climate change and warmer water makes reefs much more susceptible to diseases, which sunscreen chemicals can accelerate. I created the Reef Friendly Products Guide to spread awareness of what I had learned, and shared it with the sailing camp and over 1500 parents and kids at my school, and beyond. After this experience, I realized that a lot of other kids have stories similar to mine, experiences that have scared them or motivated them to join the movement against climate change. I hope that I can share other people's voices and experiences alongside my own and raise further awareness of issues I might not have even thought about yet. Creating World Heart Initiative was not only an opportunity for me to help people struggling with climate anxiety, it also gave me hope for a future in which climate change is a problem we are tackling, instead of a problem we are being tackled by.