September 24, 2025
Where Did All the Youth Climate Activists Go?
By Nic Wong
The “Make Billionaires Pay” march might hint at where the climate movement is headed—away from fossil fuel divestment and toward broader resistance, with fewer young people.
In March 2019, when more than a million people assembled in streets across the world to call for climate action, school children led the charge. With Greta Thunberg as the face of the grassroots climate movement, they demanded a transition from fossil fuels and immediate action from their governments. Climate activism groups like Extinction Rebellion, Sunrise Movement, and Zero Hour were in their heyday. Hope was in the air. More significant actions were already being planned for April 2020, which would coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of Earth Day. Then the pandemic hit.
Over the next few years, the US climate movement’s power waxed and waned. When the Biden administration signed off on the Inflation Reduction Act, marketed as the largest climate legislation in the country’s history, it certainly felt like a step in the right direction. Yet at the same time, it wasn’t nearly enough: It compromised with the fossil fuel industry and appealed to red states. By 2023, the high school climate activists of 2019 had also grown up. Some of them burned out and left activism. Many others remained, going on to organize on their college campuses. After the war in Gaza began, a good portion of those remaining youth activists refocused their efforts toward advocating for a free Palestine.
Fast-forward to 2025. On September 20, just 12 hours ahead of New York City’s Climate Week, thousands of protesters gathered on Park Avenue for the “Make Billionaires Pay” march. Spearheaded by climate organizations like 350.org, Climate Defenders and the Women’s March, Saturday’s demonstration was intended to draw a connection between billionaires and the climate crisis as leaders around the world descended on the city for the UN General Assembly. “We are out here because billionaires are burning down our planet,” Mel Smith of 350.org told me as we marched. “The world is so very much on fire.”
But it was often hard to spot many young people in the crowd. There were parents pulling wagons with toddlers and thousands of elderly people. The under-35 crowd, however, looked slim.
