Moving Mountains

“How do you move a mountain? One spoonful of dirt at a time.” 
-Chinese proverb

Protecting endangered species, reversing climate change, and fighting habitat loss. All of these environmental challenges feel mountainous. They are big, controversial, and have no simple solutions. 

But as the Chinese proverb reminds, how do you move a mountain? A spoonful of dirt at a time. These five teens — and many more worldwide — took small, spoonful-sized actions that had rippling impacts on their community and the planet. 

ALLISON BOYER, CHICO, CALIFORNIA

When Allison was seven, she learned that orangutan habitats on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo were rapidly disappearing. Due to worldwide demand for palm oil — an oil found in about half of supermarket products — tropical forests on the Southeast Asian islands are being chopped down to make way for palm oil plantations. Deforestation has destroyed up to 80% of the orangutans’ rainforest homes in the last 20 years.

Despite living 8,000 miles from Sumatra and Borneo, Allison raised money to help seriously endangered orangutans. In 2011, when she was in the seventh grade, she started Purses for Primates, collecting second hand purses for resale at purse parties. Through selling bags, Allison raised $27,000 for Orangutan Outreach, an organization that protects orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo. Her fundraising helped fund one-third of an orangutan rescue center in Sumatra, providing care for orphaned and displaced orangutans.

LESEIN MUTUNKEI, NAIROBI, KENYA

As a child, Lesein loved the outdoors. He biked, hiked, and camped with his family. When in the countryside outside of Nairobi, Kenya, he planted trees with his grandparents, carving a home in the dirt for a tiny tree and using his hands to pack soil around its juvenile roots. 

Lesein first learned about climate change and deforestation when he was twelve years old. His home country of Kenya loses about 29,650 acres of forest each year, according to Kenya’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry. Deforestation destroys animal habitats and leads to devastating mudslides that wipe out towns. In addition, trees — known as the world’s lungs — absorb carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. With fewer trees, more carbon dioxide hangs in the atmosphere and traps heat from the sun, exaggerating the climate crisis. 

With a deep love of soccer, Lesein decided to plant a tree for every goal he scored in a match. Desiring to make a more significant impact, he soon planted eleven trees for each goal, one to represent each player on his team. Lesein founded Trees for Goals. The school’s soccer, rugby, and basketball teams all plant trees for points scored in games. In 2019, Leisein and his teammates planted almost 1,000 trees in forests outside of Nairobi.

Moving forward, Lesein hopes to expand Trees for Goals across Kenya and involve FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) in the project. He already gained support from Kenya's Ministry of Environment and Forestry. The ministry now donates the trees for the youth to plant.

XIUHTEZCATL MARTINEZ, BOULDER, COLORADO

Xiuhtezcatl (Shoe-Tez-Caht) Martinez first stepped on a stage to advocate for the environment when he was just six years old. Raised in the Aztec tradition, his family taught him to value the connection between people and nature. By age nine, he studied the consequences of spraying pesticides in public parks. Xiuhtezcatl spoke at city council meetings and organized press conferences to protest the spraying of chemicals. 

He then turned his attention to fracking — the process of using pressure to extract natural gases from rocks underground. He witnessed fracking’s impact firsthand. He saw trees disappear as companies cleared the land for fracking. Wildfires became more common in Colorado, and his community evacuated to escape the flames. Xiuhtezcatl observed poorer air and water quality that made people sick.

Angered and motivated, Xiuhtezcatl used his voice to speak out. He advocates for reducing carbon dioxide emissions and protecting the environment. Xiuhtezcatl has given TedTalks and appeared on national TV. He spoke at the United Nations, delivering his speech in English, Spanish, and his native language, Nahuatl. He is a Youth Director for Earth Guardians and trains teens to lead environmental, climate, and social justice movements. Xiuhtezcatl writes and performs hip-hop to inspire young people to take action. Xiuhtezcatl shares, “From the beginning, there’s been an underlying understanding that my voice has power. If I share it in the right way, I can help share that power with other people.”

KRISTAL AMBROSE, ELEUTHERA ISLAND, BAHAMAS

Kristal Ambrose grew up on Eleuthera Island, one of the 700 islands in the Bahamas. As a teenager, Kristal spent two days pulling plastics out of a sea turtle's intestines. Shocked, she learned that 8 million metric tons of plastics enter the ocean each year. 

At 22, Kristal boarded a boat headed for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a swirling mass of plastics and debris in the Pacific Ocean. She observed plastic bags, styrofoam cups, and straws churning in the Garbage Patch, all items she regularly used and tossed. She vowed to stop using these products and returned to Eleuthera Island compelled to reduce plastic waste.

In 2013, Kristal founded the Bahamas Plastic Movement. Her nonprofit worked to develop new solutions to plastic pollution and educate Bahamian youth about the issue. In addition, Kristal runs free youth camps to train the country’s next environmental leaders. During camp, students collect plastics on beaches, dissect fish to examine plastics in their stomachs, and connect how their lives on land impact the tropical waters. In January 2018, Kristal petitioned the island’s environmental minister to ban single-use plastics. Later that year, on Earth Day, the government announced a country-wide ban.

CELESTE TINAJERO, RENO, NEVADA

Celeste’s older brother inspired her environmental activism. He started an Eco Warriors club at Reed High School in Reno and encouraged Celeste to join. The club worked to make the school more sustainable, starting with the outdated bathrooms. Eco Warriors installed water-saving faucets and toilets, auto-sensor lights that turned off when bathrooms were empty, and hand dryers instead of paper towels. These updates saved water, electricity, and paper waste. The following year, Eco Warriors raised more money and installed a water bottle refilling station where students could easily refill reusable water bottles. The refilling station has saved an estimated 37,000 single-use plastic bottles. 

After high school, Celeste worked at Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful, a Reno-based organization focused on reducing waste and educating the community. At the nonprofit, Celeste designs curriculum for schools about sustainable living. For Celeste, starting small with Eco Warriors ballooned into a career focused on protecting the environment. In an interview with Teen Vogue, Celeste urges, “Work with a group of hardworking, willing, and determined people. Then create a compelling and efficient plan; the rest will follow. We can fight for all of the issues that we are passionate about forever, but if we don't have an Earth to survive us, none of it matters. Someone has to give our planet a voice.”