Girl explains why systematic reform is needed to fight climate change over individual actions

Everyone has their own opinion when it comes to climate change. Some believe that making changes in one's lifestyle would make a difference and some completely live in denial and refuse to accept that climatic change even exists despite seeing what's happening around the globe. However, one teenager had a fitting response to people who are making individual remarks about others for their choices.

In the video posted by @waltermasterson, a reporter can be seen asking a group of teenagers, "Who here has an iPhone?" One of them says, "You got us. We have iPhones. The radical left loses again."

After which, a girl begins to speak, "I totally get that. You're trying to make people feel bad about their individual actions. And I do think that there is a lot of individual responsibility with climate change. But what we need to be focusing on is empowering individuals to mobilize communities and enact systematic reform and policies."

She continues to say that shame is not a motivator. "Whatever individual action empowers you to feel more sustainable and help the Earth, that's amazing. Do that. Don't put too much pressure on yourself and use that to form empowered communities that are going to enact sustainable and empowering legislation and policy that we need currently," she continued.

She emphasized that shaming people in the climate change movement based on them having iPhones or based on what they eat and do is not at all cool. The video is captioned, "Gen-Z dunks hard on Climate Deniers." It garnered more than 3 million views and 67k likes. People on social media had mixed feeling about what she shared.

@DemonicNesquik commented, "My partner and I watched this last night! They did amazing. Restored some of my faith in humanity." However, @Ref0rmeddegen wrote, "She said nothing. It was all about being empowered to feel a certain way, rather than any sort of actual solution."

Meanwhile, @JonsMarketingLA shared, "God damn that kid is smart and well-spoken." @F1mech commented, "She absolutely nailed that! We should be proud of our young people. With that said... my V8 empowers me and I'll never let you take it."

There are many kids in the current generation who want to make a difference. A 19-year-old named Shreya Ramachandran, who is the founder of The Grey Water Project, wants people to reuse grey water to prevent water scarcity. Through the organization, they work on water conservation through outreach, advocacy, policy changes and public education for school-aged children.

Ramachandran said that grey water is produced from sinks, showers, bathtubs and washing machines in homes. This water can be reused to flush toilets, water lawns and gardens and even irrigate crops. This makes up about 60% of the water used in a typical household.

"Reusing grey water can save up to 11 trillion gallons of water per year in the U.S. alone," said Ramachandran. She was awarded the 2019 Children's Climate Prize given to young environmentalists each year.

She mentioned not knowing much about water scarcity before starting The Grey Water Project and that it is something she cares about since she's from California and it affects her family as well.