With the global climate strikes of September 20 and the United Nations Climate Action Summit of September 23, it’s undeniable that climate change has become a hot-button topic in America.

At the forefront of the movement to fight climate change is 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, a young, Swedish activist.

She first caught the public’s eye when she sailed for two weeks across the Atlantic to New York in a zero-emissions racing yacht.

After she arrived in America in late August, she used her media spotlight to motivate youth across the globe to participate in a worldwide climate change protest on September 20.

She made national headlines once more when she spoke at the U.N. Climate Action Summit.

“How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words,” she said to a room of world leaders.

The incredible passion that underlies each of her words and actions makes Thunberg an inspirational figure that young people like me can unite behind in this national outcry against climate change.

In this tense political climate, I have often felt that the voices of America’s youth have been trampled by corporate interests and corrupt rhetoric from the government we thought we could trust.

However, through her activism and her bravery, Thunberg refutes this idea that a single person – especially a single young person – can’t change the face of the nation.

In fact, her activism doesn’t just assert that each and every one of us can make a difference; it asserts that it’s our duty to make a difference, and that difference starts on a local level with you and with me.

Her outrage — and the outrage of much of America’s youth — stems from the slow-going efforts or even inaction of world leaders in reducing emissions and waste.

Dr. Lydia Baca, a high school science teacher at Loretto Academy, said, “We have known about the reality of climate change at least since the Al Gore report [last year].”

In his report, U.S. politician and environmental activist Al Gore said that climate change is causing a “global emergency,” and he criticized President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, an agreement within the U.N. to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“We are accelerating the speed at which gases are accumulating in the atmosphere; you can already see it with the terrible weather extremes,” Baca said.

According to a recent survey conducted by the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, 60% of Americans are “alarmed” or “concerned” about global warming.

Despite this widespread concern, America continues to lag behind when it comes to instituting greener policies because of President Trump’s denial of climate change.

Although Thunberg has been criticized for her strong word choice at the U.N., I believe that the kind of emotional outrage that she champions is not only justified but also necessary.

For too long our current administration has gotten away with prioritizing corporate interests over the concerns of the masses; the president is happier to chase after a dollar today than he is to secure America’s future tomorrow.

For too long, the world’s nations have been negligent in combating climate change; their half-hearted actions have contributed to the planet’s accelerated warming.

Leading up to the Climate Action Summit, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said, “Don’t come to the summit with beautiful speeches… Come with concrete plans.”

Much has been said about the global emergency that is climate change, but little has been done; for right now, we can only hold our breath and hope that these ongoing U.N. conferences can change that.

At the end of the day, the world’s troubled youth has been and must continue to be the ones rising up and demanding change from the institutions that govern us — our futures depend on it.