Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Greta Thunberg are two of the most visible climate campaigners in the world, spearheading a movement that is forcing those in power to address the climate crisis. And although they both have a very similar agenda, they are also as different as two campaigners can get.
Ocasio-Cortez is the 29-year-old politician working the system with Washington polish, while Thunberg is a 16-year-old Swedish schoolgirl in socks and legging, working from her bedroom to reach the rest of the world. Both campaigners are keenly aware of one another, and recently, they finally got the chance to meet—discussing what it’s like to be dismissed for their age, how depressed we should be about the future, and what tactics, as an activist, really work.
There is something very moving about the conversation between these young women, a sense of generational rise that, as we know from every precedent from the Renaissance onwards, has the power to ignite movements and change history. Read their conversation right here and see for yourself why hope is contagious.
