My name is Audrey Ma and I am a student and a climate activist. I founded the Sustainability Club at my school and was part of a team of students that implemented a food sorting and composting program school wide to reduce my school’s greenhouse gas emissions. The program successfully prevents 30,000 pounds of CO₂ per year from reaching our atmosphere. I am a recipient of the President’s Environmental Youth Award.

 

I am also the youngest member of the Organizers Committee for Pasadena100, a nonprofit that advocates for the City of Pasadena to transition to carbon free electricity by 2030. I have delivered keynote speeches at rallies, published op-ed pieces in the Pasadena Star News, been a panelist in public climate change panels and spoken at city council meetings.

 

I like to use different mediums to raise awareness about our looming climate crisis. My climate change poem titled “Save Me a Plum” was awarded a National Gold Medal by the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards and my climate change videos have won the UN Climate Challenge Competition twice.

 

I hope to have more schools sort and divert their food waste from the landfills because only then can we make meaningful reductions in methane emissions.