This article is part of CNN’s global series – read the full article HERE.
[100,000 children now participate in 91 countries]
New York (CNN) — It’s not every day that a 13-year-old boy gets a chance to address the United Nations General Assembly. But Felix Finkbeiner is no ordinary teenager.
Finkbeiner is already the head of his own organization, Plant for the Planet, dedicated to planting millions of trees all around the world.
At the U.N. earlier this month, Finkbeiner had one item on his agenda: taking adults to task for their lack of action on planting trees.
In the normally staid U.N., Finkbeiner had a field day telling off a group of adults. His message to the diplomats was simple: “stop talking and start planting.”
Finkbeiner warned the countries that disappearing trees would create a climate crisis for children’s future.
“We children understand that the adults know everything about these crises, but we children don’t understand why there’s so little action,” he said.
Plant for the Planet was founded in, of all places, a fourth grade classroom in his native Germany.
A presentation Finkbeiner gave in class about Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, who planted 30 million trees in Kenya, inspired the movement.
But Finkbeiner believes this tree crusade can only be successful if it is led by children.
“We children are the majority in the world but we can only make a difference if we work together. So we have to work together because if we do this, we can have a big impact,” he says.
We children don’t understand why there’s so little action. –Felix Finkbeiner
This tree-planting campaign has already had an impact worldwide. Finkbeiner says there are 100,000 children participating in 91 countries with 3.5 million trees planted.
[Photo credit: CNN]
