By Marcy Franck

What if I told you there was a way to learn about climate change that didn’t feel like running through a field of fly swatters? It’s hard to stay informed when every headline smacks you in the face with doom. We’ve got just the thing to spruce up your newsfeeds and #ForYouPages:

Announcing our 16 Climate Creators to Watch in 2022—YouTubers, TikTok-ers, and Instagrammers creating climate content that is educational and entertaining, selected by our team here at Harvard Chan C-CHANGE and our friends at Pique Action, a media company focused on positive climate storytelling. 
 
These creators take complex issues like atmospheric science, intersectional environmentalism, and international policy and turn them into solutions-based content that’s enlightening, often funny, and “doesn’t make people want to burn themselves alive,” according to Rollie Williams, creator of Climate Town.  

We're confident you'll find something that makes you LOL and inspires you to keep fighting for a healthier future.

PS: Nominate a creator for our next list at the bottom of this page.

PSA: Because we’re directing you over to social media, I feel compelled to remind you of our issue on doom scrolling

PSST: We’re hiring! 

MEET THE CREATORS
Kayla Anderson
Bite-sized breakdown of climate issues.

Kayla Anderson is a concerned conservationist creating content to inform and promote action on the climate crisis. Using her skills in digital marketing, she tells stories about climate solutions and crafts narratives that empower her audience.

Watch now: A day in the life of 2030, if we meet our climate goals.


Xiye Bastida
Climate justice front and center.

Xiye Bastida is a 19-year old Climate Justice Activist who advocates for the centering of frontline communities in climate policy. She organized with Fridays For Future NYC for three years, where she helped mobilize up to 300k people for climate strikes. In 2020, she co-founded Re-Earth Initiative, which is a youth-led Climate Justice education organization. Xiye is a public speaker who often attends UN conferences as a delegate to advocate for youth and Indigenous rights. She is the author of “Calling In,” the opening essay in the “All We Can Save” anthology. And she currently attends the University of Pennsylvania where she is pursuing a BA in Environment Studies.

Her take on being a stubborn optimist: "It's not about everything that is going wrong, but everything that can go right."


Doria Brown
Energy science and affordable sustainability.

Doria Brown is a sustainability and energy professional. She started her journey on social media in 2020 when she posted her first TikTok. Her accounts focus on energy science, sustainability, and science communication. Doria enjoys her work and hopes to continue to make a lasting positive impact on the planet throughout her career.


Genesis Butler
A friend to all animals.

Genesis Butler is a 15-year-old vegan animal rights, climate, and environmental activist. In 2020, Genesis founded Youth Climate Save, a global youth-led climate organization that focuses on the link between animal agriculture and climate change. Genesis is on the board of Social Compassion in Legislation, which focuses on protecting animals and the planet, and hopes to become an environmental policymaker.

Behold her official trailer as an everyday Marvel Super Hero.

Carissa Cabrera
Practical sustainability.

Carissa Cabrera is a marine conservationist, sustainability educator, and climate communicator. For the past 10 years, Carissa has focused on ocean recovery efforts related to endangered species, ecosystem restoration, financing conservation, and community outreach. She uses media to inform and inspire others to find their place in the climate movement through a variety of platforms, with a shared goal to increase accessibility and accelerate global environmental action.


Kristy Drutman
Proactive climate solutions.

Kristy Drutman is a Jewish-Filipina environmental media creator and founder of Brown Girl Green, a media platform exploring the intersections between media, diversity, and environmentalism. As a sustainability communications expert, Kristy has spoken in front of thousands of people as well as facilitated workshops centered around environmental media and storytelling in cities across the United States. She has also worked with youth from around the world to create collaborative, intersectional online media with the goal of creating conscious, culturally relevant content to engage audiences about proactive solutions to the climate crisis.


Pattie Gonia
Inclusive adventure stories.

Pattie Gonia (she/they) is an intersectional environmentalist, drag queen, and advocate for inclusivity and diversity in the outdoors.

The Pattie Gonia community exists to uplift LGBTQIA+ people and allies in the outdoors and to exist as a platform to give other voices and organizations all the shine in the world. Together with her community, they’ve fundraised over a half million dollars for LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and environmental non-profits, completed over 10,000 miles of hiking together, and raised awareness about the ongoing plastic crisis through their film “Everything to Lose.”

Out of heels, Wyn Wiley (he/they) is a professional photographer, speaker, educator, and creative director for major brands as well as a number of non-profits around the world. Wyn/Pattie both have a life-long history of working with LGBTQ+ youth and social justice focused non-profits.

Check out her dress made from ocean plastics, her commercial for crude oil, and her message to people who think hiking uphill is hard.

Jack Harries
Solutions-focused micro documentaries.

Jack Harries is a 28 year-old documentary filmmaker and the co-founder of Earthrise. Having founded JacksGap, a successful YouTube channel and blog with over 4 million subscribers, Jack has focused on raising awareness around climate change, forced migration, and mental health. Over the last few years he has covered environmental stories in Greenland, Somaliland, Bhutan, Kiribati, and Borneo. Jack is an ambassador for the World Wildlife Fund and holds an MA in Ethnography and Documentary Filmmaking from UCL.

Watch his interview with President Obama at COP26.

Dr. Adam Levy
Live action climate analogies.

Dr. Adam Levy is a climate change YouTuber. As Adam was studying for their doctorate in atmospheric physics at Oxford, they created ClimateAdam. This YouTube channel is dedicated to making climate science engaging and accessible, through a combination of comedy and visual metaphors. Adam is also a science journalist, reporting for the likes of NatureScientific American and Deutsche Welle.


Sophia Li
Climate hope and sustainable fashion.

Sophia Li is a Chinese-American multimedia journalist and climate advocate. She is the host of Meta’s podcast, Climate Talks and co-host of the climate talk show, All of the Above. Sophia's journalistic reporting has appeared in CNN, Vogue and the United Nations. She has interviewed notable personalities across fashion, climate, tech, and culture to Nobel Laureates.

She serves on the Board of Directors of environmental nonprofit Slow Factory and on the advisory board of Better Shelter. She is the former Entertainment Media Editor of American Vogue.

Check out the promo for her Climate Talks podcast and her introduction to climate doulas.

Dr. Peter Neff
Fun climate science in Antarctica.

Dr. Peter Neff is an Assistant Research Professor at the University of Minnesota who specializes in reconstructing past climates using glacier ice cores from polar and alpine regions. Peter couples authentic video footage from Antarctica with his direct experience recovering and analyzing ice cores to convey how these icy archives provide context for human caused climate change.


Miriam Nielsen
The whys and hows of climate change.

Miriam Nielsen is a climate researcher and video maker in New York City. Her YouTube channel, zentouro, tells climate and environmental stories that go beyond the headlines and creates a supportive space for anyone energized in the climate crisis. She covers everything from pipeline protests, to climate policy, to dealing with eco-anxiety. Miriam also studies how climate change will impact extreme rain and droughts as a PhD Student in Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University.


Ross Reid
Loves trees. Will make you love them, too.

Born and raised in the mountains, forests, and waters of Cascadia, Ross developed a love for the great outdoors at a young age which has directed the course of his life. Through genuine curiosity and passion, he has cultivated a deep understanding of the ecological systems at play within the bioregion and beyond that he seamlessly blends with a touch of philosophy and humor to create engaging educational content for an inclusive audience.

Hot diggity dang, go learn about mother trees and how to peek behind those cuss-word green veils.

Leah Thomas
Intersectional environmentalism.

Leah Thomas is a celebrated environmentalist based in Santa Barbara, CA. Coining the term ‘eco-communicator’ to describe her style of environmental activism, Leah uses her passion for writing and creativity to explore and advocate for the critical yet often overlooked relationship between social justice and environmentalism. With this intersection in mind, Leah founded and launched Intersectional Environmentalist in 2020, a resource hub and platform that aims to advocate for environmental justice, provide educational resources surrounding intersectional environmentalism, and promote inclusivity and accessibility within environmental education and movements.

Check out the preview for her animated film exploring our relationship to nature before colonization.

Rollie Williams
If climate news were a late night talk show.

Rollie Williams is a Brooklyn-based comedian, video editor, and guy with both student debt and a Climate Science & Policy degree from Columbia University. He is the creator and host of the digital comedy series Climate Town which has been described as a sort of Wish.com version of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Rollie is also the host of Sweatpants: A Low-Key Climate Podcast and formerly hosted a monthly talk show in character as Al Gore called 'An Inconvenient Talk Show.' When he's not doing climate stuff, Rollie plays an unhealthy amount of billiards and hosts several YouTube series about 9-ball.


Alaina Wood
Climate doom myth busting.

Alaina Wood is a science communicator who produces content on climate science. She is the founder of The Garbage Queen, a page dedicated to climate action and sustainability, as well as the co-founder of EcoTok, an environmental education collective. Outside of social media, Alaina is a sustainability scientist who specializes in solid waste and water quality.

Watch her debunk scary headlines claiming that cacao is going extinct and her latest roundup of good climate news.

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