Zero Hour NYC Co-Founders Ilana Cohen & Amy Torres at the post-march Rally on July 21st, 2018.
Zero Hour NYC is a coalition of city students dedicated to combating climate change and furthering a sustainable future.
The Beginning...
Eager to engage her peers in the fight to combat climate change, teenager Jamie Margolin founded Zero Hour in 2017. Inspired by Jamie's work, then-high school student Ilana Cohen saw a unique opportunity to spur the youth-led climate movement in NYC. Soon, she and her friend Amy Torres established Zero Hour NYC. On July 21st, they marched alongside hundreds of their co-organizers, peers, adult allies, and organizational partners from Columbus Circle to Dag Hammarskjold Plaza by UN Headquarters, where they held a historic Rally. The Movement Today...
Now, Zero Hour is an international movement and Zero Hour NYC is expanding. NYC Head Coordinator Rachel Lee is eager to build our organizational partnerships and tackle new climate actions this fall.
Our Call for Action...
We are frustrated with how special interest politics have stymied legislative progress toward environmental and social justice. Reliance on dirty energy is not only putting people’s future at risk, but also their present. As extreme weather and natural disasters occur more frequently around the world, we are seeing the emergence of a new climate refugee crises and an unprecedented scarcity of resources. Now is not the time for silence; now is the time for action. If lawmakers won’t lead the way on their own, us students are ready to push them.
We have clear demands to advance our agenda of climate justice in our city, state, and country.