Varshini Prakash
Varshini Prakash is a climate activist and executive director of the Sunrise Movement, a 501(c)(4) organization which she co-founded in 2017.[1] She was named on the 2019 Time 100 Next list,[2] and was a corecipent of the Sierra Club John Muir Award in 2019.[3]
Early life and education
Prakash first became aware of climate change when she was 11 while watching news coverage of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.[4][5] Growing up, she wanted to become a doctor.[4]
Prakash went to college at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where she began organizing around climate issues.[4][5] While there, she became a leader of the school's fossil fuel divestment campaign. Prakash also worked with a national organization, Fossil Fuel Divestment Student Network. In 2017, a year after she graduated, UMass Amherst became the first large, public university to divest.[4][6]
Career
In 2017, Prakash launched the Sunrise Movement, an American youth-led political movement and 501(c)(4) that advocates political action on climate change, with seven other co-founders.[4][7]
In 2018, she became the Sunrise Movement's executive director after the group organized a protest occupying U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office asking that a congressional task force be established to address climate change.[4]
She was named on the 2019 Time 100 Next list.[8]
As part of her work with the Sunrise Movement, Prakash advocates for proposals like the Green New Deal.[8] In 2020, the organization endorsed U.S. senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Primary for the presidency.[5] Prakash was named as an adviser to Joe Biden’s climate task force in 2020.[9][10][11][12] She is also an advisory board member of Climate Power 2020, a group that includes Democrats and activists advocating for increasing the interest American voters take in climate action.[11]
Prakash is co-editor of the book Winning the Green New Deal: Why We Must, How We Can, released August 2020.[13][14][15] She also is a contributor to The New Possible: Visions of Our World Beyond Crisis.[16][17]
References
- ^ "Who Will Save The Planet? Meet The women Rallying For Climate Justice". Marie Claire. Retrieved 2021-04-23.
- ^ "TIME 100 Next 2019: Varshini Prakash". Time. Retrieved 2021-04-23.
- ^ "Sierra Club Announces 2019 National Award Winners". Sierra Club. 2019-09-16. Retrieved 2021-04-23.
- ^ a b c d e f Solis, Marie (November 18, 2019). "How a 26-Year-Old Activist Forced the Democratic Party to Get Serious About Climate Change". Vice.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b c Adabala, Srihita (March 26, 2020). "Meet Varshini Prakash, Leader of The Sunrise Movement". Next Generation Politics.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Elton, Catherine. "Varshini Prakash Is Trying to Save Boston From Climate Change". Boston Magazine.
- ^ Hyland, Véronique, Naomi Rougeau and Julie Vadnal (June 6, 2019). "27 Women Leading the Charge to Protect Our Environment". Elle Magazine.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b Inslee, Jay (2019). "Varshini Prakash Is on the 2019 TIME 100 Next List". Time.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Specter, Emma (October 26, 2020). "Why 2020 Is a Climate Election". Vogue.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Rathi, Akshat (September 15, 2020). "The Activist Trying to Bend the U.S. Congress Toward Climate". Bloomberg.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b Teirstein, Zoya (May 20, 2020). "How Climate Leftists and Moderates Are Working Together to Beat Trump". Rolling Stone.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Calma, Justine (May 14, 2020). "How the climate movement is trying to fix Joe Biden". The Verge.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Ottesen, KK (September 22, 2020). "'Adults are asleep at the wheel' in climate crisis, says co-founder of youth-led activist group". Washington Post.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Nonfiction Book Review: Winning the Green New Deal: Why We Must, How We Can by Edited by Varshini Prakash and Guido Girgenti. Simon & Schuster, $18 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-1-982142-43-8". Publishers Weekly. June 2, 2020. Retrieved 2021-04-23.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Stephenson, Wen (12 October 2020). "The Hardest Thing About the Green New Deal". The Nation. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
- ^ The new possible : visions of our world beyond crisis. Philip Clayton, Kelli M. Archie, Jonah Sachs, Evan Steiner, Kim Stanley Robinson. Eugene, Oregon. 2021. ISBN 978-1-7252-8583-5. OCLC 1236337736.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ "Varshini Prakash on Redefining What's Possible". Sierra Club. 2020-12-14. Retrieved 2021-04-23.