Transcript:
Diamond Spratling found her passion for climate and environmental activism at a young age.
Spratling: “As a little girl sitting watching TV, I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness, the ice sheets are melting. I have to save the polar bears.’”
As she grew up, she became concerned about other environmental issues, too, such as pollution in her hometown of Detroit.
But she noticed that there were not many other people of color in her environmental classes and internships.
Spratling: “I just thought about how we needed to make sure that Black and Brown communities were knowledgeable about the issues that were impacting us the most and really involved in all stages of the solution.”
So she founded the nonprofit Girl Plus Environment, which engages women and girls of color in environmental advocacy.
As part of this mission, she’s published “Sage Sails the World: A Little Girl’s Journey Across the Arctic.”
In it, a young Black girl named Sage sees the impact of climate change on polar bears and decides to take action.
Spratling: “And so it really serves as a full circle moment for me to … get back to what motivated me.”
She hopes the book inspires more kids to get involved.
Spratling: “And this is the perfect time because they start to say ‘Oh, I want to be a doctor, I want to be a nurse, I want to be a teacher.’ Maybe some of them will say, ‘I want to be a climate activist,’ or ‘I want to be a climate scientist.’”
Reporting credit: Ethan Freedman / ChavoBart Digital Media
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