Climate Cardinals

Sophia Kianni is an 18-year-old climate activist specializing in media and strategy. She is a national strategist for Fridays for Future and an international spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion, two of the largest climate organizations in the world. She is the founder and executive director of Climate Cardinals, an international nonprofit with more than 5,000 volunteers working to translate climate information into over 100 languages. 

Sophia’s activism has been featured in news outlets like Forbes, TIME, The Guardian, CNBC, CNN, and even on the front page of The Washington Post. She is also a former PBS NewsHour Homegrown Fellow and has written opinion pieces for Teen Vogue, BuzzFeed, MTV News, Refinery 29, and Cosmopolitan. Sophia has been publicly commended by the Congressional Committee on the Climate Crisis and the United Nations Foundation for her advocacy. 

1. Most climate information is only available in English, leaving the climate movement inaccessible to those who speak other languages. 

2. Our project is Climate Cardinals, a network of translators working to translate climate information into other languages. We award students community service hours in exchange for translating climate research, enabling them to practice language skills, improve scientific literacy, educate their communities, and learn about climate change. We then provide translated climate information for anyone to access on our website as well as partner with organizations to distribute translated materials to targeted demographics. 

3. Climate change disproportionately affects people of color, so by translating climate information into a myriad of languages, we will elevate humanity and provide a diverse demographic of people with information they can use to tackle this crisis.

Climate change is an issue which affects every single person on the planet. However, the climate change education we get in schools is severely lacking. 

Only 61 percent of Americans are concerned about climate change. This problem is even worse in other nations as only 26 percent of people living in the Middle East believe climate change is harming them. Some may blame the cultural background for these disparities, but the lack of information in native languages is also a significant factor to consider. 40% of the adults in the world have never heard of climate change.

In 2012, researchers concluded that most scientific papers are published in English and in 2016, a University of Cambridge study found that languages are still a significant barrier to the global transfer of scientific knowledge. 

Even the United Nations IPCC report, one of the most renowned pieces of climate research in the world, is only available in 6 languages.

Climate Cardinals is a youth-led nonprofit organization driven by student volunteers who translate climate information into different languages. 

Students apply to volunteer on our website in exchange for community service hours. Once we look over students' applications, we send them an email with instructions to join a google classroom. From there, our team of over 500 language leaders (composed of students who are completely fluent in different languages) assign volunteers information to translate. Once translations are turned in, language leaders work to proofread and assemble final copies. To date over 5,000 students have signed up to volunteer with us and we have translated 3,000 pages climate information.

We provide translated climate information for anyone to access on our website as well as partner with organizations to distribute translated materials to targeted demographics. We also partner with organizations to source and translate quality climate research.

Climate Cardinals is working to make climate information accessible to those who don't speak English.

By partnering with regional groups we are getting information directly to populations that have lacked educational outreach in the past by relying on the expertise of our partners:

Through our partner Radio Javan we are educating almost 11 million Iranians about the climate crisis with climate change information we have translated into Farsi. 

Through our partner Arab Youth Climate Movement, we are distributing climate change information that we have translated into Farsi, Arabic, and other languages commonly spoken in the Middle East, to their dozens of chapters.  

We are forming a partnership with the Bulgarian Embassy to distribute translated climate information in Bulgaria.

By conducting outreach we make students aware of volunteer opportunities:

Over 300,000 people have seen our launch video on TikTok

We are partnering with Do Something to share Climate Cardinals volunteer opportunities with students.

By partnering with academic institutions and research groups we source quality climate information that address the impacts climate change is having on the world:

We are working with groups including the Columbia University Earth Institute, Wikipedia climate group, and National Geographic to source up-to-date climate information.

Climate Cardinals was first envisioned when I realized the need for climate translation while on a trip to Iran in middle school. I was shocked when I saw that the pollution in Iran was so bad I couldn’t see the stars at night. The more I read online about the climate in the Middle East, the more alarmed I became. When I brought up my concerns to my relatives, I was shocked when they informed me that they knew nothing about climate change. 

Determined to educate them, I began to pore over climate research, but I had to translate information into Farsi to help them understand after realizing there was a lack of scientific literature available in languages other than English. After reading my translations, my relatives have changed their habits over the past few years, reducing their use of cars and shopping more sustainably. 

I decided to start Climate Cardinals to incentivize other students to translate information and educate their relatives. I hope that through our work every person, regardless of the language they speak, can learn about the climate crisis.

Being a young Iranian woman has shown me that climate change disproportionately impacts communities of color across the globe, which is why I want to make climate education accessible to a diverse demographic of people. 

 As explained in our Forbes profile, with students around the world staying at home due to COVID-19, we are also filling a critical niche. We provide bilingual students a safe and easy way to obtain community service while helping to make climate education more accessible. 

I have extensive experience working with different climate organizations. I am working as a National Strategist for Fridays for Future USA, a National Partnerships Coordinator for This is Zero Hour, and an International Spokesperson/Media Strategist for Extinction Rebellion, three of the largest climate movements in the world.

I strive to energize young people to turn out in mass numbers for important social causes. As a National Strategist for Fridays for Future USA, I have helped mobilize millions of youth to participate in national strikes by finding venues, planning march routes, reaching out to partners, and advertising the march itself. I am also experienced in generating press attention and writing press releases. I have also developed numerous programs, including an initiative to educate prison inmates about climate change. I worked with other members of Fridays for Future USA to incentivize them to choose careers beneficial to the environment when reintegrating with society. 

As a national partnerships coordinator for This is Zero Hour, I have helped build a network of nonprofits for their "Vote for Our Future" campaign: a national movement to educate youth, particularly in the Midwestern United States, about the importance of voting for candidates who will act on climate change. 

As I explained to Forbes, on the first day Climate Cardinals officially launched we had over 1100 people sign up to volunteer with us. We were very overwhelmed as we had not anticipated having such a large number of people join us. 

I got together with my friends and we strategized a new method for translators to work together. Instead of having them join a Slack workspace, we set up Google Classrooms for each language where language leaders could efficiently assign documents to be translated. Through this new process we were able to avoid duplicate translations, circumvent the chaos of thousands of people interacting in a slack groupspace, and establish an ordered process for translations to be collected. Now we are able to accommodate the thousands of students who are interested in working with us. 

I first joined the Extinction Rebellion in November when I participated in their global hunger strike. Since then, I have officially become a member - working to improve their social media presence, increase outreach to young people, edit press releases, and plan acts of nonviolent civil disobedience. 

Because of my leadership, I was chosen as a media and messaging strategist for their DC branch as well as one of their international spokespeople. I was also chosen as a lead for their new US celebrity outreach team, recruiting people like Cody Simpson and Cameron Russell to join in climate actions to raise awareness. I have received all of these promotions as a result of my leadership over the short span of nine months.

As a result of all my environmental efforts, I was chosen to receive the prestigious Children’s Environmental Health Network Nsedu Obot Witherspoon Youth Leadership Award this year.

We are the first and only nonprofit working exclusively to translate climate change information.

Currently: 5,000 volunteers, 500 language leads, 14 directors, reached over 300,000 people - all accomplished with a $0 budget

One Year (at current growth) : 60,000 volunteers, 6,000 language leads, reach over 11 million people through partnership with Radio Ravan

Five years (at current growth): 720,000 volunteers, 72,000 language leads, hopefully reaching millions more people with similar partnerships

To further increase translation efficiency for long-term sustainability, Climate Cardinals plans to partner with schools to implement chapters in which language teachers distribute climate change assignments to students for translation, the student translations are graded for accuracy, and these documents are returned to Climate Cardinals for distribution. In this manner, Climate Cardinals would both increase the output of translations and incorporate climate change information into a fundamental part of the climate movement:  the education of rising generations.  

We want to distribute information directly to communities with limited environmental education. By partnering with international media outlets such as radio stations, newspapers, and TV channels, the initiative plans to facilitate mass distribution of resources. Furthermore, Climate Cardinals envisions collaboration with foreign embassies for direct contact with the Ministries of Education and Ministries of  Environment, incorporating the climate change translations into academic curricula and scientific publishings.

Through cooperation with a broad interconnected network of governments, schools, organizations, media, and volunteers, the initiative is substantially growing the magnitude of the climate movement on a global scale, calling on governments to take decisive legislative action and institute environmental change. Combatting the language barrier and inadequate information exposure, Climate Cardinals works tirelessly to fulfill the SDG goals and grant universal education accessibility by bringing climate change information to every doorstep across the globe.

Our fundraising deck: https://docs.google.com/presen...