Inspiration is a rare and precious commodity these days especially when we’re talking about climate change. Climate denial is on the rise despite abundant evidence to the contrary, and numerous deniers are joining Congress in January making climate legislation far less likely. On the global stage, world governments meeting in Cancun stand virtually no chance of reaching a binding international agreement.

But in the face of what seems to be unrelenting peril and neglect, many young people are confronting climate change with a seriousness of purpose, creativity and passion that can help restore faith in the ability of humans to think beyond our own, short-term, self-interest.

In this case, inspiration resides in the person of Alec Loorz, the fifteen year old founder of Kids vs. Global Warming, a non-profit organization committed to creating opportunities for young people to learn about the science and solutions to global warming and then take action to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and "influence the ruling generation to make good decisions now that will impact our future."

And here’s Loorz talking to the New York Times‘ Andy Revkin, author of the invaluable Dot Earth blog.

Kids vs. Global Warming offers a good primer of simple things anyone can do to tread more lightly on the earth. You can also find a raft of educational, informational and organizing resources, most of them pitched to young people, including the nifty iMatter app featuring mapping and geo-tagging that helps connect individual and group actions combating climate change.

Support the kids as you can and watch this space for much more on the rapidly growing grassroots surge on behalf of immediate action to remediate and redress the increasingly lethal consequences of climate change.