Age: 16
Hometown: Kailua, O‘ahu
Growing up in Hawai‘i, Mesina is most at home on the beach that her mother grew up on. Among Mesina’s earliest childhood memories is the same beach her mother remembered as a child. Sadly, Mesina has witnessed with her own eyes the sea level rise that has eroded that beach to a mere fraction of its former glory. The shoreline of gentle waves of Mesina’s childhood are being replaced with seawalls, as sea level rise and erosion eat away at O‘ahu’s coastlines.
The once vibrant coral reef habitat near Mesina’s childhood home has died off. Extreme rain events have triggered significant flooding and landslides near her home, and high heat forces her to stay indoors. These current realities contribute to Mesina’s concern for the dangers of a future under climate change. Mesina is not willing to give up, that is why she joined this lawsuit. Stick up for the future people like her.