In a Guardian interview, Isha Clarke says she’s been inspired by student climate strikes in the UK and is planning one in the US

Isha Clarke hasn’t been to school in five days – thanks to the Oakland teachers’ strike – but the 16-year-old is finding herself busier than ever.

Clarke was one of several young people seen in a viral standoff with the California senator Dianne Feinstein over climate action. Despite criticism of the senator’s seemingly dismissive reaction, Clarke tells the Guardian the moment was “instrumental in moving the Green New Deal forward”.

The video, which made the internet rounds over the weekend, was filmed on Friday during a meeting between Feinstein and children, teens and parents involved in various Bay Area activist groups, including Youth vs Apocalypse, 350.org, Bay Area Earth Guardians and the Sunrise Movement.

Play Video 3:18 Dianne Feinstein rebuffs young climate activists' calls for Green New Deal – video

The group was hoping to convince Feinstein to vote yes on the Green New Deal, a congressional resolution introduced by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Edward J Markey.

“I think that the meeting, though disappointing, was super important,” Clarke said. Feinstein resisted promising a yes vote on the Green New Deal in favor of her own resolution. But Clarke credits the meeting with fueling new activism. This week, Sunrise activists poured into Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell’s office.

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Clarke says Feinstein’s reaction in the video is beside the point.

“I want politicians to not only vote yes when it comes down to the vote, but to also be very clear to the larger public that they are in support of the Green New Deal,” she said. “There’s still this kind of fantastical connotation that comes with when you talk [with politicians] about climate change and the climate crisis. We need politicians to recognize and actually speak on the fact that climate change, and this climate crisis that we’re facing, is a real issue. And it’s something that we need to address right now.”

Although Clarke was offered an internship in Feinstein’s office at the conclusion of the Friday meeting, she says that the offer is a distraction from the real issue.

“A lot of people have used [the internship offer] to, like, change the whole encounter, you know?” Clarke said. “We had this whole super-heated, powerful exchange, and then people were saying, ‘but it ended like on a happy note, one of the kids even got an internship!’ That’s defeating the whole purpose of why we were there.”

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The Green New Deal “is really the only thing right now that accurately addresses the climate crisis, and that aligns with science”, Clarke said. “We have to be putting our energy in passing it.”

Clarke said she had been inspired by the student climate strikes in the UK and other parts of Europe – she’s a self-described “fangirl” of Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teen activist. Clarke said she was helping to organize a student climate strike in the US on 15 March, though logistics were still being worked out.

Since the meeting with Feinstein, who did not respond to a request for comment, Clarke’s schedule has been packed with interviews and political organizing.

“The truth is that young people are going to be at the forefront of the climate crisis if nothing is done. We are the people who are directly affected. And the people who are directly affected in any issue should be at the forefront of the movement to change it,” she said.

