Aidan Gallagher is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme and an actor best known for his role in TV series The Umbrella Academy. He uses social media to get followers engaged with environmental issues and to try to help people overcome eco-anxiety. “A lot of times when you look at an issue as big as these global crises, there’s a choice,” he says. “You can either go down the feeling of, ‘I’m only me, what can I do?’ or you can go, ‘I’m only me, I’m going to do what I can’.”
Gallagher asks followers to promise to make small lifestyle changes, from flying less to reducing waste, eating less meat or buying locally. For each pledge, a tree is planted as part of Gallagher’s Trees With Aidan initiative, a partnership with Envision Racing, the Formula E electric motorsport team. “If you’re making one step forward every day in whatever small way that makes sense for your lifestyle, that matters so much,” he says.