Advocate. author. Educator. explorer. lawyer. Scientist.
"My generation must decide whether we want our planet to sink or swim."
ABOUT Delaney
She's been called 'one of the leading voices for the environment for her generation' by Philippe Cousteau, an 'Eco Warrior' by David Smith, and an 'incredibly valuable force of nature' by Caroline Lewis of the CLEO Institute.
Delaney is a graduate student in Miami, Florida where she earned her law degree (J.D.) in May 2024 and is now completing her Ph.D. on climate resilience and policy through the University of Miami’s Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy. In May, 2020, she graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science while double majoring in Marine Science and Coastal Geology and minoring in Climate Policy. Growing up, she split her time between the cosmopolitan city of a few million people and a 1,000-acre island with 40 solar powered homes in the Florida Keys called No Name Key. Like the State of Florida, Delaney's life is surrounded by water and that's where her love for the environment comes from.
She is the Founder & CEO of an NGO, The Sink or Swim Project, and its popular website www.miamisearise.com, an educational and political advocacy organization focused on a variety of environmental topics including climate change and sea level rise.
She is also the author and illustrator of 3 children's books, as well as a comic book, on ecology topics and is completing a new book on the impact of climate change and sea level rise in South Florida.
Delaney has been honored with the inaugural National Geographic Teen Service Award, the Miami Herald's Silver Knight Award for Social Science, the University of Rochester George Eastman Young Leader's Award, the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes, the University of Miami's Singer Scholarship and Foote Fellowship, the Roberta “Bosey” Fulbright Foote Prize, amongst other honors.
She has served on the Youth Leadership Council of EarthEcho International, is an Ambassador for Dream In Green, and a member of the CLEO Institute's Leadership Circle, as well as the Miami-Dade County Rockefeller Foundation 100 Resilient Cities Steering Committee.
Delaney has given a popular TEDx Talk, has addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York City, appeared with actor/musician Jack Black on the National Geographic Channel's Years of Living Dangerously, with renowned world explorer Philippe Cousteau on Xploration Awesome Planet on FOX, and with Vice President Al Gore on MTV's 'An Inconvenient Special' Town Hall.
Political Advocacy & legislation
Delaney Reynolds v. Public Service Commission
On October 17, 2024, Delaney filed a civil lawsuit against the Florida Public Service Commission, Delaney Reynolds v. Florida Public Service Commission, in Miami-Dade County’s 11th Judicial Circuit Court. Following its creation in 1887 by the legislature, the Florida Public Service Commission began regulating investor-owned electrical utilities as a division of Florida’s legislative branch of government in 1951. Amongst other duties the Commission is responsible for determining whether the electrical utilities’ proposed future plans, as disclosed to the Commission every two years in something called 10-Year Site Plans, are “suitable” or “unsuitable.” Within the required 10-Year Site Plans each utility must estimate their future power generating needs (including the amount of power it anticipates selling, the energy sources it plans to use to generate the power consumers purchase from them, and so on) and the location of proposed power plants.
These 10-Year Site Plans are the only method by which any Florida governmental agency has to plan for, review, and determine the legal suitability for the long-term operation, structure, and trajectory of Florida’s electricity needs. Since 1999, the Commission has deemed every single utility’s 10-Year Plans as being “suitable,” despite the fact that according to the Florida Renewable Energy Policy (Fla. Stat. § 366.92) states that: “It is the intent of the Legislature to promote the development of renewable energy; protect the economic viability of Florida’s existing renewable energy facilities; diversify the types of fuel used to generate electricity in Florida; lessen Florida’s dependence on natural gas and fuel oil for the production of electricity; minimize the volatility of fuel costs; encourage investment within the state; improve environmental conditions; and, at the same time, minimize the costs of power supply to electric utilities and their customers.”
Furthermore, Florida’s electrical utilities account for a substantial portion of our state’s total statewide CO2 pollution: 47% from 1999 to 2021. And, despite massive advertising and marketing campaigns that suggest that renewable energy, especially solar, and protecting the environment are a core part of the utilities’ businesses, the fact of the matter is that renewable energy accounts for a fraction of the power Florida’s electric utilities source and sell to consumers. According to recent data (2022) from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) renewable energy accounts for just 5% of FPL’s source energy, 1.5% of Duke’s, and 7% for TECO.
As such, Delaney filed this lawsuit in hopes of having the judiciary help her get the Florida Public Service Commission to do its job and to ensure that our state’s laws are followed so that the transition to renewable energy can take place in a meaningful way before it’s too late. You can read a copy of the lawsuit here.
Florida Rule Sets Goal of 100% Renewable Energy by 2050
In 2021, Delaney conceived and co-authored a Petition for Rulemaking demanding that Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) create goals and compose rules to require that energy providers generate 100% of the electricity sold to our citizens from renewable sources by 2050. That work included obtaining hundreds of youth co-signors across the State of Florida and frequently traveling to Tallahassee to negotiate its implementation with the Commissioner of Agriculture and staff.
On Earth Day 2022, the Commissioner joined Delaney, and fellow co-petitioner Valholly Frank (left in photo above), at the Frost Museum to officially release the proposed rule. News of the rule was widely reported as the most significant step Florida has taken towards solving our climate crisis in two decades. The entire final rule can be read here: Florida rule Chapter 50-5: Renewable Energy.
The United Nations General Assembly, New york
On World Oceans Day 2017, Delaney was invited by UNESCO, the World Heritage Marine Programme and the Everglades National Park to speak on behalf of the world's oceans at the United Nations. Delaney and a group of 31 other children from Marine Heritage sites all over the world presented #MyOceanPledge to the General Assembly inspiring them to sign the pledge promising to protect oceans for future generations. You can read more about Delaney's experience on her blog by clicking here.
Climate change Solutions Summit
In October 2016, Delaney had the great honor of introducing Former Secretary of State and 2016 Presidential Candidate, Hillary Clinton, and Former Vice President and the founder of The Climate Reality Project, Al Gore, at their Climate Change Solutions Summit, held at Miami-Dade College, in her hometown of Miami, Florida.
Miami March For Science
Scientists, teachers, students, and parents all joining arms with activists to march through the streets of cities all over the world for a single cause – science. That’s precisely what happened on Earth Day 2017 in Downtown Miami as thousands gathered for the inaugural March For Science Miami to support scientific research and evidence-based facts at an event that Delaney co-conceived and acted as Executive Outreach Coordinator and host.
The chant that echoed down Biscayne Boulevard from a power-packed rally at Museum Park, “Science, not Silence… Science, not Silence,” was broken only by a cacophony of horns and hollers of supportive passersby. An endless mix of Thomas Dolby’s 1982 hit, “She Blinded me with Science,” blared from more than a few Bluetooth boom boxes on wheels. The well-mannered but determined crowd ultimately landed at the Miami-Dade County Government Center for a huge Science Expo that lasted all afternoon on this glorious and successful day for science enthusiasts and practitioners.
South Miami's & Florida's Historic Solar POwer Law
When Delaney learned that the City of San Francisco had enacted a law requiring that the maximum amount of solar power possible was required on all new homes and material renovations she instantly knew that Florida, a place nicknamed The Sunshine State, needed such a law. San Francisco’s law (click here for a copy of their Ordinance) intrigued her and led Delaney to write a letter to a dozen local Mayors requesting that they consider implementing a similar law in their municipality.
Visionary Mayor Phil Stoddard of the City of South Miami, a resident of a solar powered home himself, was quick to respond and offered his support under one condition: that Delaney help him author the law. Their first meeting lasted nearly six hours, but it also laid the foundation of the Ordinance the South Miami City Commission passed with a 5-0 vote upon its first reading in May 2017 (Click here for the draft of the ordinance) and with a 4-1 vote upon its final reading in July 2017. The Solar Mandate became law in the City of South Miami in September 2017.
The law mandates that any new construction of a house or material renovation of an existing home must install the maximum amount of solar panels on its roof.
This historic law makes the City of South Miami the first City in the State of Florida and Florida the second State in the United States to have such a law and holds the promise that South Miami will lead the State of Florida into our sustainable future by turning the Sunshine State into Delaney's dream that we one day become THE Solar State.
Florida'S Landmark Constitutional Climate Lawsuit
Reynolds V. State of Florida
On Monday April 16th 2018 Delaney became the lead Plaintiff in a lawsuit against Florida Governor Rick Scott and the State of Florida (click here to read the lawsuit) in a project she'd been working on for three years. Along with seven other brave children from all over Florida, the lawsuit seeks to have the promises made in the Florida Constitution and The Public Trust Doctrine kept and that our Public Trust Resources including our atmosphere and waters be protected from man-made carbon dioxide pollution caused by burning of fossil fuels. Delaney and her friends believe that the State of Florida and its current Governor and his Cabinet, the Legislative and Executive branches of the government, have failed to uphold their duties outlined in the Florida Constitution and Public Trust Doctrine that obligate them to protect our natural environment and thus they have turned to the Judicial branch to bring climate justice to the State.
Delaney is joined by seven amazing co-Plaintiffs, the Floridians standing with her to fight for climate justice including Levi, Isaac, Luxha, Andres, Oscar, Oliver and Valholly. She's also joined by an amazing legal team of lawyers from all over Florida including Guy Burns, Andrea Rodgers, Meg Ward, Caitlin Howard, Dick Jacobs, Mitchell Chester, Sandy D’Alemberte, Wally Pope, Jane West, Erin Deady, Deb Swim, and Matthew Schultz.
To learn more about the historic Florida lawsuit and the organization helping Florida’s children seek justice, please visit Our Children’s Trust by clicking here or here.
Florida youth climate petition for rulemaking
In 2006 the Florida State Legislature enacted two visionary statutes (§366.92 Florida Renewable Energy Policy, §377.703 Additional Functions of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services) that mandate a shift in Florida’s electrical production to becoming 100% based on sustainable solutions by 2050, while also reducing our state’s reliance on fossil fuels. The laws’ goals are important for many reasons including the fact that Florida is now the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, the core source of our climate change crisis, in the United States. Unfortunately, nearly two decades later the state and its various agencies have not taken any meaningful steps towards complying with the laws.
In an effort to compel the State of Florida to begin following the 2006 statutes, Delaney worked with three young Floridians and her team at Our Children’s Trust to file a Petition for Rulemaking in January 2022. The Petition asked the State of Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner to commence the formal process of creating rules, processes, and procedures to meet its stated goals in hopes of moving “The Sunshine State” and its electrical generation away from fossil fuels and to sustainable solutions before it’s too late.
Social entrepreneurship & Community Service
The Sink or Swim Project
Founder & CEO
Delaney believes that our planet’s warming climate is the most important challenge that her generation will face in their lifetimes and unless they solve the crisis, the impact to every aspect of society and environment could be catastrophic. That is especially true in South Florida, a community that has been labeled America’s ‘ground zero’ in the global warming war given the risks we face from sea level rise. Trillions of dollars in real estate, the entire region’s tax base, the health and welfare of millions of our residents, and the potential extinction of our environment are at risk during her lifetime if we do not solve this dire problem. We simply do not have a day to waste in educating our community about the problem and solutions.
Given the magnitude of these problems and her concern for our future, Delaney founded an NGO, The Sink or Swim Project, as a device to educate people about the risks our community and the world faces, as well as the solutions that we must embrace in the future if we are to solve this crisis. She gives presentations and lectures to groups ranging from elementary through high schools, colleges, and adult organizations. She is also deeply involved in political advocacy and lobbying on a wide range of climate and environmental issues at the heart of South Florida’s existence.
She has shared her message in live lectures to tens of thousands of people, distributed over 20,000 of her comic books, has had her written and video work viewed by nearly 200,000 people on social media, and has been seen by millions of people on television.
To learn more about The Sink or Swim Project and Delaney’s work with climate change, please visit www.miamisearise.com or her blog, www.miamisearise.com/delaneys-blog.
The CLEO Institute
Board of Directors member & Leadership Circle Award Winner
The CLEO Institute’s mission is to promote an informed and engaged public, better poised to become involved and make changes to support climate resilience locally, regionally, nationally, and globally. The CLEO Institute does this by bringing stakeholders from the community, business, scientists and students together in formal and informal trainings, events and forums to educate everyone on global warming and sea level rise. This work includes Introductory Trainings, Essential Trainings and Advance Trainings on climate change as well as our Answer the Question campaign and much more.
EarthEcho International
Youth Council Member
EarthEcho International is a nonprofit organization founded on the belief that youth have the power to change our planet. Established by siblings Philippe and Alexandra Cousteau in honor of their father Philippe Cousteau Sr., and grandfather legendary explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, its mission is to inspire young people worldwide to act now for a sustainable future.
miami-dade county rockefeller foundation
100 resilient cities steering committee member
Miami-Dade County has recently been named one of the Rockefeller Foundation's 100 resilient cities. As a member of the 100RC Network, Greater Miami and the Beaches will also receive funding and support for Chief Resilience Officers. Miami-Dade County’s CRO, James Murley, and Miami Beach CRO, Susanne Torriente, and the City of Miami CRO, Jane Gilbert, will work directly with County and city leaders to develop a joint resilience strategy. This strategy will reflect the region’s collective needs and its capacity to address them, and will identify the support and services needed to implement that vision. It also involves coordination with the other 32 municipalities in the region.
Delaney, at the request of Chief Murley, proudly sits on the Miami-Dade 100RC Steering Committee as the only child providing Miami-Dade County the outlook on climate change and sea level rise mitigation from the perspective of the youth generation.
Shark Research and Conservation Intern
Delaney is a research intern and Ph.D. Student in Dr. Catherine Macdonald’s world-renowned Shark Research & Conservation (SRC) Lab at the at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, & Earth Science.
SRC science is centered broadly on the behavioral ecology, conservation biology and movement ecology of sharks. Since 2009 SRC has taken nearly 10,000 citizen scientists, mostly school children, into the field to participate in cutting edge shark research. The SRC Lab’s team educates and inspires youth on a range scientific and environmental topics during one of the most unique, hands-on (and fun) experiences imaginable.
To learn more about Dr. Macdonald’s work, please visit https://sharkresearch.earth.miami.edu/about/our-director/ and to learn more about the Shark Research & Conservation Lab or to book a shark tagging trip please visit https://sharkresearch.earth.miami.edu/.
Climate Advocates Voices Unidas (CAVU)
Board of Directors Member
Delaney is deeply proud to assist David and Jordan Smith, the visionary environmental advocates that founded CAVU, and their entire team and Board as a member of its Board of Directors.
As a nonprofit, CAVU uniquely blends science and personal stories to reconnect people with each other and the planet we live on. CAVU believes elevating diverse voices is an antidote to prejudice, partisanship, and cynicism when working on environmental and social justice issues. Our mission is to engage individuals, communities, and leaders to take ownership of and action on climate-related issues in their communities through a multifaceted process using education initiatives, media, scientific research, and advocacy tools.
CAVU’s current programs and projects include its award-winning Climate Innovation Challenge, a STEAM-focused program for students; a multi-media series The Polluted Future that exposes how a new federal rule threatens New Mexico’s aquatic environment; and Methane Matters as part of their Unearthed Series that explores the impact, benefits, and costs of gas and oil while advocating to have greenhouse gas emissions materially reduced. In 2022 CAVU is planning to launch a new video series and website that aims to bring social justice and environmental organizations together to ensure that equity and justice are prioritized as society transitions to a clean energy economy.
To learn more about CAVU, please enjoy the following video or click the link below.
Online
Ahead of the Tide - CAVU.org
Ahead of the Tide is an independent movement including a 10 part video series that highlights the effects of sea level rise and climate change through the stories and voices of local Floridians. Each short video (5 to 7 minutes) showcases various aspects concerning sea level rise and includes interviews with prominent scientists, engineers, politicians, conservation directors, educators, authors, and activists, including Florida Native and acclaimed writer Carl Hiaasen and award-winning environmental activist Delaney Reynolds.
TEDxYouth@Miami Lecture
Delaney’s popular TEDx Talk took place at the Adrienne Arsht Center’s Knight Concert Hall in downtown Miami and provides examples for how sea level rise has already begun to impact South Florida’s fragile environment and how this growing problem will soon be catastrophic if our community and country don’t urgently begin addressing it. She also discusses the work of The Sink or Swim Project and the fact that today’s children “Get It”; They understand that their generation must solve the problem, as well as some of the political challenges that our society faces as we work to change historic behaviors and seek new solutions to our world’s climate crisis.
TELEVISION
An Inconvenient Special: An MTV Town Hall on Climate Change
On August 2, 2017, MTV aired An Inconvenient Special with former Vice President Al Gore, just released his newest book and movie An Inconvenient Sequel:Truth To Power. The special brought together rapper Fat Joe, DJ Steve Aoki, activist Delaney Reynolds, and an audience of young people with insightful questions who are fighting for the protection of their planet.
Years of Living Dangerously - National Geographic Channel
Season 2, Episode 2: Gathering Storm
“A message of hope. A message of solutions. And the surprising thing was that it came from a kid. 16 years old and so filled with promise and potential and hope. Finally, I found some HOPE!”
- Actor/Musician Jack Black about Delaney Reynolds
Delaney’s work with The Sink or Swim Project was featured in the November 2, 2016 Episode ‘The Rising’ of the Emmy Award Winning Years of Living Dangerously series on the National Geographic Channel that starred Jack Black and Ian Somerhalder as correspondents. The piece focused on her work as an activist and educator fighting for social climate justice, her classroom lectures, her participation in community events such as the People’s Climate March and one of her core messages: “Kids Get It”.
Jack Black meets Delaney Reynolds, a 16-year-old climate activist from Florida. Some of the state's government officials don't think we should do anything about climate change, but young activists like Delaney are fighting to change that.
xPloration Awesome Planet, Fox/Hulu
Season 2, Episode 2: Shark Tagging
Xploration Awesome Planet is a riveting earth science weekly documentary series that explores the most spectacular places – on the earth, inside the earth, and above the earth. Philippe Cousteau Jr. is no stranger to exploration. The grandson of legendary underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau, Philippe hosts and serves as executive producer of the series.
In this episode, Predatory Myths, join Philippe and Delaney with the University of Miami’s Shark Research and Conservation Program on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico tagging sharks.
BOOKS
My Animal Friends of No Name Key (2009)
Visit the majestic and magical wildlife of No Name Key through the eyes of a fourth grader and meet the key deer, a manatee, a marsh rabbit, and much more.
My Fish Friends Near No Name Key (2011)
Dive into the waters surrounding No Name Key through the eyes of a sixth grader and meet an eel, a hammerhead shark, the Florida lobster, and much more.
My Flying Friends of No Name Key (2013)
Soar above the tree canopies of No Name Key through the eyes of an eighth grader and meet a bald eagle, a woodpecker, a great heron, and much more.
Where Did All The Polar Bears Go? (2015)
Step into a time machine with Delaney and Dr. H. Two Oh to travel into the future to see what South Florida will look like if the global climate crisis is not addressed in time.
Select media examples
Greta Wasn’t the First to Demand Climate Action. Meet More Young Activists.
By: Laura Parker, National Geographic Magazine
Delaney Reynolds, 20, who lives in Florida, one of the places most vulnerable to climate change, is increasingly frustrated with the lack of action. “A lot of adults in power today are way too focused on money and profits,” she says. “As soon as we can replace them, we will replace them.”
Now a student at the University of Miami, Reynolds grew up when Florida’s leadership hadn’t faced up to the flooding that will inevitably remake the coastline of their sandspit of a state; then Governor Rick Scott promoted an unofficial policy to avoid even mentioning the words “climate change.” Reynolds founded the Sink or Swim Project and began educating Floridians about the risks of sea-level rise, giving hundreds of talks to everyone who would listen. “It is incredible that kindergartners can grasp this as a problem and politicians can’t,” she says.
Meet The Teen Trying To Keep Miami From Going Underwater
By: Julie Zeilinger, MTV News
By age 13, Miami Native Delaney Reynolds had published her third in a series of children’s book about Floridian ecology. But what started as a project to enlighten young people about the beauty of Miami's coastal environment turned into a somber realization about that environment's expiration date. Reynolds’ research led her to learn about “sea level rise,” the harrowing reality that while the levels of our seas have been stable for thousands of years, they've risen about 10 inches in the past century alone.
That may not seem like much, but this is already causing increased flooding and altered shorelines along coastal cities like Miami, Boston, and New York. And if things continue at this rate, sea levels could rise as much as 10 feet by the end of the century. The city of Miami could be underwater by 2100, and up to 2.5 million Miami residents could become climate refugees.
An Inspiring Environmental Education
By: Delaney Reynolds, Community News Coral Gables
With high school graduation a few weeks away I’ve been thinking a lot about my experiences in the classroom as well as what I’ve learned while exploring our magnificent environment and the challenges that our ecology and society will face in my generation’s future. I’ve been fortunate to have hiked to the top of a volcano in the Andes Mountains, swam with Giant Manta Rays at night in Hawaii, chased White Tip Sharks over a coral reef in the Galapagos, slept under a sky illuminated by millions of stars in the Everglades and on an Indian Reservation in South Dakota, and watched lions, elephants, and giraffes roam in the wild while on safari in Africa.
And along the way I’ve been inspired by my teachers, the people I’ve met around the world, my family and friends here at home and most certainly the things I’ve seen in our beautiful, natural world, especially those related to the water. Whether the marshes of the Everglades and our colorful coral reefs, or our sandy shores and whimsical mangrove habitats, it is the water that always touches my soul.
8 Young Environmentalists Working to Save Earth
By: Helaina Hovitz, Teen Vogue
Delaney grew up surrounded by water, splitting her time between her modern city and a remote, 1,000-acre island that housed just 43 solar-powered homes. In third grade, her class collectively wrote a book, Laws of the Universe, that inspired her to learn more about the environment she came to love so much.
She continued to research issues like rising sea levels and gradually learned about climate change and the significant threat that rising oceans pose to South Florida, and began to interview local political leaders, climate scientists, business owners, and others being impacted by sea rise or working on solutions to help them. Our planet's warming climate, she says, is the most important challenge that our generation will ever face.
"This Is Not A Partisan Issue": Here's What Participants In "March For Science" Had To Say
By: Amanda Rabines, WLRN Miami
Thousands participated in Miami’s “March for Science” on Earth Day and walked down Biscayne Boulevard wearing lab coats and holding up signs with rising seas, periodic table elements and vaccine shots.
They rallied in unison with the marches around the nation - fueled by threats coming from the White House to cut federal funding from agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Select Awards/Honors
Delaney has been honored by a number of prestigious institutions including: the University of Miami Roberta "Bosey" Fulbright Foote Prize, the National Geographic Society Global Teen Service Award, the George Eastman Young Leader’s Scholarship from the University of Rochester, the Gloria Barron Scholarship Prize for Young Heroes, and the Broward County Green Leader Award, as well as being a Miami Herald Silver Knight award winner in Social Science and being inducted into the CLEO Institute’s Leadership Council.
contact Delaney
email: delaney@miamisearise.com
telephone: 786.671.2061