More Questions!: Erik Thijs at TEDxYouth@Montreal

When he was 11, Erik Thijs (now 14) discovered over 100 golf balls in Hudson's Pine Lake, considerably downstream from the local golf courses, where they should not have been. This discovery and the simple question "why are these here?" soon turned into a more complex environmental question: "what else should not be here?"

Since then, Erik has pursued a course of eco-lobbying, education, and public speaking and sensitization to water pollution. While his discovery was site specific, the golf ball stands in as a metaphor for any pollutants (especially those generated by non-essential recreation) in all of our waterways.

Winner of the Jeunes Leaders Vaudreuil-Soulanges competition (12-14 year-old category), and member of COBAVER-VS, Erik looks forward to working with his mentors at Radio-Canada and partners in private industry to one day not only clean, but swim in Pine Lake.

Erik attends Lower Canada College in Montreal. Besides the environment, and great food, he is crazy about long distance running.