The food court at Park Royal Mall isn't normally where you'd expect to meet a person who can change the world, but it's been a long time since Simon Jackson has enjoyed an A&W burger on his home turf and the "great root bear" spirit is upon him.

Even busy boy wonders have to eat lunch, and saving the world can often be a tiring experience requiring the occasional tasty treat. Given that he's in the midst of producing a multi-million dollar movie about the "spirit bear" and making non-stop speeches while motivating millions of kids to save the last temperate rainforest in the world, Jackson can be forgiven the occasional root beer indulgence.

"I describe The Spirit Bear movie as The Lion King meets Finding Nemo," says Jackson, reaching for his fries.

Well-dressed in a sport coat, wearing fashionable rimless glasses, sporting a trim haircut and carrying a trench coat over one arm, he looks more like a junior executive than an environmental activist.

"The movie will be entertainment. We're not going to preach to people about saving the world. The movie is about a real bear and it's set in a real part of the world. We want kids ages five to 12 to come and have fun, but it's got a double storyline so it will be fun for older folks, too. We hope to make millions of dollars from the movie and donate it all towards saving the spirit bear."

Jackson has come a long way from his humble roots as an idealistic West Vancouver high school kid who fell in love with bears and started a letter-writing campaign to help endangered animals. Today, at age 23, Jackson is executive producer of The Spirit Bear, a computer-generated animation film currently in production in a studio somewhere in the U.S. It's set for global release in early 2010 to coincide with the Winter Games that, coincidently, will also use the image of the spirit bear to promote B.C. to the world. It will be interesting to see which production garners the best reviews.

"The greatest gift my parents ever gave me was the gift of travel," says Jackson, sipping on his root beer. "We didn't visit the sunny beaches of Mexico or Hawaii, but every summer we would pack up our car and drive somewhere. One trip was to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, which is where I saw my first wild bear, a mother grizzly with her cubs in a meadow, and that's where my passion was born."

Jackson's father works in the media (at Global TV) so watching the TV news every evening was a family ritual. One day, Simon saw a story on endangered Kodiak bears in Alaska and was determined to help. His parents suggested writing letters or raising money; the latter inspired him to open a lemonade stand. He made $60 and sent it to the World Wildlife Fund. He also wrote letters to then-prime minister Brain Mulroney and then-U.S. president George Bush. Two months later, he received a form letter from the WWF saying the bears were saved. It was simply a coincidence, but the young boy didn't know that.

"That was the most important lesson I ever learned, that one person--no matter their age, no matter where they live--can make a difference for all life," says Jackson. "When I subsequently started the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition in 1995, I began by looking through a phone book and contacting everyone I knew. I stuttered my way through speeches to every English class in my school and collected 700 letters to mail to then-B.C. premier Glen Clark. I thought that with a loud enough voice, anything was possible."

Then Jackson discovered a better way to communicate and launched the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition online. Today, his group boasts more than six million members worldwide. In April 2000, Time magazine honoured Jackson, then 15, as one of 60 "Heroes for the Planet" for his efforts to save the endangered spirit bear, one of only six young people selected from around the world. It was a huge honour, but Jackson was just getting started.

What, exactly, is a spirit bear and what has it got to do with saving the world? A subspecies of the black bear, the spirit bear is an all-white genetic oddity found only in a certain section of northern B.C. It's also known as the Kermode bear, named after naturalist Frances Kermode of the B.C. Provincial Museum--now known as the Royal B.C. Museum--who "discovered the bear" a few decades ago. Only a few hundred spirit bears are thought to exist.

First Nations tradition holds that the white bears are to be revered and protected. Today, the Tsimshian people call it "moskgm'ol," which simply means "white bear." According to the Valhalla Wilderness Society, spirit bears may have evolved on the coast in the last 10,000 years from black bear stock that became isolated from interior black bears 300,000 years ago. The white colour is due to inheritance of a double recessive gene.

No matter its genetic history, the spirit bear is a unique creature, what scientists call an "umbrella species." If a large enough suitable habitat can be protected for the spirit bear, many other species sharing the same ecosystem will also be protected under this umbrella, like salmon, birds, wolves, deer, grizzly bears, insects and many others. Logging, however, has diminished much of the spirit bear's historic territory. The bears can thrive only in a lush rainforest diet of green plants, berries and salmon.

Jackson's plan is to save the entire Great Bear Rainforest, all 21 million acres of it, some of which was given partial protection by the B.C. government in 2006 at cost of $120 million. The agreement ended a bitter decade-long dispute over the lush coastland and islands that stretch across more than 250 miles and include most of British Columbia's central and north coast, from the northern coast of Vancouver Island to the Alaskan border.

The park itself covers only 4.4 million acres, and strict controls protect against exploitation on an additional 10 million acres. Saving the territory is the result of an unusual alliance of loggers, environmentalists, native groups and the provincial government. Outside the park, 10 million acres will be managed by committees that will set limits on logging, mining and the commercial efforts of native groups that still have claims to land. Negotiators expect additional agreements will bring the total protected area to 21 million acres.

Jackson wants the movie to raise millions--he won't say exactly how much--to save the rest of the spirit bear's habitat.

Not bad for a kid who doesn't even know how to drive a car.

"I've been kind of busy the last few years," says Jackson, getting a lift over the Lions Gate Bridge on his way to meet animal rights champion Jane Goodall, in Vancouver to speak about her own goal of saving African chimpanzees.

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"I've never had time to learn how to drive and I still don't own a car. I am public transit kind of guy," adds Jackson.

Too often decisions are made that directly affect the future of today's youth--the future stewards of our land--without any input from young people, says Jackson. It's important to have meaningful representation from young people at the decision-making table, to give youth hope, to capture their imagination, and to provide new insight on long stalled issues. He says the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition continues to prove that when young people, from any walk of life, stand up and are counted on the issues they care about, they can make a real difference.

Saving the spirit bear really means saving its ecosystem. The Great Bear is the last intact rainforest left on the planet. Saving the rainforest sends out great signals of hope to young people that the entire planet can be saved.

The spirit bear, then, is far more than a cuddly mascot trademarked by the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) to make a few extra bucks during two weeks of a sporting event. Its purity and rarity is symbolic of something much greater.

The spirit bear, in its First Nations legend form, was chosen as one of the mascots for the 2010 Games. Miga, as the mascot has been named, is an adaptation of the spirit bear and will "help the world learn about British Columbia's rare white bear, and their plight," according to the mascot designer's website. (The mascot, oddly enough, is mostly black with a white front.)

Mascots are big money makers, netting as much as $100 million at previous Olympics, whether used as stuffed toys or put on key rings, pins, clothing and other souvenirs. Kevin Wamsley of the University of Western Ontario's International Centre for Olympic Studies claims that any mascot will likely sell well because Olympic memorabilia is so collectible, but good PR is really the main benefit to the host nation. Good PR, therefore, may be VANOC's main motivation; for others, there's a much bigger picture.

In the basement of a nondescript building at UBC, phones are ringing and the energy is high. It's deadline day at the Ubyssey, the university's campus newspaper, and news editor Justin McElroy is busy filing copy. A third-year political science student, he takes time out to reflect on the spirit bear campaign on which he is a dedicated volunteer.

"I met Simon at a conference on child rights in Victoria when I was 15 and Simon was 17, and I had no experience in activism," says McElroy. "I just liked politics, and I was very impressed with what he was doing with the spirit bear campaign, and he asked me to join, so I did. The spirit bear is an amazing creature, very beautiful, and it exists only in B.C., and I think we have a moral responsibility to save it. It is directly connected to the rainforest, to the wilderness, and it is symbolic of B.C. and much more."

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As a volunteer, McElroy speaks to kids at local schools about the spirit bear and its wilderness environment, and gets them to write letters to government. The key to the success of the whole SBYC campaign, he says, is to convince school age children that their efforts are valuable and that everything they do will make a difference to save the planet and combat global warming.

"Global warming is so huge and so vague and it needs to be reduced to something manageable so that kids feel they make an impact," says McElroy. "Reducing the entire argument down to the spirit bear gives the argument clear focus. We are talking about saving a few hundred thousand hectares, [which] allows the kids to connect the dots and grasp the complexity of the argument. Kids have been deluged with information about global warming the last few years, but doing anything to combat it on a personal basis is hard to explain. Do you change your light bulbs, or take the bus to school instead of a car? No, you can save the world by saving the spirit bear. And the plan is working."

At General Wolfe elementary school at 27th and Ontario, principal Diane Johnson is far too busy for media interviews, but she pauses and takes a moment to comment when the subject is Simon Jackson and his amazing effect on school age children in Vancouver.

"I was principal at Simon Fraser elementary when some parents came to me and told me about this brilliant speaker and his passion for saving the planet," says Johnson, in between bells and phones ringing. "I hadn't heard him speak myself, and he was only 15 at the time, but we invited him to speak to the whole school assembly and he did a great job."

Every year, Vancouver school administrators and management have a convention and book a keynote guest speaker. Last year it was Stephen Lewis, former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, who spoke about global citizenship. This year, in Whistler, the idea was to move forward from discussion of global issues to ways of taking action. Who better to lead a discussion about ways of taking action than Jackson, now, at 23, no longer a student but a role model for children.

"He turned out to be an excellent speaker, very engaging and knowledgeable and very honest," says Johnson. "It's his honesty that is inspiring. Lots of kids have great ideas. What separates Simon from the rest is that he takes action. His dedication towards his goal is pretty exceptional, and he truly walks the walk."

While Jackson's main focus is on the spirit bear and the necessity of taking urgent action to save its rainforest environment in northern B.C., the big picture is really global warming and climate change. A decade ago, when a wide-eyed young Jackson started his movement to save the cuddly bear, climate change wasn't even on the horizon. Now, in late 2008, the subject is on the minds of every student, and ways of taking action to save the planet are becoming vital.

"The whole subject of sustainability is very big these days in school," says Johnson. "It's a topic very near and dear to the kids. Global warming is discussed, especially as it pertains to natural disasters like tsunamis and hurricanes when they hit. The awareness is there, the kids are very concerned, and there is much more of a focus on doing something than there was 10 years ago. These are young adults and they know they will be inheriting a planet. They are also well aware the Olympics are coming soon, and that the eyes of the world will be on Vancouver, and that the spirit bear is a symbol of B.C."

"I wish I could share more details about the movie's production, but our production team wants to release the information in a certain way to create momentum for its release. Most of the information remains a deep dark secret for now. But we have a great team that will make a fun, entertaining movie with big-name Hollywood voices and a unique soundtrack that will provide the opportunity to save the real spirit bear through its worldwide release. As for the storyline and the juicy details, you'll have to wait to see."

In a followup email from London, Ont., where he's staying with his girlfriend while travelling to speak at events around the world, Jackson makes a final point:

"It must be our challenge to empower and inspire youth to get involved. We need to show them they have a voice and that they can create change. It is our most important endeavour and our greatest tool for a better tomorrow. We must take every action to engage young people in issues that affect our future and encourage them to follow their passion and to chase their dreams. Youth can be the voices for the sick, the poor, the children and the dreamers. Oh yes, and the spirit bear, of course."

Timing the release of The Spirit Bear movie to the start of the Olympic Games is pre-planned strategy on the part of Jackson and his movie team, but he refuses to divulge any more information about the film than its timing. Getting out of the car at Burrard and Georgia, Jackson will only hint at more action to come in his campaign to save the spirit bear.