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Manuella de Palma, Sao Paulo, Brazil: Youth Climate Justice Advocate
Due to all the recognition, Greta Thunberg has been receiving during the last years, It is great to say that awareness around climate matters is being raised by young people around the world. Greta is an inspiration to a lot of teenagers, and the fact that she is being able to put her voice out there creates confidence for other citizens to speak their minds about climate change and join her in the cause. This is similar to what happened to Nayara Almeida, a 22-year-old girl from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Nayara has a major in Biology and tells that the lectures she had at university made her know more about the loss of biodiversity and endangered species due to climate change. This subject in specific made her worried about the future, and that was when she created “Engajamundo”, which is an organization that provides space for the youth to discuss environmental and social topics. During the development of her project, she met Greta and Fridays for Future and became interested in her protests. She decided to gather with a few friends and do the first protest about climate change and the repercussions were good. More and more Brazilians decided to join her in the protests, and that was when Fridays for Future Brasil was created. Get to know more about her in the following link:
Talking about climate change requires a lot of analysis. Locally speaking and thinking, we can do some things to help and I believe that some communities are doing a great job trying to recreate alternative and more eco-friendly ways of living. Taking it into a global spectrum, the debate becomes much denser, because It involves subjects that step away from only preserving Earth. There is a lot of money, politics, and ideology conflicts controlling this future, aspects that are far from what we can control as individuals.
After thinking about the questions presented, I conclude that the most benefited countries from the use of fossil fuels are the ones which export them, once they are constantly receiving money and creating commercial relationships with other nations, being Australia, Russia, and Saudi Arabia the leaders. On the other hand, underdeveloped countries such as Nigeria, Haiti, Yemen, Manila, and Kiribati are potentially the most affected by climate change. For instance, in Lagos, Nigeria, climate change can cause the sea level to rise, causing coastal erosion and contamination of the potable water. Also, local agriculture and the fishing industry would be harmed, which could lead the country to extreme poverty.
Considering countries that are “most responsible” for climate change, it is possible to put the USA as the leader of the rank, with a carbon footprint of 29 tons of CO2 per person. Right behind there are China and India. Historically speaking, the global north of industrialized nations (Europe and the United States) are considered to be the contributing places for climate change, and that is why a huge debate was created whether they should or should not take responsibility for the Ambiental problems.
China, that has its emission coming mainly from exportation and transportation, defends in ONU climate discussions that rich countries should have an obligation to reduce emissions, once it is known that the richer the country gets, the more carbon is emitted.
I believe that blaming countries for climate change is the right thing to do when talking about climate change. In different proportions, all countries have an impact on this topic, and gathering good actions already taken in places that emit less carbon dioxide and trying to substitute and guide those who still have a major emission is fundamental. Of course, countries that have a higher carbon footprint should put more effort and focus intensively on this resolution, but it doesn't annulate the part that others could take.
In Brazil, I believe that the main resolution is fighting against deforestation, once we carry the world’s largest rainforest in our territory. Other actions should be the extension of agrofuels, such as ethanol made of Cana de açúcar, considering that it does not emit as much greenhouse gases as diesel or gas.
At my school, lots of interesting projects are being developed in that aspect, one of them is the use of solar panels, which currently provides 35% of the whole school’s electric energy. Another action to move towards climate justice is the reforestation of native Atlantic forest trees, trying to restore the ones that have been deforested.
