Blogs
After doing some research, I decided to talk about the youth climate justice advocate Nayara Almeida, 22, in my blog. Nayara is the Brazilian representative of the Fridays for the Future movement, which gained popularity in the past years because of the significant actions of the young activist Gretha Thunberg in them.
Before the pandemic, Nayara, in collaboration with the Engajamundo organization, participated in lots of movements all around Brazil, but, regards the health conditions in Brazil due to covid-19, Nayara has been doing lots of online effort. For example, she’s been involved with the creation of the Brota no Clima program, which offers an entirely online platform made especially for young people from the poor areas of the city of Rio de Janeiro, where they can learn about climate change, nature, and communication. More information about this project can be found at this link https://www.engajamundo.org/campanhas/brota-no-clima/
The countries that benefit the most from the use of fossil fuels are the richer ones, which have ways of reducing the impacts of climate change in the lives of their own population as they have the money to do it. The opposite also happens, as the poorer countries can’t alleviate the effects of climate change in their territories as they don’t have that many resources and end being the most affected by the heavy use of fossil fuels by the wealthy countries.
Haiti, for example, can illustrate the previously explained situation on the poor countries. It’s located in an area called “Atlantic Hurricane Basin”, which means that it is very vulnerable to hurricanes. Since climate change can eventually intensify hurricanes, if the burning of fossil fuels continues, Haiti will have bigger risks of being affected by natural disasters and, as it is a very poor country, recovering from such disasters can be extremely challenging. Also, the rising of water can cause many problems for the country, since it means that saltwater can permeate farmland and freshwater supplies; this not only can affect Haiti’s social sphere but also its economic one, as agriculture is its main source of money.
The countries located in the northern hemisphere are, in general, the world’s richer ones, and consequently the ones which burn the biggest quantities of fossil fuels. Resultantly, these same countries are the ones who should reduce their bad gases emissions. They should do it as they are the ones who emit the most, and so their help on the cited cause would be immensely influential. Also, morally speaking, their help would also the right thing to do, as they are the ones who affect the rest of the world the most.
Brazil actually makes lots of its energy from its hydroelectric. The levels of fossil fuels’ use aren’t that big, but it would be good if our country officially ended the use of them, since we have the potential to do it. Below is a graphic showing Brazil’s energy generation:
This won’t be an enormous move in changing the world’s indexes regarding climate change, but it is something which is really easy to be done since we already produce lots of energy from hydroelectrics. We could also raise the biomass and the eolian production of energy here.
To do this, mainly big organizations and organs would have to work. But, at community levels, small actions like teaching other about the cause could raise awareness. With more awareness, the more power people have to manifest their opinions to those big organs or even the country’s government.
Sources: https://time.com/5687470/cities-countries-most-affected-by-climate-change/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Brazil, and https://claudia.abril.com.br/sua-vida/as-esperancas-e-os-desafios-de-ser-um-jovem-ativista-pelo-clima-no-brasil/
