A Bangladeshi-American teenager is leading the protests against inaction on climate change in Philadelphia, joining more than 100,000 children across the United States under the banner of Youth Climate Strike this Friday.
At the rally, Sabirah Mahmud, a 16-year-old student at Academy at Palumbo in Philadelphia, will share her experiences during a recent trip to Bangladesh, where she saw for herself how rising sea levels could have a devastating impact on her country of origin.
Referring to the recent alarming UN report on climate change, she says: “We do not want to see a catastrophe in the next 12 years. We want a future for ourselves.”
Youth Climate Strike began as one student’s protest vigil calling for action on climate change in Sweden and now has gone global, with more than 100 countries expected to participate on Friday.
Mahmud had exchanged emails with the Swedish teenager, Greta Thunberg, who launched the movement and got inspired to organise the movement in Philadelphia.
“If not us, who will stand for our future,” she told a local radio station.
A recent UN report has warned that without aggressive action, the world will face worsening storms and wildfires, food shortages and other catastrophic effects as early as 2040. On Wednesday, it was followed by another UN report warning premature death for millions without “unprecedented” action to clean air and water.
While the Trump administration seems to have chosen to ignore these warnings, withdrawn from the Paris Climate accord and done away with many environment related regulations, there are others, particularly the youth, who seem to have been galvanised by this inaction.
Recently, a video of a group of youth climate activists targeting Senator Dianne Feinstein to move fast on climate change went viral and many of them continue to put pressure on their elected representatives to act before it’s too late.
Sabirah, too, wrote to her Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey, a Republican, about the urgency of action and support for the Green New Deal, a proposal put forward by a group of progressive Democrat Congress members to cut down on fossil fuels and promote other climate friendly measures. The response was not what she had hoped for.
“This radical proposal would be catastrophic for Pennsylvania and the nation. As the country’s second-largest producer of natural gas and third-largest producer of coal, Pennsylvania’s economy would be crippled by the goals outlined in the Green New Deal,” The senator wrote.
Sabirah promptly shared it on Social media with her own response: “This is the PA Senator everyone. He cares more for an economy that we WON’T have unless we take action against Climate Change. Is this what you really want? @PatToomey You need to rethink your policies. This is #whyistrike “.
And now, the PA Youth Climate Strike has displayed a picture of hers on their website with a quote saying: “The fact they’re not giving us a choice in our future is ridiculous. We need to stand up and make our voices heard.”