“If you want to save the world, save it because you love it.” – Gary Schnieder.
Over the last few months, my eco-anxiety has been at full whack. From the 40°C heatwaves in the UK to the record number of wildfires in Europe and the highest recorded rainfall in Australia. The impacts of climate change at 1.2°C are scary and I’ve been dreading the idea of life at 2°C or 3°C in the next 50 years if we don’t take rapid global action.
In light of this, I decided to use Humanitarian Day as an opportunity to reflect on the millions of brilliant people who are dedicated to driving positive change for the planet. So many people and organisations are doing brilliant work for the environmental movement, and I think anyone worried about climate change and environmental issues can reflect on this to stay hopeful and motivated.
Last week I spoke with Yamin Akter, a 19-year-old Environmental Activist from the Gaibandha District in Northern Bangladesh. Yamin became an environmental activist at 13 after reading about Climate Change in a school textbook. His life is extremely busy because when he isn’t at school he spends his free time working for organisations such as Climate Offline in the British Council and Friday For Future.
In the last 6 years, Yamin has witnessed unimaginable flooding as a result of intense cyclones and sea level rise driven by climate change. Despite a tiny carbon footprint Bangladesh is already experiencing severe impacts of climate change. As over 10 million Bangladeshis have forcibly become climate refugees due to extreme flooding (Climate Reality Project, 2021).
Yamin’s goal is to encourage as many people to take positive action as possible. He advocates for people to shift their focus onto doing what’s best for the world, our next generations, and animals and to stop solely focusing on our personal gains. If as many of us as possible did this then we could create huge positive change.
I wanted to understand how Yamin stays motivated despite seeing the harsh realities of climate change. Yamin’s motivation comes from is his love for his family, animals and human beings. He also believes that “we must keep trying and can’t give up because if we do then we are guaranteed to lose everything we love. If 1.5 is no longer physically possible, the next limit must be 1.6°C or even better 1.51°C. Every tenth of a degree reduces tipping point events and extreme weather events.”
Overall, I was inspired by Yamin’s attitude and determination. Our conversation also made me reflect on the millions of people care so much about the world and are doing as much as they can to make it a better place. This is also why I’ve been so grateful to work for Jump. In 2021 people in over half a million people collectively took over 3 million positive actions to help the planet using Jumps programmes.
People do countless acts of good for the planet every day. We must also keep on looking to those people as inspiration to do as much good as we can.
