Mikaela Loach to speak at third annual Youth Climate Summit
An activist and author wants to share her passion for climate justice with young people next month.
Mikaela Loach hopes to change how people look at the issue during her presentation at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute’s third annual Youth Climate Summit.
She said: “Climate justice is not just about injustice. We are all in the same storm, but fighting from different boats.
“Some of us are fighting from large and sturdy boats, while others are fighting from weaker, smaller ones.”
Ms Loach, who lives in Britain, has always been passionate about environmental and social justice, but said seeing the effects of climate change in Jamaica, where she was born, led her to fight even harder for those issues.
She said: “I lived in Jamaica for six months shortly after lockdown, and I saw how our natural defences were stripped away. Due to rising sea levels, one of my favourite beaches to go to as a child no longer exists.”
Ms Loach, who wrote the bestseller It’s Not That Radical: Climate Action to Transform Our World, wants to make the climate debate more inclusive and accessible.
She said: “There is this idea that people of colour do not care about the climate crisis when we are often the ones most affected.
“Transforming the climate debate requires using language that everyone understands.”
Ms Loach, who is also a fourth-year medical student and co-host of The YIKES Podcast, said people can fight for climate justice by following their passions.
She explained: “Things will only get better if and when people make them better.
“Change always happens from the ground up, instead of the top down.
“If we can tackle the systems of oppression, we have real opportunity to create change in our world.”
The following climate experts and activists will present at this year’s summit:
J Marshall Shepherd, geography and atmospheric science professor at the University of Georgia
Jeffrey Steynor, principal engineer at Belco’s project management office
Jessica Knoblauch, award-winning climate journalist and senior staff writer at Eathjustice
Ocean climate solutionist Bodhi Patil
Discussions and panels at the summit will be facilitated by:
William Campbell, Bermudian insurance broker and scholar on war and conflict
Noelle Young, associate at the Bermuda Ocean Prosperity Programme and aquaculture and fisheries consultant with Bermuda Asset Management
Hannah Lampit, Belco’s environmental technician
Lawyer and activist Aaron Crichlow
Hannah Horsefield, programme co-ordinator at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute
Other young climate activists who will speak at this year’s summit, which will take place from November 21 to 26, include Ela Gokcigdem, Turkey’s representative to the Sustainable Ocean Alliance’s youth policy advisory council, and Demetri Sedita, founder of the Green Gasparilla initiative.
Jevanic Henry, from the United Nations Secretary-General’s youth advisory group on climate change, and Sharon Shnayder, founder of the waste management movement Tuesdays for Trash, will also present at the event.
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