23 June 2023 – by Earth Refuge Correspondent Freya Mutimer
In this enlightening interview, Perk Pomeyie (@perk_gh) shares his invaluable insights as a key figure in the Ghana Youth Environmental Movement – a youth-led environmental policy advocacy and non-violent campaign group in Ghana. Perk reflects on his firsthand experiences witnessing the devastating impacts of climate change on his homeland. He also offers his perspective on how governments can step up their efforts to address this pressing issue, as well as his personal journey of becoming an environmental activist.
20 May 2022 – by Earth Refuge Correspondent Ye-Eun Kim
In this interview, correspondent Ye-Eun Kim is speaking with Jihyuk Oh from South Korea about civil disobedience as a non-violent means to fight the climate crisis. Together, they explore the question of why South Korean youth are both victims and perpetrators of climate change. On the one hand, their age makes it very likely that the impacts of climate change will affect their future. On the other hand, because of where they live, they are part of an extractory society that continues to damage the climate.
Over the course of the interview, Jihyuk shares how his organization ‘Youth Climate Emergency Action’ is addressing this dilemma by using civil disobedience to kick off a “new type of transition into a livable and a greener society”. By using many vivid examples, he explains the power of this non-violent means as well as the challenges his organization faces.
“We’re trying to expose how the legal system itself does not actually protect us the people, but protects the private companies more, and that the legal system already has failed us. These companies haven’t been taken responsible for their greenhouse gas emissions nor for their pollutions.”
Youth Climate Emergency Action (YCEA) is a nonviolent direct action group against the climate crisis. In order to realize climate justice among countries, regions, classes, generations, genders, and species, YCEA is demanding drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from the government and businesses. Their mission is to ensure the rights of those who are facing this crisis right now, let alone the next generation that is to come in decades.
06 May 2022 – by Earth Refuge Correspondent Skand Agarwal
In this interview, correspondent Skand Agarwal talks to Ruth Dzokoto about the impacts of climate change in Ghana. Drawing on her very personal experiences with climate change-induced natural disasters and even climate migration, Ruth shares her story as a climate educator. Along the way, Ruth also addresses the fact that climate migration is a highly gendered issue, which can even lead to child marriage and child pregnancy.
Together, they explore the challenges that climate educators face even in areas that are severely impacted by climate change themselves. Based on this conversation, Ruth outlines demands for the international community to support her incredible work.
“Currently, as I am talking to you, my mom, my dad and my siblings are no more where they used to be. They had to migrate to different locations because the sea had taken over their home. It is making them migrate to different settlements where they don’t even know anything about the place. Some young ladies and girls have to end up settling at places where they are going to be with men just because they need a roof over their head. This, I think, is the major cause of teenage pregnancy or unwanted pregnancy in the community.”
08 April 2022 – by Earth Refuge Correspondent Ole ter Wey
In this interview, correspondent Ole ter Wey speaks with Alicia Wallace from The Bahamas. Alicia is the director of Equality Bahamas, Steering Committee Member of Feminist Alliance for Rights, and also a self-described Queer Black Feminist. Together they discuss the devastating impact of constantly recurring hurricanes on the land, people and economy of The Bahamas, as well as discuss necessary policy intervention points.
The interview focuses on the intersectionality of climate change. Using many practical and real-world examples from her own experiences, Alicia brings this abstract academic construct to life and shows how climate change is hitting already marginalized groups particularly hard. Concrete policy recommendations are then derived from these insights.
“The climate crisis is affecting people in different ways. It’s never just about ‘those people’, we’re not a homogenous group. You have women, you have young people, you have aýoung women, you have people with disabilities, you have young people with disabilities. There are all these layers to who we are [and that shape appropriate policies].”
Alicia Wallace is a queer Black feminist, gender expert, and research consultant. She is the Director of Equality Bahamas which promotes women’s and LGBTQ+ rights as human rights through public education, community programming, and advocacy.
She is passionate about social justice work and using creativity as a tool. She is skilled in creating safe spaces for critical dialogue and passionate about activating imagination, collective visioning, and creating feminist futures.
Alicia is an Advisor and the Online Education Coordinator at Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, former Regional Coordinator at FRIDA the Young Feminist Fund, and a steering committee member of Feminist Alliance for Rights (FAR). She has a weekly column on social and political issues in the Bahamian daily newspaper The Tribune and has published academic papers. She enjoys reading, cycling, baking, having dessert, and talking to everyone and no one at the same time on Twitter as @_AliciaAudrey.
25 March 2022 – by Earth Refuge Correspondent Polly Nash
In this interview, correspondent Polly Nash talks to Marinel Ubaldo about her first-hand experience of Super Typhoon Haiyan that hit the Philippines in 2013 and devastated Marinel’s community and family home. The pair discuss Marinel’s subsequent climate activism and the vital need for people from the Global North to pass on the microphone to those from the Global South who are most severely impacted by climate related disasters.
“I felt like I couldn’t live in my house anymore … even just hearing the waves crashing nearby gave me trauma, gave me chills.”
“If our government were really serious about keeping people safe they should have relocated people living on the shore, because after Super Typhoon Haiyan we’re still facing the same risks and the same hazards”
04 March 2022 – by Earth Refuge Correspondent Polly Nash
In this interview, correspondent Polly Nash talks to fire fighter Cami Schafer about one of the many frightening effects of climate change; the ever-growing threat of wildfires around the world. Last year California was hit by the Dixie Fire, the largest single forest fire in the state’s history. Burning for four months, the Dixie Fire destroyed over a thousand buildings and devastated entire towns. Cami Schafer, who was fighting this fire alongside her colleagues, gives insights into her daily work, her struggles and most importantly, what kept her sane and motivated during the demanding operation.
“You try not to be emotionally attached but you can’t really help it. Those are people’s houses, people’s livelihood, that’s all they have. But then we have to hustle and keep going the next day.”
23 November 2021 – conducted by Earth Refuge Correspondent Ella Kiyomi Dobson
In this interview, Jordan Hartzell provides an overview of the work The Farmlink Project does to redirect food waste and serve food insecure communities. Jordan speaks to how working with this organisation has changed how she thinks about food systems and networks. The extensive contributions of food waste to the climate crisis have helped Jordan and her team urge the importance of changing consumption and buying processes in the US. Jordan provides insights into the recent transformations within the organisation in order to adapt and better serve communities affected by intensifying weather events, such as in Texas and Louisiana.
“Thinking about the supply chain and the food system, and all of the different things that gointo figuring out how food gets to the grocery store and how it’s priced has really changed my perspective. Another thing that was really enthralling, along with seeing the direct impact on the communities receiving food, was seeing the impact Farm Link had on the people getting involved.”
Jordan Hartzell is from Lewisburg, Pennsylvania and is currently a senior at Brown University studying Applied Mathematics – Computer Science. As a member of the founding team of The Farmlink Project, she has occupied several roles during a gap year from college. She started as the lead of the logistics team, where she wrote protocols for Farmlink’s food-moving operations and built relationships throughout the agricultural supply chain. In the fall of 2020, Jordan created the Product Team in order to design a sustainable model for rescuing surplus produce at scale; in co-leading this team with Jack Rehnborg, Jordan and her teammates built a software tool to decrease the time, energy, and logistical headache involved in coordinating Farmlink’s delivery operations. Now that her gap year is complete, Jordan is playing a supporting role to new Farmlink fellows as the team grows. When she’s not working with Farmlink, Jordan loves to rock climb and read.
30 April 2021 – conducted by Shake Up The Establishment
In this episode, Yumna Kamel speaks with Stephanie from @shakeuptheestab – a youth-led non-profit promoting climate justice & political action in what is currently called Canada – as part of their Earth Week interview series. They discuss what climate migration is, what climate justice means, and the projects that Earth Refuge is carrying out to address this crisis and find legal protections for impacted communities.
26 March 2021 – conducted by Earth Refuge Correspondent Aubrey Calaway
Native climate justice organizer Ruth Miller discusses her work towards an indigenized just transition amidst urgent threats to her people and land. She frames this struggle within the historical context of colonial violence and forced settlement of native Alaskan communities, pointing to the need to center indigenous knowledge in national and international policy.
Ruth is a Dena’ina Athabaskan and Ashkenazi Russian Jewish woman, raised in Anchorage, Alaska. She is a member of the Curyung Tribe, and also has roots in Bristol Bay. Ruth is the Climate Justice Director for Native Movement, a matriarchal grassroots Indigenous organization that fights for the rights of Indigenous peoples, our lands and waters, and justice for our ancestors and descendants. She has worked many years towards climate justice and a regenerative economy for all on her lands and beyond, including international advocacy with the United Nations Association and SustainUS. She is a daughter, a granddaughter, and aunty, a language learner, a traditional beadworker, and a subsistence fisherwomxn.
Basti, the young owner of his sailboat “Tonga” tells Earth Refuge about the importance of understanding meteorology as a sailor and how the weather has become more unpredictable in recent years. Normally, the Azores are a safe pit stop for boats crossing the Atlantic, but in 2019 the Islands witnessed a formation of an extreme weather event of unprecedented intensity.
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