On March 25th. together with other youth and green activists all around the world, we campaigned for #ClimateJustice4Kalimantan.
Youth climbed an abandoned building to spread the banner.
Since the Industrial Revolution, the world’s average surface temperature has risen by around 1 degree Celsius.It might sound like a tiny number, but it has had an enormous impact on nature and human life. Glaciers and ice sheets have melted, sea levels have risen, and extreme weather events are on the rise.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts 1.5 degrees will see extreme heatwaves, oceans rising, and the destruction of 70 to 90 per cent of coral reefs. This is why the 1.5 figure is so important, because it is where the line must be drawn. A greater rise in temperature would be catastrophic.
At 2 degrees, seas will rise another 10cm on average by 2100 – causing flooding, habitat destruction, and dangerous weather events like hurricanes
1.7 billion more people will experience severe heatwaves at least once every five years
61 million more people in urban areas will be exposed to severe drought
Several hundred million more people could become exposed to climate-related risks and poverty
Coral reefs could decline as much as 99 per cent, sharply decreasing ocean biodiversity and impacting half a billion people
Animals, plants, and insects will lose more than half their habitats
Many species will go extinct – almost half the world’s species by 2100
Source: The Scotman
Protect the remain forests, that’s what is written on the banner.
Elvin wrote in his indigenous language, “If not us, then who?”
Elvin, a Dayak Maanyan youth, expressed his thought on the current situation in Indonesia where the cooking palm oil become extremely hard to find in market. The price is also skyrocketing. This is considered an irony since Indonesia is the biggest producer of palm oil and Central Kalimantan holds record as the most productive state for CPO (Badan Statistik Report, 2019).
Sarasi, a student who is originally from Sumatra but currently studying in Palangkaraya university, joined the act against the plan to open a big palm plantation 49,950 hectares in Palangkaraya. It is proposed by PT. Eka Borneo Sawit Tangguh and now is in consideration by Palangkaraya government office.
A clip from 2019 when Governor of Central Kalimantan Sugianto signed with #KalimantanClimateStrike representative. He accepted the petition and promised to fulfill the demands, including providing the haze shelters in schools. Unfortunately, till today there’s nothing be done.
Obviously, government seems not taking any voices from youth regarding the climate change seriously. In fact, there are so many people that still do not believe that Climate Change is happening right now. But people in Kalimantan know exactly how it feels to deal with various catastrophic and ecological disasters a few times a year. Hopefully it’s not a dead end. There must be something that we can do to prevent, and that one thing is to declare climate emergency immediately. Our forests, biodiversity, earth, planet and lives are at stake. Kalimantan needs climate justice, and so do we.