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Vanessa Nakate's Voice

Vanessa Nakate's Voice

“ You did not just erase a photo. You erased a continent, ” said twenty-six-year-old, Ugandan climate activist, Vanessa Nakate, when the AP press cropped her out of the photo of young climate activists at the Davos forum in January 2020. And she was right, as Africa too, though only responsible for less than 4 percent of the global emissions, is suffering terribly from the impacts of climate change with all the rampant natural disasters such as droughts and storms like tropical storm Ana. “Hold up grandma, is Uganda, not the country that Winston Churchill called the pearl of Africa in 1908?” May asked continuing, “So why is there a need to fight for climate when you are in a country that is supposedly the epitome of beautiful scenery?” To which grandma replied, “Oh dear, that's when you carry your A game and fight, for even a beautiful thing when mishandled, becomes ugly. I believe your room can attest to that.” You know, Wangari Maathai said, “We owe it to ourselves and to the next generation to conserve the environment so that we can bequeath our children a sustainable world that benefits all.” Vanessa Nakate, I can say, is one of the few that took these words to heart for she was not only, the first Fridays for future climate activist in Uganda, but she also founded the Rise Up Movement, started projects like Vash green school project, to address energy poverty in rural schools. I'm talking about Nakate, a woman who made placards with the plea, “Save Congo Rainforest ” to put a stop to the destruction of the second largest rainforest in the world. Her love for a better world has not gone unnoticed for in 2020, she was named a U.N. Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals, being listed as one of the BBC’s 100 Women of the Year and the 100 most influential young Africans. She is also part of the Generation Climate Initiative in addition to being on TIME magazine's list of the world’s most influential emerging leaders in 2021. And most recently, on 15th September 2022, she was appointed as the UNICEF goodwill ambassador. I strongly suggest we take up the climate fight too for like Vanessa Nakate’s inspiration Greta Thunberg said, “Humanity is now standing at a crossroads. We must now decide which path we want to take. How do we want the future living conditions for all living species to be like?" And next, I'll tell you about the inventor, Augustus Jackson

  • Tags:  60 Unknown Black Achievers  Vanessa Nakate

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