https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/local-news/climate-emergency-i-dont-want-3749705
Climate emergency: ‘I don’t want my sister to die before reaching 50’
Yasmin Sarwar joined Extinction Rebellion Stoke over her fears for the future
Yasmin Sarwar started recycling as a child after she was told a polar bear is killed every time someone drops litter. But now she fights to protect the environment because she doesn’t want her little sister to die before reaching middle-age.
For Yasmin and millions of activists across the world, many of them young children, the climate emergency is a simple matter of life and death – and their fears are backed up by scientific evidence.
According to United Nations scientists, there are just 10 years left to effectively save the planet from catastrophe by limiting global warming to 1.5C, which would still have a serious impact on the world’s coastlines, forests and ice caps, but would avoid some of the more devastating effects of climate change. (8 years according to Greta)
It is predicted that a 2C rise in global temperatures would destroy almost all coral reefs, devastate habitats, melt the ice caps, cause sea levels to rise and flood coastal areas and radically increase the intensity of droughts, storms and extreme weather.
In 2019, the global average temperature was 1.1C above the pre-industrial age. It was the second hottest year on record.
As an activist with Extinction Rebellion Stoke, Yasmin campaigns to get people to realise the imminent danger of climate change – and in particular the harm it will do to children growing up today, including her 11-year-old sister, Lily Stead.
