# taz.de -- Climate Strike and Corona: „Not back to old normal“ | |
> The pandemic did not replace climate crisis. It is adding to it. What | |
> does that mean for the movement? Three activists tell their stories. | |
Bild: Feels like long ago: Climate Strike in Bangkok, September 2019 | |
Tonny Nowshin says the corona-crises should urge us to reflect on our | |
priorities | |
„If I must choose my apocalypse, I would prefer Corona over the climate | |
crisis. Because at least it is only affecting us humans and it gives us | |
some time to reflect on the way we are taking up space and treating other | |
inhabitants on this planet. | |
I am struggling emotionally with this pandemic like everyone else. I guess | |
what affects me a lot is seeing the situation back home. I am from | |
Bangladesh. Most of the countries were not prepared for a pandemic in terms | |
of health care, we see this in the USA right now. But in the global south | |
countries lack resources to cope with it. Staying at home for a big part of | |
the population in Bangladesh means starving. Because we have this huge | |
informal sector of really small entrepreneurs – day workers, rickshaw | |
pullers – who lives on their daily earnings. So for them quarantine means | |
no earnings, hence, no food. That is a different form of crisis and when I | |
see the suffering through the news and numbers, it is difficult to cope | |
with. Not everybody can understand the load of emotional stress this means. | |
But I also dont want pity. Im trying to keep on working. | |
For the past two years we have been mobilizing to save the world's largest | |
mangrove forest that is located in Bangladesh. It is threatened by the | |
plans of building a coal power plant and industrial infrastructure that | |
surrounds the forest. We launched a petition against the German engineering | |
consultancy firm called Fichtner. They are involved in the construction of | |
Rampal- the coal power plant in Bangladesh and we want to stop their | |
involvement. | |
As for the pandemic I hope we will not just go back to old normal. This | |
crisis is making it even more clear that our societies are not designed to | |
protect normal people. You can see this when politicians are bailing out | |
banks instead of people. With this pandemic, now that we are on hold, we | |
reflect on our priorities. And this can be a very powerful thing!“ | |
[1][Watch full Interview] | |
Nanticha Ocharoenchai aka Lynn says if the pandemic hits hard the climate | |
crisis will hit even harder | |
„It's weird because the pandemic has changed everything, but in the same | |
time in my life nothing has really changed. I usually stay home a lot and | |
don't meet a lot of people. I live in Bangkok and I dont like to be in the | |
city, its hectic. And all my jobs have always been remote anyway. | |
We are not in an official lockdown in Bangkok, but we are asked to stay at | |
home. But in Thailand there are a lot of people who can't afford to stay at | |
home, because their living depends on jobs that require going out. And a | |
lot of people also don't have homes to stay in. So that is really tough. I | |
don't exactly know how many people are infected in Thailand, I havent been | |
reading the news much, it's distressing. | |
With the climate strike movement we wanted to do a physical strike during | |
Earth Day, but now we are partnering with “we the planet“ to organize a | |
strike on social media platforms. People are sending in their videos with a | |
pledge. The pandemic shows that we CAN reduce emissions if we choose to. | |
And media and governments start to pay attention on how things like | |
deforestation and wildlife trade are linked to this outbreak. Many NGOs and | |
us too, whe are hurrying to make this an agenda: This pandemic may hit | |
hard, the climate crisis will hit even harder if we dont bring down the | |
emissions now. | |
And we have another urgent concern in Thailand right now. There are huge | |
forest fires in the north of the Country. There is a lot of open burning to | |
clear lands for growing maize. But the fires sprung over to protected | |
forest areas and they are growing bigger and bigger. It is causing all this | |
air pollution and environmental impacts. Some news agencies are trying to | |
cover it, but the attention is nowhere near enough. It is like half of | |
Thailand is burning right now and noone is talking about it. | |
We really can't go back to normal, by no means. I really hope that the | |
politicians realize how messed up we are right now. And the first thing | |
they should do is stop fighting. There's just so much political drama in | |
Thailand. Unproductive fights that use up so much time and energies for | |
more urgent issues – the just transformation to renewable energies for | |
example.“ | |
[2][Watch full Interview] | |
Anna Conradie says African activists feel more strongly about social | |
justice and their biggest sorrow is drought. | |
Without the corona crisis, I would probably have had fundraising events for | |
“artivists“. “Artivists“ is an organization I founded to use art as a m… | |
of protesting to draw people outside of the climate movement into the | |
climate movement. | |
Since we could not do that, I set up some meetings for a youth think tank I | |
founded. We work with a bunch of high polluters here in South Africa on how | |
they can make their companies more environmentally friendly. How it works | |
is, that I contact big corporates, tell them that we want to work with them | |
and not destruct them or anything, until we finally meet. It took me nearly | |
a year to get a meeting with one big company we now work with. | |
So that is how I started to get involved in the climate movement last year | |
in May. I started joining strikes and organized a national school climate | |
strike. We were planning to do another one this year, but because of Corona | |
that plan shifted. It is very difficult to make people understand here that | |
this is a very big issue, it is something that we need to act on rapidly. | |
I think where you come from defines how you see issues and how you | |
understand them. Here in South Africa, we have the richest square mile next | |
to the poorest. So, I think the youth in Africa sees climate issues a lot | |
different from European activists, we call them “the West“. African | |
activists feel very strongly about social justice because poverty and | |
injustice are on every corner of our hometowns. | |
In terms of the climate crisis though, our biggest worry is drought! Last | |
year, two regions were declared by the UN as “national disaster zones“. | |
They did not have water for four months! We should have enough water but | |
because of the lack of infrastructure, it causes us to lose about 40 per | |
cent of the water that should go to homes. So, our biggest concern is the | |
fact that drought will affect all of our subsistence farmers. If we do not | |
act rapidly, it will impact all of our rural areas, people will lose all | |
their livelihoods. | |
[3][Watch full Interview] | |
5 May 2020 | |
## LINKS | |
[1] https://www.instagram.com/tv/B_P7oQcHNhn/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sh… | |
[2] https://www.instagram.com/tv/B_W3MEMHGSh/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sh… | |
[3] https://www.instagram.com/p/B_iFfuUnuoS/ | |
## AUTOREN | |
Leonie Sontheimer | |
Celine Weimar-Dittmar | |
## TAGS | |
Schwerpunkt Klimawandel | |
Schwerpunkt Coronavirus | |
Schwerpunkt Fridays For Future | |
taz in English | |
taz international | |
klimataz | |
Schwerpunkt Klimawandel | |
Schwerpunkt Klimawandel | |
Schwerpunkt Fridays For Future | |
Textil-Bündnis | |
## ARTIKEL ZUM THEMA | |
Climate Strike during Corona: „We go onto the streets anyways“ | |
Covid-19 is the biggest challenge ever? Wait for the climate crisis. Three | |
climate activists report what they are doing to keep protest going on. | |
Klimastreik von Fridays for Future: „Die größte Online-Demo“ | |
Fridays for Future hat den globalen Klimastreik am Freitag ins Netz | |
verlegt. Tausende sehen den Livestream. Und es hagelt Posts bei Instagram & | |
Co. | |
Krisen-Gespräch mit Greta Thunberg: „Das entscheidende Jahr“ | |
Greta Thunberg und Johan Rockström haben auf Youtube über die Klima- und | |
die Coronakrise diskutiert. Beiden müsse global begegnet werden. | |
Frauenrechtlerin über NäherInnen: „Die Krise ist eine Chance“ | |
Die Näherinnen in Indien und Bangladesch schuften für Kleidung, die wir | |
nicht brauchen. Jetzt ist der Moment, diese Praxis zu hinterfragen. |