Environmental activist and pupil at Parktown High School for Girls Raeesah Noor-Mahomed holds a placard outside the school's entrance, 17 January 2020, as she attempts to raise awareness on challenges facing the environment. She will demonstrate outside the school all day, missing classes, and will continue every Friday until her demands are met. Picture: Michel Bega
A teenage environmental activist is willing to put her matric education on hold to protest and raise awareness of the seriousness of climate change.
Raeesah Noor-Mahomed, 17, developed a passion for protecting the environment when she started learning more about the climate crisis and the dangers that face the planet.
But it was the fires engulfing Australia which prompted Noor-Mahomed to start fearing the same thing could happen in South Africa.
The matriculant wrote to the department of environment, forestry and fisheries to demand immediate changes in South Africa. Her demand was simple – for the department to declare a climate emergency and to find solutions to curb the imminent climate crisis.
“I have just started my matric year and when I looked at the Australia fires, and the floods in Indonesia, I just felt so hopeless.
“I felt like there was no point in working so hard for the most important year in the schooling career, and working towards a future that has been stolen from me.”
With a placard written #EducationNotExtinction, she kickstarted her boycott outside her school, Parktown High School for Girls yesterday.
Despite the department responding to her plea by accepting her meeting request, Noor-Mahomed demanded to meet with Minister Barbara Creecy.
“South Africa is already feeling the effects of climate change.
“The heat and droughts we are experiencing is a result of global warming and the situation will get more intense.
“Over the next few years, the weather conditions will get more extreme.
“We need to do everything we can to combat and lessen the effects of climate change,” she said.
The young activist called on government to start using solar power in government buildings and public places, placing recycling bins in public spaces, making climate change a compulsory part of the school curriculum, making recycling compulsory in government schools, and transitioning to using recycled paper or digital platforms, rather than brand-new paper.
“These are all the small things. It is something. My ultimate demand is that climate change be declared. I want to see them making changes.”
This was not the first time the teenager demonstrated for environmental issues.
Having co-founded Artivists, an organisation that does public performance art pieces to raise awareness, Noor-Mahomed last year held a demonstration at The Zone in Rosebank, where she and some classmates “ate” plastic to raise awareness of plastic recycling.
While getting support from her school, the matriculant said she would continue to boycott class every Friday until her demands were met.
“I feel a change needs to be made immediately and someone needs to do something to let government know that we are serious about this…
“I am putting my education on hold to fight for the future robbed from us.”
The department of environment, forestry and fisheries could not be reached for comment.
– rorisangk@citizen.co.za
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