Spoken Word Artists Speak Up Against Climate Change

Students from around the world have come to share their stories at the UN climate change talks. Four students won the Spoken Word 4 The World Competition, a spoken word art competition. They went to COP21 in Paris to share their stories of how their communities had been impacted by climate change.  I had the privilege of sitting down with Isabella Avila Borgeson and Terisa Tinei Siagatonu, two of the competition winners whose Pacific Island communities have already been  affected my Climate Change. 

They each share their stories and recite their poems for me. They work off of each other, and right as one says something heartfelt and powerful, the other one is the first one to respond with a comforting "yeah sis" or a deep "umhmmm." They are not actually sisters but they share an experience- both their communities have been effected my changing weather patterns. 

Here is the segment Isabella has written under her Youtube video to describe her story. 

On November 8, 2013, super typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda) hit my mother's hometown of Tanauan, Leyte in the Philippines. 

I moved back to Tanauan one month after the typhoon to help my mother rebuild our home, and stayed for the next 2 years working as a community organizer on relief/rehabilitation projects throughout Region VIII. 

Learning about my family's stories of death and trauma surrounding the Ocean was a vivid part of my experience. In my community/family/motherland, climate change means re-learning the Ocean. I was always taught that the sea is a sacred place, where I come to speak to my ancestors and find healing in salt waters. With the increased intensity and frequency of natural disasters hitting island countries like the Philippines as a direct result of global warming, my family's relationship to the sea is changing. 

The ocean is now a mass grave of family members and townsfolk whose bodies were washed away by storm surge waves during the super typhoon.

This piece, titled "Yolanda Winds" is dedicated to my mother, a survivor of the super typhoon, who struggles to forgive the sea. A reminder that we are a people of the sea. And for some of our families, sharing our stories about climate change, typhoon seasons, and rising oceans - is an act of resistance, necessary for our survival. 

Other Spoken Word Artists have made a splash in previous Climate Change Conferences. Here is Kathy Jetnil-Kijner from the Marshall Islands. At the end of the segment, she recites her poem which she has written for her daughter to talk about what the future of climate change means to her community. 

Alaskan with a Disappearing Home

Esau Daniel Sinnok is a delegate of the Sierra Student Coalition and an Arctic Youth Ambassador for the Arctic Council. He lives in Shishmaref Alaska, where he is already feeling the effects of Climate Change. Shishmaref loses 2-3 meters of land each year due to climate change, storm surges and rising sea levels. 

I met Esau because he was sleeping in the bunk above me at our Youth Hostel, Le Generator, in Paris. He filled me in on what was happening at home. Sinnok's family had to move when he was a kid due to rising sea levels. In June 2007, his uncle fell through the ice in a spot that was normally solid during that time of the year. Since then, he has seen regular changes in his day-to-day life. Because ice doesn't form until later in the season, his community can't go hunting when they normally do. But the greatest threat is that all of Shishmaref, Alaska will be under water in 25 years.

Esau came to the conference to get the message out there. He wishes youth activists like himself could get into the negotiation rooms to get their stories told, but as a youth he also feels empowered.

"We are the future leaders of the world."

Biodynamic Farmer from Nepal

I meet Sudarshan Chaudhary, a 33-year-old farmer from Nepal. On the Paris metro during the UN Climate Talks, COP21, I overheard him talking about a new type of organic farming he was using on his farm, biodynamic farming.   Intrigued, I introduced myself and quickly learned more about how Sudarshan was adjusting to climate change. He is incorporating new natural methods to increase productivity on the farm- like using small ponds to collect rainwater and cow dung as fertilizer. Below are two segments of Sudarshan telling his story.

A little more about him: After talking a class from a New Zealand farmer, he learned different practices of biodynamic farming and changed his traditional synthetic –based pesticide farm into an all organic farm that works with natural cycles. He then started to teach seminars in his village. His community didn’t believe him that cow dung would lead to just as productive soil as fertilizers. But he gave it to them to try and the villagers found that it worked miracles. He is now trying to build the momentum in his community by “making youth circles” where the young farmers can lease land in their community for community-based biodynamic farming. Ultimately, his dream is to start a School of Farmers.

Sudarshan believes that cows are necessary for agriculture because they provide “dung” for an alternative, all-natural, fertilizer—compost, and his community uses the manure for bio-gas to supply electricity to more than 40 households in his village. 

Sudarshan recalls that after talking a class from a New Zealand farmer, he learned different practices of biodynamic farming and changed his traditional synthetic –based pesticide farm into an all organic farm that works with natural cycles. He then started to teach seminars in his village. His community didn’t believe him that cow dung would lead to just as productive soil as fertilizers. But he gave it to them to try and the villagers found that it worked miracles. He is now trying to build the momentum in his community by “making youth circles” where the young farmers can lease land in their community for community-based biodynamic farming. Ultimately, his dream is to start a School of Farmers.