For Women's Month 2021, we had the honor of getting in touch with Mitzi Jonelle Tan of Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines and Fridays For Future. Conscious Conversations typically highlights individuals whose actions inspire us to take a leap of faith and be changemakers in our own right, so when we heard of Mitzi Jonelle's work as an intersectional activist, we couldn't help but reach out.
In the world of climate activism, Mitzi Jonelle is a force to be reckoned with. She leaves no stone unturned in her journey of holding major polluters and heads of state accountable for both their actions and inaction. Just last Friday, she was seen striking outside the local Standard Chartered Bank HQ, demanding that they stop pumping billions of dollars into the fossil fuel industry. Any bigshot choosing to overlook the well-being of the environment will eventually have her to answer to.
This volume of Conscious Conversations features words from Mitzi herself, as well as other climate activists from Fridays For Future MAPA. The acronym MAPA stands for Most Affected People and Areas, a term coined by the growing climate movement under Fridays For Future. By their own definition, the term Most Affected People & Areas (MAPA) is an effective and precise phrase given to some communities and regions on the planet, who contribute least to the climate crisis but suffer the most. These are not as economically forward as developed nations and hence their contribution of CO2 and other issues is negligible.
A common issue surrounding this term is the general public's failure to see its significance. People would often argue, "why can't we just say Global South/Third World Nations?" but these labels were created by developed countries with underlying colonial sentiments. The label Third World is actually seen as a derogatory description today, hence furthering the need for a new terminology for vulnerable people everywhere, created by members of their own community.
The cries of MAPA countries often fall on deaf ears. On the occasion that they do make headlines in developed nations, most individuals would usually react in shock, but then continue to go about their day. It isn't real to them until it affects them. Developed nations are continuously led to believe that their actions and choices have little to no impact on MAPA countries, but there is so much more they could do than they realize. The businesses they choose to support and whom they vote for affects MAPA lives, too.
The opinion piece penned by Mitzi and other members of Fridays For Future MAPA compels world leaders and regular citizens from developed countries to listen to the voices of people most affected by climate change, and use their privilege to help further causes that improve the lives of vulnerable individuals. It is a wake up call for those waiting for climate change to hit their streets. These are words from people whose front doors have already been ravaged by floods, their backyards engulfed in fire, and ancestral lands degraded and pillaged of resources by corporations funded by the West. You can read the full piece on the Thomson Reuters Foundation website.
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