Husseina Nurbhai, Grade 11
UWCEA (Arusha)
Going to UWC has opened my eyes and enlightened me about so many different things, one of them being climate change. I always knew climate change was an impending and dire disaster that needed to be addressed, however, I didn’t take it as seriously as I should have because nobody around me cared enough to do something about it.
When I arrived at UWCEA, the passion with which my colleagues and the teachers here fought for our Earth, was awe-inspiring. This encouraged me to read and learn about climate change. In the first week of being here, we planted trees as an orientation week activity which I thoroughly enjoyed. We were also told that the changing rooms on our campus are built from recycled plastic which was a surprising but inspiring fact. Additionally, we have competitions on campus to determine who wastes the least amount of food among MYP, PYP, DP and Staff and have experts over to talk about the effects of climate change and how it needs to be responded to. All of these actions and discussions motivated me to my core which led me to organize and host a Climate Change Conference at my school and write this poem.
When I arrived at UWCEA, the passion with which my colleagues and the teachers here fought for our Earth, was awe-inspiring. This encouraged me to read and learn about climate change. In the first week of being here, we planted trees as an orientation week activity which I thoroughly enjoyed. We were also told that the changing rooms on our campus are built from recycled plastic which was a surprising but inspiring fact. Additionally, we have competitions on campus to determine who wastes the least amount of food among MYP, PYP, DP and Staff and have experts over to talk about the effects of climate change and how it needs to be responded to. All of these actions and discussions motivated me to my core which led me to organize and host a Climate Change Conference at my school and write this poem.
Mother Nature, hi,
I am sorry that we are destroying you,
Here I am writing this story,
You don’t know how I wish this wasn’t true.
See, it started back in the 1950’s,
When humans decided to choose profit over people,
By turning a blind eye to all of your suffering,
As long as it kept them financially capable.
As a result, we have caused the earth to warm,
Far more than it has in the last 100 years,
So, if we don’t do anything to stop now,
What will come true will be all of our worst fears.
Kids being torn away from their parents,
And people losing their homes,
Not enough food to eat,
Even for those still in wombs.
See, the ice is melting,
Causing sea levels to rise,
Floods are killing dozens of families,
Do you really still think that these are lies?
The earth itself is trembling,
Do earthquakes sound familiar?
People being buried underground,
What if that happened to your sister?
Have you heard of the Amazon Desert?
Yeah, that was once called the Amazon Rainforest,
But we caused fires so big,
I am sure even the earth was embarrassed.
And yet they say, climate change is a hoax,
From the safety of their offices, sitting on their asses,
Not doing anything and destroying everything,
By letting us emit these stupid toxic gases.
So please, I’m begging you, it’s about time we stop,
Can’t you see what we’re doing with all of this smoke?
If we don’t, in a poof, we’ll all be gone,
For the last time, this is not a joke.
But mother nature, if you’re reading this, we killed you,
Leaving nothing but this story,
I know it doesn’t mean much, but,
All I can really say is that, I’m truly sorry.
www.unitedworldwide.co