Timoci Naulusala
Timoci is a young climate warrior who stands in front of world leaders and pleads them that they must act now in order to save the future generations.
“Climate Change threat is real and it’s time we speak up against it. We must work as a team before it’s too late. Now is the time to act.”
The powerful speech by Timoci Naulusala from Fiji’s Wainibuka is a strong reminder of the damage done to the environment by us and how we need to “walk the talk”. Only 12 years old at the time, holding the attention of more than 1,000 people at the opening of the high-level segment of COP23 in Germany’s Bonn, back in 2017.
“Are you ready to face life without earth? Have you contemplated what will happen if you ignore this reality? The question is what to do, how to do and who to do it? But it is not about what, how or who. It is what you can do as an individual. As parents or teachers, what can you do? As students or leaders, what can you do? It deserves to be a huge priority.”
Timoci lives in Fiji and has been experiencing the effects of climate change for his whole life. He attends Naivicula District School in Tailevu, which was one of many schools severely damaged when Tropical Cyclone Winston ravaged Fiji, taking the lives of 44 Fijians, destroying homes, uprooting families and inflicting serious damage to crops and farms. Since then, some of the students and teachers have been forced to work and study under a tent. Timoci is the third youngest in a family of eight. His Dad is a farmer and his mother, is a market vendor. Life is not easy, especially after Cyclone Winston making it difficult for their family to grow and sell food.
Fiji and its South Pacific neighbours remain some of the smallest contributors to global carbon emissions, yet face some of the most devastating consequences of extreme weather patterns. For young Pacific Islanders like Timoci, climate change is a real issue that affects the lives of real people in ways that someone living in the comfort of a developed city who has access to all the necessities of life will never be able to comprehend. Access to clean and safe drinking water, a nice home, and a healthy environment to live in — these are the very things that people all over the world sometimes take for granted.
As the saying goes, “With great power comes great responsibility." Timoci has a lot of passion and power within him after experiencing the wrath of Cyclone Winston and seeing the devastation it caused. He has taken the effects of this event into his climate activism work and understands that now is his time and his responsibility to tell world leaders, climate change activists, and representatives from UN agencies, civil societies and non-governmental organisations that climate change is real.
“It is like a thief in the night, it will not only steal, but kill and destroy. If we don’t act now there might not be a future for the entire human race.”