Name

Aneesa Khan

Location

Chennai, India

What was your ‘eureka’ moment for getting into sustainability?

The first book I owned was called “Taking Care of the Earth” and it taught children about little actions for a “greener planet”. Until high school, my involvement in the sustainability movement was very much based on principles of conservation and individual lifestyle changes. Then, when I was 15, I took a class on environmental systems and my teacher mentioned the words “Tar Sands”. Mishearing him and wondering why he was talking about a child raised by apes, we paid closer attention. As he began to elaborate the wrongdoings of the extractive industries of Canada, we realised their horrifying impacts on the land and on the indigenous people of the region. This was when I understood that these problems were not just ecological, they were social too. Climate change is one of the biggest injustices around because those who have caused it the least feel its effects the most.

What have you been doing on sustainability since?

I am in a student social and climate justice collective called Earth in Brackets. We follow United Nations climate negotiations and translate the jargon into simple resources such as blogs and videos for anyone who’s not a climate policy wonk. We also work with other youth allies around the world to educate and mobilise on issues of energy, food sovereignty, biodiversity, and sustainable development through the lens of equity and justice. I am interested in telling stories of environmental and social issues through graphic design. I create infographics on topics like climate finance and the UN climate talks.

What’s your vision for reaching a sustainable future?

Imperialism is continuing today in the form of climate change caused by developed nations and the rich affecting indigenous peoples, women, people of colour, the poor and those in the Global South the hardest. For a sustainable future, reparations are owed to the affected in the form of technology and finance transfers. A sustainable future is one with a transformed renewable energy system, gender and racial justice, food sovereignty, welfare and safe jobs, and peace. The biggest obstacle is changing the current destructive narrative being spread through the capture of our political systems by corporations and the 1%.

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