We had a chance to connect with Afsana Akter, an inspiring young woman from Bangladesh who lives in Brooklyn, who is also a Climate Action Fellow with Alliance for Climate Education and Global Kids.
We asked Afsana about her experiences facing extreme weather in Bangladesh and in NYC.
"I am from Bangladesh and I live in Brooklyn. In my life, I have been through hurricanes that snapped the old mango tree next to my house, like many others, and blew off many people's tin ceilings and left them bare. I have been through floods that leveled the rice paddies and ponds and water that reached my knee. However, I have never been through anything as intense as Hurricane Sandy. Although I was not affected by Sandy directly, I did see and hear what happened to NYC. All the schools were closed and people who were in dangerous zones had to evacuate. Many people thought this hurricane warning would not be a big deal, but it turned out to be just that. I remember the MTA was down and many people including my family couldn't use the trains to run errands. The wind was so high, as high as 80 mph, that it started a fire in Queens. People suffered by the lack of food, water, heat, and electricity. When I went back to school, my friends told me the horrific situations they had been in. One of my friends had not evacuated from Coney Island and later she when she was hit by Sandy, she had to move to her friend's house. A teacher told us how her close neighbors lost their lives when a tree fell on them as they were running. Although hurricane Sandy lasted a few days, its presence is still affecting all of us today. Even after 14 months, MTA is still working to fix the damage that was caused by Sandy. People who lost their loved ones still hurt today.
By seeing what has happened and what is still happening due to climate change, I am motivated to join the People's Climate March.
I am tired of people taking climatic issues lightly and thinking that ignoring them will somehow vanish them. I am frustrated that some states have banned and are still working to ban climate science in schools.
The future belongs to not only us, but those who are coming after us.
If we don't make any noise now, it will be too late when we something worse than hurricane Sandy hits us."
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