Rose Villadsen learns more about climate change
In the face of climate change, education becomes a powerful tool for fostering awareness, responsibility, and positive action.
A learner from St Stithians Girls’ College, Rose Villadsen, had the privilege to travel to Dubai with her mum to attend the 2023 global climate meeting – the COP28 summit.
According to Rose, this was an incredible opportunity for her to practise the St Stithians Girls’ College ideals of environmentalism and internationalism by observing the world leaders tackle climate issues.
“Climate change is causing severe droughts, which leads to food insecurity and hunger and also impacts access to water. It has caused massive flooding and destroyed roads, and schools and is displacing people.”
She added that these are disasters that need humanity to come together to help those who are affected.
“The meetings I attended focused primarily on the crisis around the world. Representatives from multiple countries came forward and spoke about how their countries plan to deal with their water issues of floods and drought.”
Rose explained that a representative from the small island of Kiribati particularly struck her as Kiribati is predicted to be the very first country that will be completely submerged due to the effects of climate change and rising sea levels.
“This real-life sinking island was a direct realisation for me that climate change is not a problem for later generations to fix. This is happening in our lifetime – we need to fix it ourselves.”
She said she appreciates her school for teaching her about sustainable development goals, all of which are under threat if climate change is not tackled.
Related Article: Learner’s promise plan to build a greener future at Nedbank Sandton
