Environmentalism

After my last lesson at LINC regarding climate change and global warming, I was very interested in the 4th Global Strike for the Future event that took place on November 29th all around the world. Many young people interested in the future of our planet went out to demonstrate that day to get the attention of the public and the politicians. After doing some research, I found out that my home country was not on the list of the countries where the protests happened. On the one hand, I was upset, but on the other hand, it was not so unsurprising.

Despite the fact that during the recent years Azerbaijan’s rapid economic development has created a number of environmental challenges, most of the population is still not concerned about the ecological problems (for instance, plastic bags are still given for free in all the shops and markets).

In my own childhood I still remember playing with the snow and making snowmen. However, during the last years we have not had any snow in the capital Baku. The temperature very rarely goes below 0 C. Early this year during the winter months we had to go to the northern higher regions of our country for my kids to make snowballs and just to see and feel the snow. Although many people associate us with Russia, Azerbaijan does not get very cold. The Caucasus Mountains get snow in the winter, with temperature as low as -20 C, but they also protect the rest of the country from the freezing cold.

At the same time summers have become extremely hot. Sometimes we have +45 C, and even higher in the middle of the summer. And that was the main reason why several years ago parents of schoolchildren demanded that the government move the start date of the school year from Sept 1st to 15th of September. However, this is still not enough. The country needs more resources, specialists and education for the public to make them aware and also get their help to make changes in this really global climate change issue.