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Sarah Gaehwiler, 16 years
Temiskaming Shores, CanadaSarah Gaehwiler is a 16-year-old student and lives in north-eastern Ontario, Canada. When she was six years old, she moved to Canada from Switzerland.
She is part of her high school Green Team. In 2008, she took part in the Cape Farewell Youth Expedition, which allowed her to learn about and see the effects of climate change in the Arctic.
I am from Ontario - where the effects of climate change are sometimes lost amid the din of modern life. However, last year, I went to the Arctic as part of the British Council‘s 2008 Cape Farewell Youth Expedition. The trip has left a lasting impression on me and brought home that stark fact that climate change is very real. The people who live in the Arctic region are struggling to cope with the new realities imposed on them by global warming. Animals are travelling further away from the ancestral hunting grounds and food is more scarce. Travel is becoming more and more difficult because sea ice is getting weaker and disappearing faster in the spring. The lives, livelihoods and rights of people are under threat.
Wildlife is also suffering. Polar bears and other animals native to the region are fighting to survive. With icebergs melting, the Arctic ice disappearing, and glaciers receding, the effects of climate change are bound to have an impact not just on the people who live in the fragile Arctic, but each and every person on the planet - unless we act soon.
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