Young voices in China’s environmental wilderness – and why they struggle to be heard
- Greta Thunberg’s climate change rallying cry to students has echoed around the globe – except in the world’s second-biggest economy
- Two young Chinese eco-warriors are trying to make a difference – one tree and one mind at a time
Howey, who lives in Guilin in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, saw something of herself in the Swedish teen activist and drew hope amid her despair over environmental problems such as marine plastic pollution.
“[Greta] is 16, the same age as me, and she had such a deep recognition of the climate crisis,” she said. “I then thought that I could also be like her starting from now, to use a huge amount of passion and courage to do what I believe is right.”
So Howey mounted a solo climate strike outside the local government building in her hometown in May, calling on the Chinese government to take more immediate action on the climate crisis. It lasted a week before she was stopped by police, who questioned her and her parents. She was given a stern warning, and her parents tried to limit her contact with other environmental activists.
“At the very beginning, I was very worried because I had never experienced or seen first-hand any kind of protest movement happen around me,” she said.