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Anna Kernahan

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Anna Kernahan is a climate, ecological, social justice and human rights activist, founder of Fridays for Future Northern Ireland, writer, student and youth advocate from Belfast, Northern Ireland. They[a] protest every Friday to acknowledge climate changes and why to take it seriously, as part of Fridays For Future, a global climate strike movement.[2]

Early Life

Anna was born on 25th of July 2002.[1] According to them, at a young age, Anna had already a passion for nature being interested in ecology and wildlife and loving being in nature, going on walks through the hills and reading nature encyclopedias.[3] On 2019, near the age of 17, after reading about Greta Thunberg, Fridays For Future and reports concerning the environment such as the 2018 IPCC special report, Anna became concerned with the climate emergency believing that the educational system is not teaching with enough significance about the climate crisis.[4] So, they started raising awareness about the pollution impact, making scientific data on this topic known and protesting, fighting and demanding actions by the politicians to act on the climate crisis.

Activism

Anna Kernahan striking, as part of the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement.

Initially, Anna's school didn’t support the idea of school striking, but Anna did it anyway and her school let them do it with a few restrictions.[5] Firstly, in May of 2019, Anna joined the Northern Ireland Students’ Climate Network, the Youth Strike 4 Climate branch of Northern Ireland, striking monthly.Then, on September 2019, Anna created Fridays For Future Northern Ireland, the national Northern Irish section of Friday For Future, an association that protests and raises awareness about climate change every Friday around the world.[6][7] Thus, Anna has been school striking every Friday on the sculpture Spirit of Belfast for almost 4 years without any exception, protesting frequently alone.[8] Moreover, during the Covid-19 pandemic, they continued protesting with physical and digital actions.[9] Anna has stated in an interview that they hate striking and would prefer going to school, but they have no option as they felt it is their moral duty.[10][11] Besides remonstrating for the environment, Anna writes poems, their thoughts on the environmental problems and their experiences as an activist and often makes art to concern people about the pollution and other climate problems, specially directed to politicians and governments with power to change the system.[12]

Solo But Not Alone

In December of 2019, Anna Kernahan and two friends, Grace Maddrell and Helen Jackson, created a Twitter page, which in weeks got hundreds of followers, with the purpose of sharing stories of solo climate strikes.[13][14]

Campaign #LearnMoreOutdoors

On 3rd of March 2020, Ulster Wildlife and its Our Bright Future Youth Advocate launched a campaign called #LearnMoreOutdoors to celebrate World Wildlife Day.[15] Anna participated in this movement by helping in its series of videos about the advantages of outdoor schooling and giving their opinion about the subject.[16] On 14th of March 2020, Anna had a TED-Talk where they and another young climate activist, Kaitlyn Laverty, called the viewers to act and take the environmental problems seriously.[17]

Amnesty Brave Award 2020

In 2020, Anna won the Amnesty Brave Award 2020 as, at the time, they had been striking for more than half a year in Ireland, a country with very strict protesting laws.[18]

Northern Ireland Science Festival

In 2021, between 15th to 28th of February, in the Northern Ireland Science Festival, Anna joined a conversation with Jane Goodall and Dr Tarashine, hosted by Lizzie Dalyabout. In the conversation, they talked about how to face the issues of the world and to save it from dying.[19]



References

  1. ^ a b https://twitter.com/AnnaKernahan
  2. ^ Studios, Regen. "Meet Anna Kernahan". The Regenerators. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  3. ^ "'Being out in nature is a fun way to learn'". Belfast Telegraph. 3 March 2021. Retrieved 16 May 2023. Did your interest in ecology/wildlife start at a young age? Yes, I've always loved being in nature, searching for worms and walking through hills. In nursery school I'd be digging in soil to search for insects and once I could read I was obsessed with nature encyclopaedias.
  4. ^ "Interview with Anna Kernahan, Climate Strike Activist". Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review. Retrieved 1 June 2023. Why did you decide to get involved in the climate strikes and why are they important to you? I decided to get involved in the climate strikes because, as I am under 18, I am not able to have a vote in the decisions that will affect my future and so I feel as though I have a moral duty to try and influence the adults who are voting on mine and my generation's behalf. I have been enlightened to the severity of the climate crisis due to reading about Greta Thunberg and 'Fridays' for Future' and reading documents such as the 'IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) special report on climate change' (IPCC, 2018). The best available science is telling us that this is an emergency, but there's no mainstream education on this, so getting involved in the climate strikes is a way of raising awareness of the research from the scientists.
  5. ^ "Interview with Anna Kernahan, Climate Strike Activist". Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review. Spring 2020. Retrieved 1 June 2023. How supportive has your school been to your participation in the climate strikes? Not very supportive at all. At first it was a straight 'no', but when they realised I was just going to do it anyway, I was reluctantly allowed. I have to wear a hoodie underneath my blazer to cover up my school tie and I have to come into school on Fridays first and then leave at break-time to go to the strike location. However, individual teachers have been very supportive of it by helping me catch up on missed work and taking an interest in what we have been doing.
  6. ^ The Newsroom (15 January 2020). "NI teenager: I'd rather be in school than taking part in climate strikes". News Letter. Retrieved 1 June 2023. Anna said: "I joined Youth Strike 4 Climate in May and I started Fridays for the Future in September." {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  7. ^ "Interview with Anna Kernahan". unsustainable. 17 January 2020. Retrieved 1 June 2023. I have been striking with NISCN (Northern Ireland Students' Climate Network), which is the Northern Irish branch of the youth strike for climate movement, since May, and this involves monthly strikes for climate action. However, by August literally nothing had happened, so I wanted to do more. There was no FridaysForFuture strike in my country, so I created my own, and currently solo strike.
  8. ^ "Interview with Anna Kernahan". unsustainable. 17 January 2020. Retrieved 1 June 2023. Instead, every week without fail, sometimes with company but frequently alone, she protests at the Spirit of Belfast statue in Cornmarket, Belfast.
  9. ^ "'Being out in nature is a fun way to learn'". Belfast Telegraph. 3 March 2021. Retrieved 16 May 2023. Yes, there have been school strikes every Friday but on a much smaller scale. Every crisis should be treated like a crisis and this means both the climate crisis and the coronavirus crisis so we are trying to balance the importance of raising awareness of the environment while also staying safe.
  10. ^ The Newsroom (15 January 2020). "NI teenager: I'd rather be in school than taking part in climate strikes". News Letter. Retrieved 1 June 2023. Anna Kernahan, a 17-year-old pupil at Victoria College in Belfast, said she would much rather be in school than taking part in climate strikes.However she argues that she is being let down by an education system that isn't telling "the full story" and therefore feels the need to take to the streets to raise awareness of the climate crisis. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  11. ^ "Interview with Anna Kernahan, Climate Strike Activist". Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review. Retrieved 1 June 2023. I honestly hate striking, but I have no other choice. This sounds strange, but would you like to sit on a cold stone slab for hours in the rain every single week that you only need to do because others aren't doing their jobs properly?
  12. ^ https://annakernahan.co.uk/author/annakernahanclimate/
  13. ^ "Interview with Anna Kernahan". unsustainable. 17 January 2020. Retrieved 1 June 2023. You mention digital support from across the world. How has social media influenced this conflict for you? Massively influenced it. I don't know if I'd still be a striker today if I didn't live in the age of the internet. Me and two friends, Helen and Grace, have co- founded "solo but not alone". The purpose of this is to uplift, expose and raise awareness of climate strikers who are alone every Friday. We want to share the message that, although we may be alone physically, we are not truly alone: we're all out there in our respective countries at the same time united behind the science and fighting for our future and I think there's something really wholesome and motivating in that. Everyday, we highlight the brilliant work and tell the story of another solo striker and on Fridays we retweet lots of people all over the world.
  14. ^ https://twitter.com/solo_not_alone?s=09
  15. ^ "Ulster Wildlife Youth Advocates call for students to #LearnMoreOutdoors". Ulster Wildlife. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  16. ^ "'Being out in nature is a fun way to learn'". Belfast Telegraph. 3 March 2021. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  17. ^ "Young climate justice activists call for action". TED. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  18. ^ "Amnesty Brave Awards 2020". Amnesty International UK. Retrieved 1 June 2023. Anna Kernahan is a 17-year-old climate activist who unfailingly takes part in weekly climate strikes in Northern Ireland as part of the global Fridays for Future movement. She has now kept it up for six months: a considerable achievement given that protest laws are stricter than elsewhere in the UK.
  19. ^ "How to Save The Planet - In conversation with Dr. Jane Goodall DBE, Tara Shine and Anna Kernahan". British Council: Northern Ireland. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  1. ^ Anna Kernahan uses they/them pronouns.[1]
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