Enya Fang
2024 Youth Climate Activism Award - Essay
Enya is a 16 year old from British Columbia.
Before I cared about the climate crisis, I cared about helping others. My organization, Evergreen Collective, was the brainchild of BCβs worst recorded wildfire season in history. We started by hosting Krispy Kreme fundraisers for wildfire victims and gradually diversified: I launched ECFβs travel blog, an educational series that documents worldwide conservation efforts. I sat down to interview unsung leaders in the climate movement: a man named βSanta Hankβ who started his own recycling charity for the homeless, a teenager in Nunavut who became UNICEFβs youth ambassador to share her voice in the climate movement. Eventually, I began expanding our environmental work beyond Canada. Today, ECF is a registered, international youth-led nonprofit with 4 national branches (BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario) and 2 international branches (Turkey, United States). To date, I have raised over $6800 for varying causes, published over 50 climate articles, and worked with hundreds of volunteers from all over the world in organizing community cleanups, blogs, and webinars.
Image from Evergreen Collective website.
Alongside ECF, I currently serve on the worldβs largest youth-led oceans council, mentoring environmental projects from Asia, Africa, and North America with a team of 14 student activists. As an avid leader of our schoolβs Environmental Club and Environmental Stewardship Committee, I helped rally the Board of Governors to invest in an anti-idling sign after conducting an audit on parking lot exhaust fumes, led WWF energy conservation initiatives, and held varying bottle/E-Waste drives. As 1 of 3 student ambassadors to the Climate Action Accelerator Program (CAAP), I have participated in and presented at dozens of climate policy workshops with students across Canada.
Image from Climate Action Accelerator website
Aside from direct activism, my artistic side utilizes writing as a means of inadvertently communicating the climate crisis. For the 2020 LTMAD Contest, I wrote about Nova Scotian youth activist Stella Bowles who campaigned for the federal government to clean the heavily polluted LaHave River by her home β I was later chosen as National Champion out of 3000 entries. Similarly, I chose climate change as my topic for the 2021 CBC First Page contest, illustrating a world in which the Earth is made inhabitable by environmental negligence. That story was 1 of 10 shortlisted nationally and later published on CBC, helping to indirectly educate the public on climate change through an artistic medium.
Enya Fang, 13, is one of 10 finalists in the Grades 7 to 9 category of The First Page student writing challenge (Submitted by Enya Fang) Original photo on CBC website.
Before I cared about the climate crisis, I cared about helping others. The fact that climate change does not discriminate in its ability to harm makes it a humanitarian crisis. Through founding ECF, I have sought to educate and fundraise for the most vulnerable groups on an international stage. With my schoolβs club and Environmental Stewardship Committee, I have exchanged ideas with youth activists across Canada, channelling the skills and knowledge learned into revising our schoolβs environmental policy. In my spare time, I take to my favourite craft as an artistic medium to illustrate the layers of the climate crisis: its urgency and the people that give our future hope. Someday, I hope to be one of those people.
As part of the submissions application we asked participants to answer these 3 questions in addition to their essay or video.
What future goals do you have around your environmental and climate work, and do you have any future projects in mind?
One of my key career values is working a profession either with a concentration in innovative sustainability or humanitarianism - the two of which combine my passion for activism and the environment. With my nonprofit, I'd like to scale into more international chapters as well as collaborate with leading youth activists (Sophia Kianni, Gitanjali Rao) in blog/webinar posts. I'm also interested in serving positions on larger councils (ie. Canada's Federal Environmental Advisory Group, UN Advisory Group, World Oceans Council, etc.). Recently, I was invited as a youth speaker to a conference by the Green Party's federal council, so pursuing more opportunities in the intersection between politics and environmentalism is certainly on my radar!
Future Projects:
Partnering with the Millennium Alliance for Humanity & Biodiversity (MAHB) in writing articles on the youth climate mentality (current/ongoing).
Hosting a Sustainable Fashion Show in Downtown Vancouver with ECF (current)
Hopefully speaking at a COP conference one day with YOUNGO/IPCC youth advisory groups.
If you could share with us one message of hope for our planet, what would it be?
You are not Greta Thunberg, you did not always understand climate change, and here you are, reading the stories of people just like you. When will you write your story?
Who or what inspires you to work on climate change?
A list: cold mountain air, Moraine Lake, blue-black waves, Earthrise, Anne of Green Gables, misty forests, a snowless childhood spent in Singapore, and seeing the yellow salmons drawn beside every storm drain in my neighbourhood telling me that everywhere, there are people who care.