Climate activist making waves

I have made saving the environment cool

Ghaamid Abdulbasat Hatibu is an awardwinning 24-year-old environmental influencer dedicated to involving young Tanzanians in efforts to combat climate change. Here he talks to Mark Edwards about how he sees individual action bringing about collective change

You have to imagine that no-one feels the weight of climate change more acutely than the young. They and their children to come have been left with an environmental burden because of the failure of previous generations to tackle the problem. This year has put the issue in stark relief with heatwaves and hurricanes in the US, flooding in Europe and China, and, closer to home, Cyclone Jobo hitting the Tanzanian coastline and Zanzibar archipelago. The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded it is an “established fact” these extremes of weather were the result of human-caused warming.

There is fear, despair and anger among Generation Z, but also, according to 24-year-old environmental campaigner Ghaamid Abdulbasat Hatibu, there is hope. The Tanzanian has taken to heart the do-or-die call to action of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon: “We are also the last generation that can slow global warming before it is too late.”

Ghaamid realises that to have hope for the future requires unprecedented collective action. Since his late teens the Sokoine University of Agriculture graduate has taken it upon himself to be a rallying voice in Tanzania and beyond its borders, galvanising his peers to drive environmental policy change. He has made award-winning educational videos about issues such as desertification, is the ambassador of more than five international environment coalitions representing his country and has harnessed the power of social media to organise and educate young Tanzanians about the climate crisis. “I have made it cool to be an environmentalist,” he says.

Ghaamid was made one of the National Geographic's Young Explorers last year

Climate ambassador

Last year, Ghaamid was chosen by the Earth Day Network – the world’s largest recruiter to the environmental movement – to be its regional co-ordinator for Sub-Saharan Africa.

As any self-respecting Gen Zer does, Ghaamid loves his social media, but not just to post selfies and blogs but a place “to organise and educate” people about the climate crisis. He oversees the network’s Earth Challenge App, which allows users (the free app can be downloaded for iOS and Android phones) to share photos of plastic pollution in their communities.

For Ghaamid, the app is “an amazing way to mobilise the youth to document the extent of the problem” and the weight of feeling behind the need for change. As users take a picture of any build-up of plastic waste they see, they can tag it with the GPS co-ordinates of its location. The shared pictures and their map points ultimately are presented to local and national governments in the hope they will form a persuasive argument for swift action.

The app is a key tool in the network’s Citizen Science Africa programme – other apps include ‘Save the Bees’ in which users can take photos of bees, an important indicator of ecosystem health, and tag by genus and location – which Ghaamid is helping to set up in the region to inspire people around the world to monitor threats to the environment and human health in their communities.

The body of data from Tanzania is extensive – more than 500 images have been uploaded on the Earth Challenge App from Dar es Salaam alone – where Ghaamid has been heavily involved in projects such as the country’s chapter of the High Seas Alliance, a NGO which tackles the impact local pollution issues can have the much bigger and more critically threatened eco systems of the oceans. He also leads the Tanzanian Youth Biodiversity Network since it was set up in 2018. Here he has a team of around 200 volunteers who organise regular events such as beach clean-ups and tree-planting programmes as well as a series of biodiversity workshops and clubs at Sokoine and the University of Zanzibar.

The network’s beach clean-ups take place each year on Earth Day – a globally recognised call for environmental reform held every April 22 and which last year marked its 50th anniversary – but they have inspired the Mayor of Dar es Salaam to organise a similar event every month. Ghaamid helps drum up support for each event through Facebook posts and says more than 50 volunteers turned up for the last event. He tells me: “If people are out there asking themselves ‘what can I do to play a part?’ they can follow our digital media outlets for a host of ideas.”

Community is the key

Ghaamid understands that sense of overwhelm the youth of Tanzania may feel at the scale of the task involved in bringing climate change under control. “In Tanzania we have a big job to do,” he says. “But we have to work together on community-focused projects to get our voices amplified and bring about change.”

Ghaamid believes environmentalists such as him do have the ear of the Tanzanian government and points to the country’s 2019 ban on single-use plastic bags and the meeting this September between UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed and Tanzanian President Suluhu Samia in which a roadmap to achieving the UN’s 17 global sustainable goals – which include climate action – was discussed.

While he sets a powerful example now, Ghaamid admits he hasn’t always been so switched on about environmental issues. “I was just a normal kid,” he says. “I wanted to grow up and become an airline pilot. I can remember speaking about global warming as part of my general studies at high school and not really understanding it.”

Rising profile

The awareness shift came at Sokoine University, where Ghaamid studied for a BSC in environmental sciences. The course gave him a chance to study meteorology and the environment and his life gained new direction. Soon the impassioned Ghaamid had taken on the role of the university’s environmental influencer, mobilising his fellow students about the dangers of climate change.

He set up his own YouTube channel and his videos on topics such as desertification in Africa beat entries from across the world to twice win the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification video and photo competition. He also won first prize at the similarly global TveBiomovies environment video competition. Since leaving university, his video work has continued with creation of a video series on environmental awareness known as the GM Climate Series.

His rising profile has brought him to the attention of the National Geographic Society, which invests in innovative leaders in science. Last year it inducted him into its Young Explorers fellowship and awarded him a grant to pursue his environmental projects.

More financial support has come from international study programme Erasmus Mundus, which has in the last few months given him a scholarship to help him with eco-hydrology projects. It’s an area that has consumed him of late and his enthusiasm for the topic is palpable as he talks to me.

“I love that you can use nature itself to reverse some of the damage we have done to it. For example, we have used tree planting around river banks to improve water flow and reduce flooding. We have also been working in mining regions in Tanzania where mercury has seeped into water sources. We have found a plant that feeds on that mercury and effectively cleans the water.”

Ghaamid is a driven man and his work rarely lets up. When we speak over the phone he is attending a Unesco workshop on disaster reduction being held at a hotel in Bagamoyo. The Unesco youth ambassador is able to spare me some time to share his message in a break between presentations.

To Ghaamid, such a work ethic is essential. There is no time to lose. This environmental influencer wants you to seize the moment with him.

HOW TO PLAY YOUR PART

Ghaamid shares some tips on what we can all do to combat climate change

• Don’t litter. I always carry a reusable bottle for my drinks and if I create rubbish, I put it in my pocket until I find a recycling point to get rid of it.

• Educate yourself. Access as much information on the subject as you can. Digital media is a great learning resource.

• Make your voice heard by those in power. The policy makers need to know the extent of the problem.

• Respect and protect green spaces. They help to cool overheated urban areas and are habitats for wildlife. Love them or lose them.

Follow Gaamid:

Instagram @el_gameedoh

Twitter @GhaamidMavura