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Alaskan teen activist encourages youth to speak up for human rights

Alaskan teen activist encourages youth to speak up for human rights

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An American teenager is using his voice to raise awareness of how climate change is having an impact on his small indigenous village of Akiak, Alaska. 

Carl Smith, 17, reports that warmer winters mean residents are finding it hard to carry out traditional subsistence activities such as hunting caribou, while heat spells make it difficult to collect cloudberries and salmonberries in summer. 

Carl will be at UN Headquarters on Tuesday to participate in a panel discussion for Human Rights Day, which this year focuses on youth activism. 

He was last here in September for the UN Climate Action Summit, where he was among a group of young people who filed a complaint against five countries for failing to curb fossil fuel emissions, thus violating children’s rights. 

Carl spoke to Dianne Penn prior to travelling to New York. 

 

Audio Credit
Dianne Penn/UN News
Audio Duration
4'56"
Photo Credit
Boreal forests line a misty fjord in southeast Alaska (file). FAO/Bill Ciesla