Mikaela Loach

Mikaela Loach (born 1998) is a climate justice activist based in Edinburgh in Scotland who has been nominated for the Global Citizen Prize: UK's Hero Award.[1]

Mikaela Loach
Born16 February 1998
Kingston, Jamaica
NationalityJamaican/British
Known forClimate justice activist, blogger and podcaster

Loach is a medical student at the University of Edinburgh[2] who uses her Instagram platform of over 100,000 to work towards making the climate movement more inclusive, focusing on the intersections of the climate crisis with human rights issues such as white supremacy and maltreatment of migrants.[3]

Alongside Jo Becker, Loach is the co-producer, writer and presenter of the YIKES podcast which explores climate change, human rights and social justice.[4][5]

Early life and education

Loach was born in Jamaica to a British father and Jamaican mother, and was brought up in Surrey, United Kingdom.[1] Loach moved to Edinburgh for university and is currently a 4th year medical student at the University of Edinburgh.[2]

Campaigning

As a teenager, Loach started to become aware of the intersection between environmental and racial justice.[1] In 2019, Loach became a member of the environmental movement, Extinction Rebellion (XR)[6] and in October 2019 travelled from Edinburgh to London to take part in the XR protests[7] to demand politicians listen and act on the climate crisis.[2] She kept a diary of her experiences.[6] At the 2019 XR protest, Loach locked herself to an Extinction Rebellion Scotland stage in attempt to block police from clearing the protest.[6] She was locked to the stage for approximately eight hours before she, and the other locked-on protesters voluntarily released themselves.[6] Loach also campaigns with Climate Camp Scotland.[1]

Speaking to the BBC, Loach said of her motivation:

"I have been changing things in my lifestyle for a long time to try and be more eco-friendly but I had a realisation a few months ago that it doesn't matter if I go vegan or zero-waste if the government doesn't do anything. There need to be big structural changes."[7]

Loach states that she first started going to marches "when the refugee crisis was all over the news a few years ago. I got really into migrant and refugee rights and volunteered in the camp in Calais.... But then one day I realised that these things were really interconnected: the climate crisis is connected to the refugee crisis, and they are both also connected to racial injustice and the legacies of colonialism”[1]

Through her social media, and as a writer for Eco-Age,[8] Loach advocates for environmental justice, racial justice, sustainable fashion, and refugee rights.[9] She has also been a guest on several podcasts, including Andrea Fox's Age of Plastic podcast, and Layla Saad's Good Ancestor Podcast.[10] Loach was a speaker at Zurich's Youth Against Carbon Conference.[11][12] In 2020, Loach created the YIKES podcast with Jo Becker.[5][13]

For her activism work, Loach was named on BBC's Woman's Hour Power List.[14][15]

In 2021 Loach began taking the UK government to court for using taxpayers’ money to fund oil and gas companies.[16]

References
  1. "Activist Mikaela Loach on Breaking up With Fast Fashion and Why Climate Justice Is Racial Justice". Global Citizen. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  2. "Sustainability influencers to follow on Instagram: From veganism to plastic-free living". The Independent. 11 February 2021. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  3. "Ep047: #GoodAncestor Mikaela Loach on Climate Justice & Antiracism". LAYLA F. SAAD. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
  4. Townsend, Solitaire. "100 UK Leading Environmentalists (Who Happen To Be Women)". Forbes. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  5. "Activist Mikaela Loach on Breaking up With Fast Fashion and Why Climate Justice Is Racial Justice". Global Citizen. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  6. "Life at the Extinction Rebellion protests: a diary of the past week". HeraldScotland. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  7. "Extinction Rebellion protests: 'This is a last resort'". BBC News. 8 October 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  8. "Mikaela Loach, Author at Eco-Age". Eco-Age. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  9. Jay, Georgia Murray,Anna. "15 Women Decolonizing Sustainable Fashion". www.refinery29.com. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  10. "Good Ancestor Podcast: Ep047: #GoodAncestor Mikaela Loach on Climate Justice & Antiracism on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  11. "Youth Against Carbon Speakers". www.zurich.co.uk. Retrieved 22 March 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. "'We're fighting for our futures'". BBC News. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  13. "The YIKES Podcast on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  14. "Woman's Hour – Woman's Hour Power List: Our Planet – The Big Reveal – BBC Sounds". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  15. "Woman's Hour Power List 2020: The List". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 22 March 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ""The Only People Who Can Save Us Are Ourselves": Climate Activist Mikaela Loach on Why She's Taking the UK Government to Court". Vogue. 4 November 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.