Environmental activists held a rally under the Myaynigone flyover in Yangon yesterday afternoon as part of an international movement that demands action on global warming.
About 25 young demonstrators held placards reading “Save the Earth” and “No Coal” as they urged the Myanmar government to wake up to the “climate emergency.”
When notified of the peaceful rally on Wednesday, local authorities told the organisers that protests were restricted in Sanchaung township and insisted on a change of location.
Citing the peaceful assembly law, which does not authorise police to deny permission for protests, the organisers stuck to their original choice—a popular hangout spot that provides shelter from the rain.
A police officer based in Sanchaung police station told Myanmar Mix over the phone that the officers who met with the organisers were unavailable for comment.
“We may be sued by the authorities but we took the risk because people are losing their lives,” one of the organisers, Zay Linn Mon, 23, told Myanmar Mix.
“In central Myanmar people are dying of heat stroke. Yangon is becoming hotter and hotter. In the summer you can’t even go on the streets during the daytime.”
The government should engage with experts and the country’s youth to halt biodiversity loss and better protect the environment, said the computer science student.
Yangon saw its hottest temperature on record, 42 degrees Celsius, in April, while parts of central Myanmar hit 45C, causing dozens of cases of heat strokes, some of them fatal.
Meanwhile, rising sea levels in the Ayeyarwady delta, an area devastated by Cyclone Nargis in 2008, threaten to permanently flood areas and destroy agriculture land.
Droughts are also becoming more frequent, pushing some studies to identify Myanmar as the world’s second most vulnerable country to extreme weather events.
Explaining the severity of these events, psychology student Kyaw Ye Htet, 21, told the crowd on Friday that the government should stop any projects that are “seriously damaging the environment,” adding, “We will continue the movement until the government responds to the climate emergency.”
Nine uniformed police officers sat across the road, but did not interfere in the protest. A band passed around lyric sheets and sang a couple of songs, and Yangon’s altruistic punks manned a stall of free clothes.
“Today we had some more students get involved in our movement, which means a lot,” Kyaw Ye Htet told Myanmar Mix.
“I am so happy to help organise this in Myanmar. We ask the government to listen to the voice of our movement, the students and the civil society concerning the climate crisis, and to implement programmes that will fight the crisis.”
The activists were inspired by teenager Greta Thunberg, who started international movement Fridays for Future when she began skipping school on Fridays last year to protest climate change outside the Swedish parliament.
The first Myanmar climate rally was held at Maha Bandula Park on May 24 and more Friday demonstrations are planned, with the activists posting updates on Facebook page Fridays for Future Myanmar.
Philosophy student Ei Thiri Kyaw, 20, helped start the group and attended yesterday’s rally.
“We need to do this,” she said. “The Myanmar government has got to change its policy on climate change and the environment.”
