Ennan was born in Guangzhou, China, and lived in Singapore for a year before moving to Hong Kong when he was 4 years old. He and his friends protest most weeks, and have been interviewed by Greenpeace, the SCMP Young Post, and French magazine Le Petit Journal.

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Ennan Qiu

<h4>
 ENNAN QIU is
 a 15-year-old climate activist. Of Chinese and British descent, he has
 been living in Hong Kong for 11 years. In conversation with
 RACHEL NELSON
 of the Heartfulness Institute, he explains more about himself, his climate
 activism, and his hopes for the future.
</h4>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 Q: Hello Ennan, thanks for joining me. Can you
 tell me a bit more about
 yourself?&nbsp;



 EQ: My favorite
 thing to do is cycling, and I’m an advocate of plant-based eating. I’ve been
 involved in activism since August last year when my friend and I joined
 another young local climate activist who’s now left Hong Kong.&nbsp;&nbsp;



 Q: What prompted you to become a climate
 activist?&nbsp;



 EQ: I’ve cared
 about the environment since I was very young. In primary school, I wrote
 letters to the government and our parliament about Hong Kong’s waste problem
 and the incinerator they were building on a porpoise breeding ground. I’ve
 been vegan since I was 12 years old. Around that time I also went to the
 “Fridays For Future” Climate Strike here in Hong Kong in March 2019, which
 drew thousands of students.



 What prompted me to become an activist was a feeling of helplessness about
 the lack of climate action here. Our government has a very low emission
 reduction target, and people eat 5.5 times as much meat as the international
 average. I have also felt despair and anger about how fishmongers in the
 markets break the law in plain sight and face no consequences. It’s a very
 common practice to throw fish on the dry counters to flop around violently,
 as some people consider that when they’re writhing in pain and moving so
 much they’re fresh and tasty.&nbsp;&nbsp;



 Q: You’ve been an activist longer than you think
 if you’ve been doing
 things since primary school.&nbsp;&nbsp;



 EQ: Yes,
 although I wasn’t drawn to any movements, really.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



 Q: It’s clearly been something you’ve been
 thinking about for a while. So
 why is it important to help the
 climate?&nbsp;&nbsp;



 EQ: As the UN
 Secretary General and former Portuguese Prime Minister, Antonio Guterres,
 said, “The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable that
 greenhouse gas emissions are choking our planet and putting billions of
 people at immediate risk. We are still very much careering toward climate
 catastrophe.”&nbsp;



 Government emission reduction plans are nothing more than weak, undelivered,
 empty promises. The United Nations says that despite pledging to limit
 global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the world is on track for almost a
 3-degree temperature rise by the end of the century, which would be nothing
 short of cataclysmic. This is an abdication of responsibility, and a
 betrayal of younger generations and all life on Earth.&nbsp;&nbsp;



 Q: Yes, we’re seeing the effects everywhere in
 the world. You mentioned
 some of the issues you have around veganism in Hong Kong; is there
 anything else specific to your region, which you are interested in
 changing?&nbsp;&nbsp;



 EQ: Earlier, I
 mentioned the barbaric abuse of animals in wet markets, but right now my
 fellow activists and I have started a campaign targeting McDonald’s, whose
 animal welfare policies have been rated as poor to very poor by the animal
 welfare charity, World Animal Protection. Our aim is to get McDonald’s to
 start serving vegan burgers and plant-based milk at every restaurant.
 Unbelievably, they still don’t do this, even though the vegan McPlant burger
 has been launched in the UK and oat milk is available at McDonald’s in
 Australia.&nbsp;&nbsp;



 Another aim is to get them to reduce their waste by providing reusable
 cutlery instead of takeaway cutlery and ketchup bottles for dining use.
 Greenpeace Hong Kong has found that McDonald’s gives out over 200,000 pieces
 of single-use plastic every day during a two-hour lunch span.&nbsp;



 Q: I didn’t know that. It’s another good reason
 to have these
 conversations with people from different places in the world.
 



 EQ: Most
 McDonald’s don’t have it. They really need to work on that.&nbsp;&nbsp;



<img decoding="async" width="700" height="933" alt="" class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Ennan_Qui_HK_14a3498463.jpeg?updated_at=2023-04-11T11:12:42.317Z" />



 Q: Can you tell us about Fridays For
 Future?&nbsp;



 EQ: Fridays For
 Future is a youth-led climate protest movement with local chapters all over
 the world. It started in 2018, when Greta Thunberg (who was 15 at the time)
 began her first school strike for climate action outside the Swedish
 parliament. She was fed up with the international community’s failure to
 treat the climate crisis as a crisis, and demanded urgent action to stop
 it’s catastrophic impacts.&nbsp;Fridays For Future is part of a new wave of
 change, along with a coalition of other groups around the world, inspiring
 millions of people to take action on the climate. Actually, our group isn’t
 officially affiliated with Fridays For Future, because the original Hong
 Kong group disbanded. We’re interested in reviving it, but we’re not yet
 registered with the official organization.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



 Q: You mentioned that you have a few friends who
 work with you as climate
 activists. Does that help you stay more positive? Does it help you feel
 like you have more support?&nbsp;



 EQ: Definitely.
 I don’t think I could do much on my own. Together our voices are amplified
 and it’s harder for corporations and leaders to ignore us when we are more
 people. It’s also reassuring to know that there are other people who care,
 and we help each other stay on the same page.&nbsp;&nbsp;



 Q: You seem motivated and positive. Where do you
 think that comes from?
 Is it a result of working as a group or are you a motivated and positive
 person anyway?&nbsp;&nbsp;



 EQ: I’ve been
 motivated by all the information about the climate catastrophe, the
 suffering of animals, and factory farms, that compels me to act. To be
 honest, it’s not always easy to stay positive in the face of these problems.
 I guess we just have to remind ourselves that we’re doing the best we can
 with what we have, and feeling down or sad will not change anything or help
 in any way.&nbsp;&nbsp;



 Q: Do you feel like the burden of activism has
 fallen on the younger
 generations, while the older ones have caused many of the problems?&nbsp;&nbsp;



 EQ: I don’t
 blame everyone from the older generations, because I know that not all older
 people are responsible, and there are a lot of adults in the environmental
 movement. But I feel that we young people have a lot more to lose, and that
 is one of the main reasons why most activists are young.&nbsp;&nbsp;



 Q: You mentioned Greta Thunberg, and in the last
 few years many other
 young activists have stepped up to take ownership of their future. What
 would you like to see the people in power doing, and what are your hopes
 for the future?&nbsp;&nbsp;



 EQ: My main
 hope is for world leaders and the international community to wake up, put
 their differences aside, and formulate solid plans to tackle climate change.



 I also hope that governments will take action on animal agriculture as well.
 It contributes as much to climate change as cars, planes, trains, buses, and
 ships combined. There’s been almost no action on this front, even though
 efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees are impossible without a
 drastic fall in meat consumption. We can all play a role by choosing to eat
 more plants and less meat.&nbsp;



 Q: Do you think the animal perspective pushed you
 into activism, leading
 to other environmental issues, or do you think it was a bit of
 both?&nbsp;



 EQ: I think it
 was a bit of both. Originally I was more interested in the environment,
 which is why I wrote letters to the government. Then, around 12 years old I
 became a vegan. One day we were walking at night-time and we heard a cow
 mooing continuously in pain, so we thought it was giving birth.&nbsp;My mom
 told me that dairy cows are forced to breed continuously to ensure a steady
 supply of milk. That’s when I started to learn about the connection between
 animal welfare and the environment. I learned how animal agriculture
 contributes to climate change, the pollution that’s caused by manure, and
 the cutting down of rainforests to make space for growing crops to feed the
 animals. So, I would say it’s a mixture of both. I care equally about both
 issues.&nbsp;&nbsp;



 Q: Did you get a reply from the government to
 your letters?&nbsp;



 EQ: Yes, I did.
 They wrote a long letter justifying all the reasons for the incinerator. I
 still have it somewhere.&nbsp;&nbsp;



 Q: What do the adults in your life think about
 your activism?



 EQ: I would say
 most are supportive. Actually, one of our activists is an adult. Most adults
 know about the climate crisis and see the urgency in solving it. Most don’t
 like factory farming, which is the cramming of animals into cages and tiny
 pens to maximize efficiency, even if they aren’t vegan or vegetarian
 themselves. Some, like my parents, worry that I’ll get into trouble or
 offend people. That helps guide me away from doing things that a lot of
 people won’t like.&nbsp;



 Q: What would you like to do in future? Do you
 think you’ll go down the
 environmental activism route, or will it be something that you do on the
 side throughout your life?&nbsp;



 EQ: I’m not
 sure, but I am considering going into climate science or environmental
 science. I plan to study geography and biology when I start my IB Diploma
 next year, but aside from that I’m not sure what specific job I want to
 have.&nbsp;&nbsp;



 Q: You’re still young, and there’s a lot that can
 change, it’s just that
 you’re clearly very informed. Do you do a lot of research?&nbsp;&nbsp;



 EQ: I did a lot
 of research before my activism. I wrote articles for my school newspaper,
 and I did a few speeches. We had to do a speech in class so I chose this as
 my topic.&nbsp;



 Q: It’s a good topic. Do you have a message for
 young activists, climate
 activists in general, and everyone?&nbsp;&nbsp;


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h4 class="text-center"
 id="h-my-main-message-is-not-to-feel-sad-and-don-t-give-up-hope-because-history-has-shown-that-we-are-capable-of-surmounting-big-challenges">
 My main message is not to feel sad. And don’t give
 up hope,
 because history has shown that we are capable of surmounting
 big challenges.
</h4>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 EQ: My main
 message is not to feel sad. It’s good to be worried, but don’t let it take
 you over. And don’t give up hope, because history has shown that we are
 capable of surmounting big challenges. We created the United Nations, we
 adopted the Geneva Convention, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
 and the Montreal Protocol that helped save the ozone layer, but averting
 this climate catastrophe will require more effort. It requires everyone to
 play their part.



 Some things you can do are eat plant-based foods, even if it’s just one day
 a week or one meal a day, and drive and fly less. It’s better to stay local
 more often. Use less energy, and waste less.&nbsp;



 Q: That sounds good. As you say, everyone is
 living in different
 environments, but it’s hopefully something governments will look at and
 start to create better spaces for people. It’s not all on the individual.
 There are higher levels at work that can do more.&nbsp;&nbsp;



 EQ: I think it
 needs a coordinated effort.&nbsp;&nbsp;



 Q: Yes, definitely a coordinated effort. Thank
 you.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h4 class="text-center" id="h-interview-by-rachel-nelson">
 Interview by RACHEL NELSON
</h4>

<hr />

Ennan Qiu

Ennan was born in Guangzhou, China, and lived in Singapore for a year before moving to Hong Kong when he was 4 years old. He and his friends protest most weeks, and have been interviewed by Greenpeace, the SCMP Young Post, and French magazine Le Petit Journal.

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