BY KYLA MANDEL
WHEN AYISHA SIDDIQA TALKS ABOUT poetry, her face lights up. For the 24-year-old Pakistani human-rights and climate defender, poetry represents hope—a way to bring humanity back into the staid, high-level conversations that increasingly occupy her time. At the annual U.N. climate conference in Egypt in November, she shared an original poem titled “So Much About Your Sustainability, My People Are Dying” as an unvarnished rebuke of leaders’ failure to act on climate change—the effects of which were made clear by Pakistan’s deadly floods last summer.
Her mission is deeply personal. At 14, Siddiqa realized how unsafe the environment can be after witnessing the illness and death—including of her grandparents—that came from her community’s polluted river water. At 16, she experienced another awakening as she became aware of the link between human rights and climate change. Growing up in a matriarchal, tribal community in eastern Pakistan helped shape her outlook. “I was raised with the idea that the earth is a living being, that she gives life to you and in return, you have a responsibility,” she says. “And I think we, collectively, have come to a point where we are ignoring the cries of earth mother.” These realities and values motivate Siddiqa to use her voice to uplift the vul
