Teenagers in the Solomon Islands want Boris Johnson and world leaders to take urgent action on the climate crisis before it's too late.
As the UK prepares to host COP26, the UN summit on climate change, these young people ask for more than empty promises and arbitrary targets and instead demand real action.
The Solomon Islands is at the forefront of climate change despite the country contributing very little to global carbon emissions.
People there experience rising sea levels, cyclones and flash flooding which has a deep impact on their health and education.
Writing in the Mirror today, these five teenagers share their experiences and hopes for the future...
'The sea never used to come up so close and now my home is a constant reminder of the loss of my brothers'
By Jerma Batzy, 15
With its sandy white beaches and crystal clear waters, the Solomon Islands looks like paradise.
But many of us here have lost our homes and, in my case, even family members because of the climate crisis.
My family and I believe sea level rise contributed to the deaths of my two disabled brothers, who were pulled into the water and drowned.
The sea used to be 50 metres away from our house but as time went on, I could see the water coming closer and closer, until it was eventually right on our doorstep.
My worried parents told us not to go down to where we used to play but in the summer of 2014, my 10-year-old brother Michael, who could not walk properly, was sitting on the sea wall where our grandparents used to read stories to us.
During an exceptionally high-tide, Michael was pulled into the sea and drowned.
Tragically, my six-year-old brother Dona also drowned when he was crawling along the path by the house and was swept into the water by the tide in 2017.
The sea never used to come up so close and now my home is a constant reminder of the loss of my brothers, whose graves are in our garden.
My younger sister is also disabled, so I worry deeply for her safety near the sea as well.
Sometimes during high tides my village in Langa Langa Lagoon, Malaita province, gets covered with sea water.
The root crops and vegetables for our meals get destroyed by the salt water so all we can eat is rice, tinned food, and noodles.
This affects our diet and our overall health.
Our village sits on a man-made island, many of which have been around for centuries, built by our ancestors from rocks on top of shallow reefs.
Some of these islands, like my parents’ and grandparents’ former homes, are now submerged.
In 1986, they had to leave their old home after one of the most deadly cyclones in Solomon Islands history struck.
Now all that remains are a few rocks poking above the water.
After the cyclone, my family set up home on a new island where my brothers, sisters and I used to play safely among the mangrove trees and the coconuts.
Now everywhere I loved as a child is underwater.
I do not feel safe here but there is nowhere else for us to go.
Many families relocate to higher ground, but this causes conflict over land ownership.
Sea level rise in the Solomon Islands is happening at a rate of almost three times the global average, at around 7-10mm per year since 1993.
And while the rising seas cannot be blamed on climate change alone, it provides a window to the rest of the world of what is to come in the next 100 years if we do not take urgent action.
Activities like logging, cutting mangrove trees for firewood and household cooking contribute because they threaten our food security and ecosystems.
But when it comes to global emissions, our country contributes very little compared to the western world and yet we are the ones living with its effects.
Climate change is a global issue which cannot be addressed by an individual nation.
For us it is a daily concern for our lives.
Our people are strong, but the land we live on is vulnerable.
I can only hope my home in paradise will still be here in 50 years time.
'If nothing is done, this will result in a huge body of climate refugees'
By Diana Gelina, 15
I come from a small coastal village in the Solomon Islands.
Climate change and sea level rise is one of the biggest problems for my community and my family.
Our home is 16 meters from the seashore.
I often sit in front of my family house feeling the breeze from the wind and watching the waves splashing against the rocks around our home.
This year, there were unusually high tides during May and June.
The sea flooded my home, our small vegetable garden, and our fruit trees.
It also went into the freshwater wells that we had dug to collect water for washing and swimming, filling them with saltwater.
Now, my family is worried because we have nowhere to go.
Moving to higher ground would lead to disputes with the people who currently live there. Instead, we have to face staying here.
When the school grounds are too flooded, our teachers send us back home. Missing lessons makes me sad.
At other times of the year, the temperature gets really hot, killing our crops.
The weather pattern here is abnormal now. Anything can happen at any time and we live in fear.
The government of our country has promised to help us, but they have failed to do so.
We want to fix these problems ourselves but we need help. World leaders should take climate change seriously.
Extreme weather and rising sea levels are already affecting our food, water, health, and livelihoods.
In the not-so-distant future, they will wipe away our homes.
Climate change is making our islands uninhabitable.
If nothing is done, this will result in a huge body of climate refugees who have no place to seek shelter.
The young people here, like me, are the ones who will be the most affected.
So let us join our hands and work together to try to solve this crisis.
'I want world leaders to help us end this nightmare'
By Junior Kevin, 17
I am a young concerned citizen of the Solomon Islands.
I want to raise my voice about the devastating issue that is affecting our daily lives here: climate change.
In my community, extreme sea level rise is making it complicated to access food and water.
Our gardens are often flooded, killing our crops.
We rely on one dugout well for freshwater and, when this fills with seawater, there's nothing for us to drink.
These food and water shortages are affecting the health of the young people in my community, including me.
People living next to the coast have started moving inland in search of better land to plant crops.
As a result, landownership issues arise because people are moving to places they don’t really belong.
I want world leaders to help us end this nightmare.
I think they should look at the causes of climate change and reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
Here in the Solomon Islands, I know we also contribute to the issue by cutting down mangrove trees.
We need to work together to solve these problems, because we will all be affected by climate change.
'My grandfather said his generation experienced flooding, but never like this.'
By Corrine Roina, 17
It was the evening of February 20, 2016, when there was a very strong wind which began to blow and caused the leaves from the trees to fly all over the place.
Dark clouds began to form and thunder rumbled close by.
The rain fell heavily and the river started to flood.
My mother told everyone to go to bed.
When we were all asleep in the middle of the night, I heard a rushing sound of water running heavily and quickly.
My mother was panicking because the water was rising and overflowing through the kitchen.
My family woke up and rushed to the neighbouring houses for safety.
My mother, my two brothers and I quickly gathered money, batteries, a few clothes, bags of uncooked foods and the radio.
We didn't know if we'd be coming back.
At that moment I was so scared because it almost flooded my home.
I told my mother how serious the situation was. We needed to move further inland because we lived close to the river.
My grandfather said his generation experienced flooding, but never like this.
The river is now five metres wide and dangerous.
When it starts to rain heavily and the river starts to flood, I know what to do and where to go for safety. But we cannot keep rebuilding each year after the rainy season.
We need global action to stop polluting the atmosphere and help to protect our world.
'We miss school to find fresh water'
By Mathew Toli, 16
Every morning before school, all the children in my small village collect water for our families to use for washing and cooking.
In the past, it was much easier: we just took buckets to the wells in our village.
Nowadays, the sea has risen so much that the wells are all full of saltwater and we can't use the water from them.
Now, it is really hard to find fresh water.
We have to walk or paddle long distances to find another source.
In the afternoon, after school, we have to collect water again.
Many of us miss days of school because we are so tired from walking so far.
We urgently need a water supply in my village.
This would really help children like me because we will have the time and energy to attend school.
I know that a new water supply won’t solve this problem forever as sea levels continue to rise.
It is becoming harder and harder to live on our island.
'Lots of coastal areas have been flooded'
By Ian Rodie, 19
My family and I go to our coconut plantation regularly. It is next to the beach, slightly further up the shore from our home.
We go there to collect copra, a form of dried coconut that is used to make coconut oil.
Farming and exporting copra contributes a lot to our economy here in the Solomon Islands.
There used to be a natural pool near our plantation that my family and I loved visiting.
It was full of fish, prawns and colourful sea creatures.
After work, we would spend hours having fun in the pool, swimming and splashing around.
One day, my cousins and I decided to visit the pool for a picnic and a diving trip.
When we arrived, we found that the pool had flooded so much that there was no land left to have our picnic on.
The pool had become really deep and I could barely see any of the sea creatures.
I was so confused back then because it was the first time I had witnessed the impact of sea level rise.
Today, the coastal areas around my village are flooded more and more regularly.
The trees that used to line the shore have been destroyed by the rising water, and many of our coconut trees have died too.
I am concerned that we won't be able to produce coconut oil for much longer and our economy will suffer.
If world leaders fail to tackle the climate emergency, I am worried that my entire island will be submerged.
We need to act now, before it is too late.
'We were stunned at how quickly the weather changed as our new year celebrations came to a sombre end'
By Timothy Windbreak, 15, and Cinderella Sia, 15
On New Year’s Eve 2018, our coastal village was torn apart by a devastating cyclone.
Before it arrived, the sky was crystal clear, the stars were twinkling and the calm ocean didn’t make a sound.
It was a perfect atmosphere for the celebrations; the smell of the roast chicken filled the air as our brothers and sisters drank and danced to music.
It was a truly joyful night until 30 minutes before the big countdown, when the weather suddenly changed.
Dark clouds filled the sky and a strong wind blew hard against our houses.
Huge storm surge waves roared and rolled speedily up the shorelines up into the mainland.
People were scared because many of our homes were made of temporary materials and were old – they would not survive a cyclone.
Waves smashed against the coral reefs and huge rocks from the sea were hurled towards the land, causing rubbish and debris to wash up on the shore.
Coconut trees were uprooted and thrown down, many coastal homes were destroyed.
The sea water and the rain water poured into the low-lying villages.
We were stunned at how quickly the weather changed as our new year celebrations came to a sombre end.
Some people were running around in a panic, carrying their luggage and other necessities to the church building, an evacuation hall for the community.
Others searched for higher grounds but some of us waited in our homes, shivering and scared.
Suddenly, the roof of our house blew off and the walls were damaged by the huge rolling waves, so we fled to the church for cover.
The storm battered our land all night.
On New Year’s morning, we broke cover and found the sea was calm and the winds had dropped, but our beautiful white sandy beach was covered with uprooted corals, dead fish and tree branches.
We lived temporarily with neighbours while we started to clean up and set up a new site to build a new house.
It took three months to rebuild our home, which we feared would be torn down again by the weather.
In response, the chief of the village and our people planted trees along the coastlines to stop flooding and dug wide drains behind the village to allow water to flow slowly to the sea during rainy seasons.
But there is only so much we can do to keep this weather at bay.
We expect weather like this during our rainy season, but in the past 40 years cyclones like these have become more intense and more destructive storms now form more often.
Warming oceans could also drive more dangerous cyclones like these.
We worry because it’s likely they will get bigger and more deadly as time goes by.
That’s why we need to come together and act now, before it’s too late.
