Environment advocate calls for action against climate change

Last month, Jamyang Jamtsho Wangchuk, 40, walked all the way to Lunana, sometimes carrying his bicycle on his back. He collected a pet bottle and filled it with glacial water from Thorthormi which he shows to the students when he visits schools to talk about the impacts of climate change.

Jamyang an actor, filmmaker, and advocate and environmentalist said that the bottle signifies plastic pollution and the glacial water represents the melting glaciers. “The bottle as a whole is symbolic of climate action.”

He resumed the campaign from Pemagatshel on September 1 and he is currently in Sakteng, Trashigang. He visited Trashiyangtse lower secondary school on September 2, talked to the students about climate change, and collected a bunch of letters that the members of the school’s nature club wrote to the world leaders last year.

“Along with the water bottle, I will carry these letters,” he said. The team plans to go beyond Bhutanese to raise awareness about climate change.

The campaign covers 15 dzongkhags in Bhutan – Pemagatshel, Trashiyangtse, Trashigang, Lhuntse, Mongar, Bumthang, Zhemgang, Trongsa, Wangdue, Punakha, Chukha, Haa, Paro, and Thimphu. Gasa has already been covered.

He could not cover all 20 dzongkhags due to the fund constraints. He also could not get approval to visit schools in some dzongkhags.

Jamyang said that he started the campaign in Pemagatshel because of his love for nature started from there.

“I took part in planting a Jangchubshing in Pemagatshel Middle Secondary School where I studied before,” he said.

He also visited Jigme Sherubling Higher Secondary School in Khaling, Trashigang.

The campaign has three key messages: plant trees and take care of them, transition to renewable energy, and include climate studies in the school curriculum. This is why he is driving an electric car.

“We are a small team filming on mobile phone,” he said.

The project will continue until 2030.