72 Time March 1/March 8, 2021 PHOTOGRAPH BY GABRIELA HASBUN
VANESSANAKATE24 • Climate-justice
championBY GRETA THUNBERGA year ago, Ugandan climate activist
Vanessa Nakate joined me and three
other European activists at a press
conference in Davos. We were there to
hold the leaders gathered at the World
Economic Forum accountable for
their continued lack of action on the
climate crisis. At the press conference,
an Associated Press photographer took
a photo of all five of us—but Vanessa
was cropped out of the final picture.
Vanessa told the U.S. news agency: “You
didn’t just erase a photo. You erased a
continent.” But Vanessa refused to be
cut out of the conversation.
Africa is the most-exposed region
to the adverse effects of the climate cri-
sis despite contributing the least to ris-
ing emissions, and Vanessa continues
to help lead the fight for climate justice.
With her mantra, “We cannot eat coal.
We cannot drink oil,” Vanessa has be-
come a powerful voice calling for an
end to all fossil-fuel investment across
Africa. She started the Green Schools
Project to transition schools in Uganda
to solar energy. She is also a champion
for educating and empowering girls and
young women—the sixth most powerful
climate solution we have, according to
the experts at Project Drawdown.
In this moment of intersecting
crises—from COVID-19 to racial injus-
tice, from ecological problems to eco-
nomic inequality—Vanessa continues to
teach a most critical lesson. She reminds
us that while we may all be in the same
storm, we are not all in the same boat.Thunberg is a climate activistJohnny
Chiang
48 • Striking a
balance
Elected in 2020 as the youngest-
ever leader of Asia’s oldest
political party, 48-year-old Johnny
Chiang knew that reforming
Taiwan’s Kuomintang (KMT)
wouldn’t be easy. But given
that his party had just suffered
two straight crushing election
defeats, he knew they needed to
move away from their aging base
and attract a new generation of
voters. The problem: the KMT
has long held the position that
self-ruling Taiwan and the Chinese
mainland are a part of the same
country—a notion welcomed by
Beijing but alienating to young
Taiwanese eager to forge their
own way. Recalibrating this
stance is vital to the future of the
KMT; however, it risks angering
an increasingly hawkish Chinese
government, which has repeat-
edly vowed to invade should
Taiwan declare independence.
Moreover, the U.S. is obliged by
treaty to sell Taiwan weapons,
and could be drawn into any
conflict. Regional stability may
rely on the ability of Chiang—a
U.S.-trained former academic
and economist—to navigate this
tightrope while quelling populist
voices within his own ranks. “The
youth will be the major decision-
makers in our party,” Chiang
tells TIME. —Charlie Campbell
100 next