Jordan Sanchez, the pen and voice behind this year’s evocative poem for World Environment Day, always makes sure her poetry mixes urgency with hope. While the subject matter is often serious- climate, race and gun control- she leaves listeners with a call to action and the message that things can get better.
“I want people to understand the situation we are in is serious but there is always something we can do, we have to remain positive and we have to act,” said Sanchez, 19.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) asked Sanchez, who is studying physics at Harvard University, to produce a poem to mark World Environment Day 2021. The result – a spoken word piece titled - ‘Recreate. Reimagine. Restore!’ - is a powerful call to action, reminding listeners that we must stop plundering and start protecting the planet’s resources. It ties into the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a UN initiative to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide.
Sanchez, who was born and raised in the Bronx, New York City and comes from Puerto Rican, Congolese and Togolese descent. She first gained prominence when she was a finalist at the 2019 Climate Speaks Program. Her poem at that event, entitled ‘Climate Denial’, talks of the dangers of climate change: “Our blue waters we pretended to love, suffocated with plastic we disposed of,” but also implores everyone to get involved: “You see, big problems are made up of little ones, and solutions are the same way. They start in this room.”
She draws inspiration from her hero Amanda Gorman. “She just graduated from Harvard and we are both Black women,” said Sanchez. “Seeing her reciting poetry at the inauguration was so cool.”
I want people to understand the situation we are in is serious but there is always something we can do, we have to remain positive and we have to act.
As a Black and Hispanic woman, Sanchez is especially concerned about environmental justice. She has seen how people of colour are disproportionally affected by the impact of climate change, often because they live in poorer areas. “We are often the first hit by disaster and the last saved,” she said.
Sanchez would like to see her World Environment Day poem inspire action, so we can leave the world better than we found it.
As her poem says: “We are a fraction of a second in earth’s lifetime. Yet she is our only lifeline."
The United Nations General Assembly has declared the years 2021 through 2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Led by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN Decade is designed to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide. This global call to action will be launched on 5 June, World Environment Day. The UN Decade will draw together political support, scientific research and financial muscle to massively scale up restoration with the goal of reviving millions of hectares of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Visit www.decadeonrestoration.org to learn more.
