Photo by AussieActive on Unsplash
Photo on Fridays for Future Cuba

Rubén D. Herrera

Activist

Fridays for Future Cuba

POSITION

Activist

COMPANY

Fridays for Future Cuba

COUNTRY

Cuba

SCENE

Environment

SOCIAL

Twitter

What makes Rubén D. Herrera a Global Shaker?

In Cuba, much like Russia, general strikes for the climate have not been approved. Nevertheless, individuals like Rubén D Herrera are leading environmental action on the streets when possible, and online when not.

The 22 year old is the coordinator of the Cuban chapter of Young People for Climate, and a university student.

“My generation has grown up with a different reality to previous ones, and this has a lot of influence in how young people from the 21st Century interact with the environmental problem through social networks,” he told IPS Cuba.

His social media posts cover everything from murdered indigenous climate activists, to a raging oil spill in Brazil, and the necessity for the COP Climate talks — which were going to take place in Chile — to include Latin American voices.

He was recently one of the young climate activists to attend the C40 World Mayors Summit, urging influential city mayors to work together and preserve and protect the future. It was here that he met with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, stressing the importance of international cooperation.

As a small island, Cuba is particularly susceptible to the impacts of the climate crisis. The country recently acknowledged weather-related threats, such as stronger hurricanes, intense droughts, and rising sea levels, in its constitution.

In a tweet, Herrera wrote to Cuabn President Diaz Canel Bermudez that the #FridaysForFuture groups in Cuba couldn’t leave to the streets to demand a sustainable future in support of the planet. He intends to ask for authorisation again at the end of November — highlighting the dangers facing Cuba, and that “capitalist countries are responsible for the Climate Crisis and we need world leaders to recognise this.”

Tags: Activism, Climate crisis, Cuba

Last updated: November 7, 2019