STANDING at five feet tall, Joanna Sustento has to be strategic in pushing her way into the frontline so the world will hear why the climate crisis has to end in her lifetime.
Sustento, who survived the 2013 Super Typhoon Yolanda but lost her parents and most of her family members to the storm, says the fossil fuel industries are to be blamed for the world's climate crisis "because they have created this system and did not give us an alternative."
"We should always be reminded of what happened six years ago because it is a lesson all must carry if we want to work towards system change," says Sustento of Tacloban City, Yolanda's ground-zero.
"The story of Yolanda speaks not just for Tacloban, it speaks for the other climate-impacted communities globally," she adds.
From her pioneering protest ride at the oil rig in Norway's Arctic sea in 2017 to her lone and silent protest in front of the towering Philippine Shell headquarters in Manila last September 2019, Sustento has virtually poured out all her "mind and might" on her advocacy being a part of the international environmental group Greenpeace.
Sustento and her group have petitioned Shell company, along with other big greenhouse gas emitting industries, at the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines since 2015 to investigate the climate impact of carbon majors which allegedly resulted in extreme weather patterns and "human rights harms."
So how does this 28-year-old Filipino climate warrior move on with her painful past?
"It's unfair to say that people have to 'move on,'" says Sustento who now works as Greenpeace's public engagement campaigner for Visayas and Mindanao.
When Yolanda pummeled the central Philippines on November 8, 2013, it killed over 7,000 people, destroyed 1.14 million structures, displaced 16 million people, and resulted in an economic loss of around $13 billion.
Six years after the storm, full rehabilitation of the devastated communities has remained to be seen.
"Exactly. No one 'moves on' from such experience, one simply moves forward. I move forward with the intention of pursuing a purpose that is bigger than myself. And I want to make sure that by the end of the second life that I was given, I did not just survive Yolanda, I have triumphed," Sustento adds.
As the discussion on climate crisis heats up around the world, Sustento says it is interesting that climate-related issues are now being advocated by young people."
"This (climate crisis) is the fault of those who came before us," she told SunStar Philippines.
Sustento maintains that standing firmly against giant and fossil fuel-driven companies and making them accountable for human-induced climate change "is only one way of doing it."
"It's 'David and Goliath,' so to speak. It's to prove that even if we do things alone, we can spark inspiration for other people to follow suit. Movements did not start big. Movements started because one person decided to defy the status quo," she says.
"And just seeing the youth stepping up to the challenge is inspiring. I wish I started young! You can't help but question the adults why they never addressed this problem before," Sustento adds.
Personal battle
Like the 16-year-old Swedish green activist Greta Thunberg, Sustento admits that her climate advocacy is what matters to her now.
"It hurts me that my dream to have a family of my own is also threatened by the same monster that took away my family in the first place," says Sustento in a separate report from licas.news.
"It's one of the reasons why I'm doing this. Because I cannot allow my future family and even my nieces, nephews and godchildren, to experience what I've been through," she adds.
Asked if running after the "big polluters" is a form of seeking vengeance to what happened to her, Sustenso says that what she is doing is "more of calling out for them to own up to their responsibility for the climate crisis."
"They knew, especially Shell of the catastrophic impacts but they decided to discredit the science and deceive the world because of profit at the expense of the people and the planet," says Sustento.
Off her advocacy works, Sustento says that "in a perfect world, I would probably spend days at the beach and bury my face in books, sleep or play with my nephews, nieces, and godchildren."
"I'm 28 now. I was 22 when Yolanda happened. I was working in a call center back then. Maybe if Yolanda did not happen, I'd be managing my own business, maybe a restaurant," says Sustento, as she thought about her personal goals before the storm.
Sustento, who loves to travel and write, says she once dreamt of having her own family and live in Tacloban close to her parents.
"That's how simple my dream was," she says.
However today, part of Sustento's dream has been initially torn apart.
Aside from the death of her parents, Sustento's three-year-old nephew, Tarin, has remained missing.
"Tarin would have been nine years old by now if not for the storm that snatched him away from the arms of his mother. I remember the grueling feeling of going through the thousands of photos of dead bodies just to check if one of them was his. Six years have passed. He was never found. We are no longer looking for him. But I am sending this to you because I am demanding justice not only for my nephew and my family, but for the people of Tacloban, Leyte and Yolanda-affected communities.
"My community is demanding justice for the thousands of lives killed, for the hopes and dreams of a better future lost to greed, apathy, and deceit that the fossil fuel industry supported.
"I know you were all also just born into this system. You are also victims. But can you remain blind and deaf to the truth, when it is already your own families' future disappearing due to this climate crisis?
"It's not easy facing up against such a giant industry. But I can no longer remain silent if it is already the lives and livelihood of people in my community being sacrificed for corporate profits.
"Still, I believe that it's not too late.
"Throughout this journey, I found a stronger version of myself.
"I found stories, I found support, I found strength.
"All have led me here.
"I may have lost my family to the storm, but I am not losing to this climate crisis," wrote Sustento in a letter coupled with Tarin's photo, which she presented to Shell during her lone protest on September 16, 2019.
Currently, Sustento is working closely with local non-government organizations across the Visayas regions for climate justice campaigns.
She is also traveling abroad for speaking engagements and climate strikes.
If she's not attending meetings, Sustento is into planning and strategizing community engagement works.
After joining Greenpeace, Sustento's resolve to fight the climate crisis became stronger and lasting.
"Hopefully, I can take a rest even for one week," she says. (SunStar Philippines)