TEENAGERS thousands of miles apart have united across the globe in the fight to protect their planet.

Henry Dean, 14, lives on the Isles of Scilly, 28 miles off the Cornish Coast. Over 10,000 miles away Lu’isa Tevi and Loreen Teve, both 16, live in Tonga, right on the coastline.

What the three have in common is that they live on an island affected by rising sea levels.

Part of Scilly’s land has already disappeared due to sea-level rise, climate change and winter storms. Meanwhile Tonga is at high risk of becoming an extinct culture as rising tides, along with extreme cyclones, see parts of their islands swallowed up into the ocean.

But there is one huge difference between the teens. Looking at their situations, the injustice of the climate crisis between the North and South is hugely evident. The poorest of countries in the southern hemisphere, with very low carbon footprints, are bearing the brunt of the activity in the North.

The teenagers are standing together in their vision that something has to be done.

Henry said, “We don’t feel the most drastic impacts of climate change here in UK, but we do have a responsibility to protect our friends across the world. I am calling on world leaders to make a change and we are willing and ready to engage with them.”

Lu’isa said, “Our land is very flat, so when it rains the water stays on the surface. Normally the flooding is above our ankles. In really bad weather it’s mid-calf to our knees. If we don’t make a change within my generation, there may not be a Tonga for the next.”

Henry is part of a group of young people, brought together by the charity Tearfund, who have written an open letter to the Global Leaders demanding no more than a 1.5 degree of global warming and a stop to fossil fuels. The letter can be viewed here.

“With every fraction of a degree that temperatures rise, hurricanes get stronger, droughts last longer, forests burn, and whole islands disappear into the sea,” they write.

“And it’s people who have done the least to cause the climate crisis – people already living in poverty – who are already suffering the worst effects.

“As Christians, God asks us to love our neighbours – near and far – but your failure to act is putting their lives at risk. Today we are at a tipping point. We can stop this, but after decades of promises the action we need is still not happening.”

Tearfund recently reported that G7 nations have been pumping more money into fossil fuels than they have into clean energy.