Mikaela Loach is a British climate justice activist, author, and former medical student. She was brought up in

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, living in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Scotland. She is a medical student at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

who published a book and uses social media for campaigning, named as one of the '' Prospect'' top thinkers in 2024. Alongside Jo Becker, Loach is the co-producer, writer and presenter of the ''Yikes'' podcast, which explores climate change, human rights and social justice. She is the author of the book ''It's Not That Radical: Climate Action to Transform Our World'' (2023).

Early life and education

Loach was born in

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

, Jamaica, to a British father and Jamaican mother, and moved to

, United Kingdom. In the UK, Loach attended Farlington School.

Campaigning

Loach advocates for

environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement that addresses injustice that occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has gene ...

, racial justice,

sustainable fashion Sustainable fashion is a term describing efforts within the fashion industry to reduce its environmental impacts, protect workers producing garments and uphold animal welfare. Sustainability in fashion encompasses a wide range of factors, incl ...

, as well as speaking out on issues such as white supremacy and maltreatment of migrants. She also seeks to make the

climate movement The climate movement is a global social movement focused on pressuring governments and industry to take action (also called ''climate action'') addressing the causes and Effects of climate change, impacts of climate change. Citizens and environme ...

more inclusive and promoting 'active hope' and collective action, which extends to all "emitting" industries and areas of cultural institutions and of event sponsorship. During part of 2019

Extinction Rebellion Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated as XR) is a UK-founded global environmental movement, with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and ...

climate crisis protests in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, Loach locked-on for eight hours in an attempt to prevent police clearing a site. She also campaigns with Climate Camp Scotland. She was a speaker at Zurich Insurance Group's Youth Against Carbon Conference. In 2020, Loach created the ''Yikes'' podcast with Jo Becker. In December 2021, Loach took part in a

judicial review Judicial review is a process under which a government's executive, legislative, or administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. In a judicial review, a court may invalidate laws, acts, or governmental actions that are in ...

alongside other activists, to challenge the UK Government's oil and gas strategy. In January 2022, the High Court found against the activists, stating the case had "no basis in the statute". But her "Stop Oil" campaigning continues and has an impact on young activists. A related campaign Loach engages in is against

fast fashion Fast fashion is the business model of replicating recent catwalk trends and High fashion, high-fashion designs, mass production, mass-producing them at a low cost, and bringing them to retail quickly while demand is at its highest. The term ''fast ...

and supply chains bringing the physical, environmental damage and human rights issues together, and attempts to improve advice and practices in the market, and has concerns about the hidden emissions from buildings. She was one of the authors who disrupted the

Edinburgh International Book Festival The Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) is a book festival that takes place during two weeks in August every year in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland. Described as ''The largest festival of its kind in the world'', the festival hosts ...

in 2024, in relation to sponsorship concerns. Loach sees the various campaigns as integrated, comparing her "networks of resistance" to a network of fungi, linking trees in a forest.

Publications

*''It's Not That Radical: Climate Action to Transform Our World''. London: DK, 2023. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loach, Mikaela Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Black British activists British climate activists British women bloggers British women podcasters English people of Jamaican descent Jamaican activists Jamaican people of British descent Jamaican women activists Living people People from Kingston, Jamaica People from Surrey