Mikaela Loach’s work calendar is not for the weak. The in-demand climate activist is perpetually busy juggling back-to-back media interviews, curating her Instagram feed, carrying out longer-term climate projects, joining Zoom meetings, replying to Signal group chats, creating exhaustive Google Docs, tallying things up in spreadsheets, making placards, protesting, as well as writing and performing speeches. “It's actually not as exciting as people probably think it is,” she says earnestly. “I mean, I enjoy it, but being an activist isn’t being on the streets every day and having your fists in the air and chanting – a lot of it is doing admin. I tap on my laptop, hoping it will change someone’s mind.”
She might be too modest to say it herself, but there’s no doubt that the 24-year-old works incredibly hard behind the scenes. Watch any of her recent interviews on Sky News’ Daily Climate Show and you can see that Mikaela speaks at an even pace, looks directly to camera, and never stutters – a surefire sign of someone who has done their research and understands it to the nth degree. “I think we need to be clear that this strategy is nothing short of a scandalous failure. This government is sacrificing many ordinary people – many of our futures – for profit," she boldly tells the Sky News presenter when asked to analyse the Conservative Party’s energy strategy just last week.
A few days after her fiery TV appearance, we’re on a video chat with Mikaela for this interview, putting a climate activist on the cover for the very first time. She answers the call from sunny Colombia, wearing a frilly white top, a slicked-back hair bun and we can’t help but notice her colourful pastel nails. “I’m trying to connect with Afro-Colombian and Afro-Indigenous groups here and [learn] what climate work and resistance is happening here,” she explains. “I think Latin America is leading the way in the radical work happening here. Colombia has an election coming up in May, which could see a big shift from a very far-right government to a cool left-wing government and the first Afro-Colombian person to be in power.”