Verum, Orak, and Scorch were sitting in their dorm room on a hot summer day. They were hardly able to tolerate the heat. Verum said, “Where is Felix? If he’s in his garden, I don’t know how he’s managing. It’s so sunny outside!”

That’s when Felix entered the dorm room huffing and puffing. He said, “Did you hear about the environmental activists in Cambodia, a Southeast Asian nation?”

“No, what’s going on?” said Scorch.

“Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government is harming the natural environment by overusing resources for commercial use,” said Felix, “To put things in perspective, Cambodia has lost 64% of its forest cover since 2011. That’s a really high rate of deforestation.

So, a group of young environmental activists called Mother Nature has been speaking out against this. They have conducted investigations on issues such as sand mining, illegal trafficking of wildlife parts, the effects of mass construction in the coastal city of Sihanoukville, and so on. They have been putting up their research on their Facebook page to make people aware.”

“I don’t think the government is going to react well to this,” said Orak.

“No, it didn’t. Young activists such as Thon Ratha and Long Kunthea were arrested by the government. They were convicted for charges like causing social unrest and spent a year in jail. They were later released by an Appeal Court but their imprisonment discouraged people from standing up against the government,” said Felix, “It’s worrying.”

“But what about these activists?” said Orak, “Haven’t they continued protesting?”

“They have to regularly report to the police station and they are at risk of getting arrested again,” said Felix, “But they have vowed to continue fighting the fight. Ratha recently uploaded his first investigation after being released.”

“That is some dedication!” said Scorch.