Climate delegates are wrapping up the first of two weeks of talks in Qatar’s capital of Doha amidst mounting signs of global warming’s impact. The U.N. meteorological agency has unveiled a new report showing an area of Arctic sea ice larger than the United States melted this year over a six-month period. The agency said sea ice around the North Pole reached a record low because of climate change. While world leaders appear to have stalled over a possible extension of the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions, some of the toughest calls for change to emerge this week have been from the world’s youth. Youth activists called Friday for leaders to take drastic action immediately to prevent poorer countries from suffering the brunt of climate change. Michael Sandmel, a member of the International Youth Climate Movement, spoke in Doha earlier this week.

Michael Sandmel: “We make up half the world’s population, and frankly, we’re being screwed. We’re being denied a future by a lack of ambition, a lack of vision, and governments that are far too beholden to the interests of big fossil fuel companies, big coal companies, the banks that fund them.”