(Pour la version française, veuillez cliquer ici.)
Michael Mann, a very well-respected climate scientist, has just published a book “The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back our Planet”. In it he details the importance of the Youth Movement in the fight against Climate Change.
He says “The youngest generation is fighting tooth and nail to save their planet, and there is a moral authority and clarity in their message that none but the most jaded ears can fail to hear. They are the game-changers that climate advocates have been waiting for. We should model our actions after theirs and learn from their methods and their idealism.”
UNICEF give some inspiring examples of active young people here.
Climate Change Organisations started by young people.
Fridays for Future https://fridaysforfuture.org/
This is a youth-led and -organised international climate strike movement. It was started by Greta Thunberg in Sweden but she was soon joined by other young people. There are now many other groups across the world. They are part of a new wave of change inspiring millions of people to take action.
Zero Hour http://thisiszerohour.org/
This is a group of American young people fighting against Climate Change. Their aim is to motivate both politicians and other people to work towards reducing carbon emissions.
Here are some of their demands:
- Politicians should stop taking money from oil companies
- People should depend less on industrial agriculture by growing food in all neighbourhoods
- Politicians should create affordable transit systems all towns and cities
The Sunrise Movement https://www.sunrisemovement.org/
Sunrise is redefining youth activism in the U.S. with the meteoric rise of their movement to make supporting the Green New Deal a mainstream position . Teaming up with the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sunrise and the Green New Deal want to transition the U.S. to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030.
Africa
There are numerous activist groups in Africa. However, it seems the voices of developing nations and minorities in the realms of environmental activism are often regarded as non-existent to the media. To me that makes the young people mentioned in this article particularly impressive.
School Strike for the Climate
There are millions out there taking action, so we must help young people secure their future.
Right now that future is looking pretty grim. As you may have seen in my other Blogs, our temperatures are soaring, our carbon emissions are continuing to rise and we are polluting our oceans and atmosphere. Our farming methods are making both humanity and the planet sick, animals suffer horribly, and industrial agriculture is degrading our lands. This is not even to begin to mention the frightening decrease in democracy, injustice, poverty and racism that stalks our world.
As Michael Mann has said, these young people are fighting tooth and nail. They are often doing it in very difficult or even dangerous circumstances
A Moving Moment
My visit to COP26 in November was made particularly memorable by my meeting with a young Colombian girl outside a museum displaying a series of photos of dead South American Activists. She told me how these ordinary but courageous people were murdered in their struggle to save the environment of their countries. It certainly brought home to me how lucky I am being able to go on climate marches, write to politicians or publish my thoughts on the environment without fear. It also made me grateful for these people at the other side of the world who are fighting for the same thing as me.
How Young People are feeling
Children worldwide worry about the future and feel let down by governments. This survey has revealed how concerns about Climate Change affect young people. It shows that many of them are feeling sad, afraid, anxious, angry and powerless.
António Guterres, Secretary-General of the UN has said: “My generation has failed to respond properly to the dramatic challenge of Climate Change. This is deeply felt by young people. No wonder they are angry.”
Why should we help them?
- Because it is the older generations who have caused the problems
- We may not have been aware before of what we were doing to the planet but we know now!
- They are facing a very difficult future indeed
- It needs all of us to take responsibility for the problems and to force change.
What can we as individuals do to help?
- We need to become active in our millions
- We need to believe we can help and not say I am only an individual, I can do nothing
- We must take the situation into our own hands and not leave it to governments who make promises but do too little
- We need to find ways to retain our optimism on the difficult days
- We need to believe we can create a better world
- We must support young people when they ask for help
- We must love our planet and want to save its beauty.
Thank you.