“We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it.”
– Barack Obama
Climate change is happening now and it is undeniable. Climate crisis is gripping the world today. We need to act now to save the planet from becoming uninhabitable in the future. There is Climate hope. Young people need to lead action and build resilience to successfully tackle this crisis.
What crosses your mind when an aged farmer in a village in Karnataka says that he cannot predict the weather patterns like before, or when women in Ugandan village talks about never-seen-before torrential rains, resultant floods and severe drought thereafter, or, when the indigenous tribes in Amazon speak up for their environmental and territorial rights as Amazon fire rages, or when you read about IPCC warning that a 3.6oC rise above pre-industrial levels would precipitate an “extensive” extinction of species across the globe, rendering much of the globe uninhabitable.
The signs are clear.
When read together, these stories tell us about the effects of climate change that we are faced with today. The evidence of rapid climate change is compelling ranging from, global temperature rise, warming oceans, shrinking ice sheets, glacial retreat, decreased snow cover, sea-level rise, declining artic sea ice, extreme events such as droughts, hurricanes, floods, ocean acidification, intense rainfall to rapid increase in pandemics and creation of a new set of refugees-‘climate refugees’. Climate change is happening now and it is undeniable.
The science is clear.
Ninety-seven per cent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities, and most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position. While there is hope to tackle this crisis, it calls for urgent human action to reduce the emissions of harmful gases into the atmosphere.
There is climate hope.
According to a report from the International Renewable Energy Agency, almost all renewables could be as cheap or cheaper than fossil fuels by 2020. And it’s not just coal. Renewables are also starting to close in on natural gas – often labelled a “bridge fuel” between fossil fuels and renewable energy. David Roberts at Vox said it well, “The natural gas ‘bridge’ to sustainability may be shorter than expected.
The world over, steps are being taken towards bringing suitable changes in respective national legal framework, fossil fuel divestment and investment in climate solutions, infrastructural changes, behavioral changes, encouraging
- Sustainable development should become the norm.
Social, economic and environmental development, i.e., development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations.
- Climate justice should become a reality
The fight against climate change is fundamentally about human rights and securing justice for those suffering from its impact- vulnerable countries, communities, sections of society such as children, young people that are the least culpable of the problem.
With Donald Trump opting America out of the Paris Agreement; businesses pumping more money into oil extraction, fossil fuels and coal-based energy; Bolsonaro, the ‘Tropical Trump’, favoring anti-environmentalist policies and letting the Amazon burn; children and young people have taken the onus upon themselves to raise their voices for the planet
Youth in Climate action.
Fifty per cent of the world’s population today is under the age of 30. This is the highest youth population in history, and the latest World Economic Forum Global Shapers Survey (covering more than 30,000 individuals under 30 from 186 countries) tells us what today’s young leaders think about our world and their place in it. Millennials – those born in the mid-eighties but before 2000 – think that climate change and conflict are the most critical issues the world faces.
In addition, nearly all believe that we’re responsible for climate change. Young people hold the key to the future. But according to the Global Shapers Survey, young people feel their voices are not being heard. 55.9% of respondents to the survey disagreed with the statement: “In my country, young people’s views are considered before important decisions are taken.”
Youth should be integral part of domestic legal frameworks –which on in place, and cemented, will become crucial building blocks to measure, report, verify, and manage greenhouse gas emissions.
Voices of young people need to be heard and seen now, more than ever.
Every individual as well as collective action, at local, national and international levels, such as the ones mentioned below matter and require to be scaled up:
- Greta Thunberg: It is time to draw inspiration from the likes of Greta Thunberg who has mobilized millions through school strike for climate, also known variously as Friday’s For Future (FFF), Youth for Climate and Youth Strike 4 Climate, to act on climate emergency in just a year. She also chose to sail carbon-free across the Atlantic Ocean from the UK to New York on a 60ft racing boat Maliza II to attend the UN Climate Summit. She took world leaders to task atCOP 24 in Poland: “Since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have to take the responsibility they should have taken long ago.”
- Global Digital March:The Global Shapers Community, Bangalore(the local chapter of Global Shapers Community-an initiative of the World Economic Forum) has launched the world’s first Global Digital March for Voice For The
Planet to unify efforts from climate strikes and marches all over the world and record 7.67 billion steps by June 2020 to drive leaders, politicians, corporates, businesses and key stakeholders to take urgent climate action. Install Wattapp to start marching and raise your Voice For The Planet. - Climate Reality Leadership Corps
: Yet another glaring example, is that of Climate Reality Leadership Corps consisting of 20,967 leaders, trained personally by US Vice President Al Gore himself to be warriors of change and climate action in local communities. They have logged 89,853 acts of leadership to solve the climate crisistill date.
While Climate Hope is driving young people towards consistent climate action, the task at hand is not simple.
Building resilience in the face of crisis
Climate change is a global issue and the sheer inter-sectionality of the crisis makes it the toughest challenge humanity has faced. It becomes important for young people to develop elasticity to recover quickly from setbacks in the process and get back to action. They should also be prepared and ready to face the effect of climate change at present and develop the capacity to learn and recover quickly from difficulties.
Education systems need to shift from rote-learning to building skills that help children tackle the crisis at hand and be ready for the changing future of jobs.
All in all,
About the author:
Sanjana who calls herself a ‘climate hope-timist’, is a lawyer by profession, trained climate reality leader (Los Angeles Leadership Corps Training, 2018), World Economic Forum’s Global Shaper- Bangalore hub. She is focused on making impact in her fields of interest -Sustainability, Climate change and Environment, Human rights, Women rights and Cybercrime.
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