Climate change, what do you feel when you hear this word? I see an image of earth with a sad face. I see fire, smoke, heatwaves, floods, ice melting and a lot. According to National Geographic climate change is a long-term shift in global or regional climate patterns. The main causes of climate change have been pointed towards humans. This includes industrial activities such as burning of fossil fuels, transport, buildings, deforestation. The causes contribute to climate change and have a huge impact on people as well as the environment.
When floods occur, nature is disturbed while people are displaced and deaths also occur. Matt Gaetz (an American lawyer and politician) highlights “Climate Change isn’t something people get to choose, it’s happening.” Climate change has a huge impact on the youth. Statistics published on Save The Children website reveal that by 2040, it is estimated that one in four children will be living in areas with extreme water shortages.
To mitigate this issue, there are various solutions. Individual actions are also significant. But industries and governments do hold a lot of power to mitigate this issue. A United Nations report states that fossil fuels are by far the largest contributor to global climate change, accounting for over 75 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions.
The world is home to 1.8 billion young people between the ages of 10 to 24 — the largest generation of youth in history. This youth holds the power to create a change. They are an important stakeholder in the issue of climate change. Their views on climate change have been vulnerable. A global study of 10,000 youth from 10 countries in 2021 found that over 50 percent of young people felt sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty about climate change, while 45 percent said their feelings negatively affected their daily lives (UNDP).
Youth hold power because they are the present as well as the future. They realize the urgency of the problem. Youth is more concerned. This concern leads to action. The youth have the collective power of voicing out to the government to work on the issue and the industry to eliminate the emissions. They can participate in the government and convince it to take action on climate change. There are various platforms through which they can raise awareness. They have leadership skills, creativity. The Friday’s For Future started by Greta Thunberg itself is a big example to verify this claim. The youth, the school’s students go on a strike for climate change. In 185 countries, an estimated 7.6 million people have attended Fridays for Future climate strikes. This shows the collective power of the youth.
Another example of collaboration and creativity was the Unilever protest rap. This rap went viral and received more than 4 million views. The company had to compensate their ex-workers in Kodaikanal. These examples demonstrate how collective power can be used to spread awareness which eventually leads to action.
The youth has a lot of ideas and energy to take actions. Education plays a key role here. UNESCO highlights that education helps people understand and address the impacts of the climate crisis, empowering them with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to act as agents of change.
A lot of youth organizations have started emerging which leads to an impact. These organizations include youth teams and they take actions to mitigate the impacts of climate change. A lot of schools also have these groups of children coming together and working towards change. This involves an example of Felix Finkbeiner, a teenager who started planting trees at the age of nine. Today, Finkbeiner is 19—and Plant-for-the-Planet, the environmental group he founded, has planted more than 14 billion trees in more than 130 nations.
The youth is also aware about most of the things. Hence they have also started taking actions at their own levels. To understand this in my local community I conducted a survey through google forms. When asked about the actions that they have or are taking on climate change this was the response: 82%of them said yes.
The youth is a strong stakeholder in this issue. They are the present as well as the future. If they take the right steps now, it will be easy to tackle the issues that will have a worse impact in the future.