Emily Walker | Incredible healing properties of just doing something

“Stay strong. Be resilient. Save the planet.”

Powerful, but burdensome, words for our youth. Too much responsibility, no platform, and often, they are too young to even vote, let alone hold power. As a result, the social and emotional well-being of our youth is not all right.

Which means the resources, support, information, and opportunities available to them, to guide them through the complexities of our changing planet, need to be enhanced. But another thing that can help them cope with so much uncertainty and change is taking action.

Activism is liberation. When people put aside their fears, they can come together for the sake of our collective future as well as enriching the lives of those in their own community. In essence, activism is about exercising our duty to protect our own existence, our neighbour’s, and it requires a sense of urgency, with very clearly defined goals. Activism does not have to be feared, quite the opposite, it needs to be embraced and nurtured. For those in vulnerable communities especially, where climate change disasters seem to be a part of daily life, acting is even more important.

Climate change is the most important and pressing issue facing humanity today, perhaps ever, and has already inspired its fair share of global changemakers like Greta Thunberg; many of these activists are students responding with passionate pleas to save our planet and in the process, they have created global movements.

However, there are also many aspiring young activists who are weaving their knowledge, passion, and positivity back into their own communities. Youth like Xiye Bastida, an indigenous climate justice storyteller from Mexico who was inspired by Earth Day’s 50th anniversary in 2020, to jointly found the Re-Earth Initiative. This is an international youth-led organisation that supports frontline youth across 27 countries by providing grants and funding for climate related projects. Her message is clear, her work, a reflection of young people who are steadfast in their beliefs that being human means caring for the planet.

STORYTELLING

Storytelling is powerful, but it can work in many media. Emmanuela Shinta was inspired to use film to create her own stories to bring awareness to climate disasters in her community. In 2016, Shinta started the Youth Act Campaign, which encourages young people to get involved in climate action and demand climate justice through filmmaking. She has since trained 170 young indigenous film-makers and directed over 18 films.

“The idea is to use the media as a tool for social transformation whether it is to educate people, do advocacy work, and bring up stories and voices from the ground to be heard around the world,” Shinta said in an interview with Forest News.

Two activists in the Caribbean, Jhannel Tomlinson and Damani Thomas, are both young industry innovators, embracing science to support, in one case, equitable, sustainable agricultural practices, and in the other, promote clean energy. They are showing that grass-roots innovation can be used to benefit local communities.

“Knowledge is power. Being able to offer what I have learnt about climate change and agriculture to those who need the information is one of my contributions to the rural farmers of Jamaica,” Tomlinson told 50Next

Advocating for sustainable infrastructure locally can completely change how communities build up their own climate-change resiliency. It can change farming practices, it can impact how they create energy, and, in this case, Tomlinson’s work is supporting the Jamaican coffee industry.

Can you imagine a world that valued these young activists universally and the differences they are making in their own nations and communities?

THREE STEPS

Here are three steps we can all consider when guiding young people to become activists for the Earth. This framework explores helping them find their voice in the era of climate distress and is more proof that local activism works!

1. Learn and listen to local needs

The gateway to all understanding is through education. Access to reliable information is a big part of understanding the issues facing our own communities and how to fix them.

Knowledge can be found in many places - libraries, online, in schools, yard - but it can also be found in businesses invested in their own communities. A great example of a business community being open to educating themselves about environmental issues in their very own backyard can be found at the Seattle Public Utilities in Washington.

Here, the staff created their own climate resiliency group to integrate climate change into their internal planning to ensure that climate was part of their strategic business plan, both department-wide and in their capital improvements. As they grappled with providing the region’s 700,000 domestic customers with their drinking water, sewage service, and their waste disposal, they started to put their decisions through a ‘climate change’ filter. Every decision they make now must answer a fundamental question: Will it help the local community take better care of their bit of the planet or hinder them? By forcing themselves to find these answers they have integrated caring for the community on a climate-friendly level.

In Detroit, Tammara Howard knew that her local community needed a space to gather and talk to find their own solutions to climate crisis related issues. She didn’t have the resources of a business to help her, but she did know what her neighbours needed. Which is exactly how What About Us?, a community hub, came to be. Tammara made it happen with limited funds, creating a space that locals can use for all manner of events. But it also supports the community in very practical ways, too: it has become a place where people can charge their phones when storms knock the electricity grid out or to cool down when temperatures start to soar. Tammara knew what her bit of the planet needed, and she made it happen.

2. The power of passion projects

Passion equals possibility and drives engagement, but it can bring a positive sense of mental wellness, too. A great example of this is Franziska Trautman, a college student who grew so frustrated with the complete lack of glass recycling in her hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana, that she was inspired to start her very own recycling company – Glass Half Full. Franziska and her volunteers set up a free glass-collection service and repurpose the glass collected into glass sand, which can be used for a whole range of other products.

“I think always viewing things in that glass-half-full mindset, there’s always something to celebrate. Being able to get out and physically do work that 9s contributing to a better planet, a better environment, can fill anyone with hope.” Trautman told Tulianian.

These intentional projects, the things that we are driven to act on, in the end, can solve a community-wide issue, and in the process, give us courage to become a better version of ourselves. When we apply passion to an issue that closely affects us, we are spurred into action, and that can instigate real change on many levels. Internal and external!

3. Create climate conversations

Conversations are all about sharing ideas and experiences. Tapping into intergenerational partnerships can contribute to strengthening climate-change planning and action because it unifies efforts across ages, literally! When young and older people come together, it can create real synergy.

In Narok County, in Kenya, Africa, school-children from 20 schools worked alongside teachers and elders to create and nurture tree seedling farms to help regenerate their forests. The scheme has spread to nearly 5,000 schools across Kenya and allows the students to not just learn about the climate crisis, but to be an active part of the solution and to talk about it.

It is critical that we collaborate like this with the younger generation to integrate sustainability efforts. By reducing barriers to their participation with climate-related conversations, we can foster more fruitful solutions. In the end, it can start to erode the rigid processes that often surround the decision-making process when it comes to the environment.

Working together and finding solutions for those living in the present, the ‘right now’, is the ultimate goal. If we can leverage all voices to support climate-change advocacy, we all win.

We need to value the lived experiences of each other and provide opportunities for climate conversations, actions, and ideas, in as many places as possible, to find real and authentic solutions. We need to let young people be part of those conversations.

“We stayed strong. We stayed resilient. We saved the planet.”

Emily Walker, is education coordinator at EARTHDAY.ORG. Send feedback to walker@earthday.org and columns@gleanerjm.com.