#GLOW: Young Adults Voices — Youth, Peace, Climate, Heartfulness
I was surfing for information on this topic Youth, Peace, and Climate Change after I came across this upcoming GLOW Webinar Series on the same name. The keynote speaker is Kasha Sequoia Slavner, Gen-Z filmmaker, photographer, writer, social entrepreneur, and a passionate advocate for climate justice, peace, and gender equality. I found this to be a vast and in-depth topic and was listening to this zoom conversation held by International Peace Institute.
Youth are ‘Agents of Change’ for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — that is perhaps the gist of that conversation.
As laymen, we notice the population explosion on planet Earth and wonder about the challenges which the youth would face, as they are the future.
We have also been reading about 11 major countries like India, Jordan, South Africa, Brazil, China, England, Japan, Iran, Egypt, UAE, and Mexico in the world becoming ‘Zero Water Zones’ in the immediate future. Today’s youth would have to deal with the major global water crisis, tomorrow.
‘The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has given out an urgent call for countries and cities to create a resilient, sustainable and equitable future for everyone. The SDGs consist of 17 goals, including those for universal access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene, to be met by 2030’.
We always brag about pollution-free days when we were young, proudly claiming that there were lots of greenery around. In the enthusiasm for too much technological development, many trees are cut, many mountains are blasted to widen and concretize roads, and in the process, we fail to preserve natural resources.
I used to enjoy seeing and listening to the chirping sparrows sitting on the Champak tree when I was young. It was a feast to my eyes in the early morning from the second floor of my home. Now I am pained that they are about to go extinct. So very soon, would our grandchildren see these extinct birds and animals only on National Geographic TV? We have been destroying forests and encroaching into the private space of wild animals. A few years ago, I read in the newspaper that a leopard entered a nearby residential area where we are residing. It was just that we had encroached upon their territory and built 20-story-buildings. So, are we as humans not responsible for this? Many elephants are being poached for their tusks in India and blackbucks are also becoming extinct in India.
We enjoy honey from the bees and we are cultivating apiculture as bee-farming for the production of honey. It is time to ponder what happens if honeybees go extinct. It is believed by many scientists that bee extinction and human extinction go hand-in-hand. At the annual Earth-watch, many scientists very clearly state that bees are the most precious species.
The older generation is accountable for the deforestation activities which has largely been detrimental in contributing to the effects of global warming, and drought situations. It is time that we listen to our young voices and introspect on our mistakes.
‘Are we in a position to leave this world in the same condition which we received when we were youth’?.
Nisreen Elsaim is Sudanese Climate Youth Activist, Chair of both the Secretary-General’s Youth Advisory Group and the Sudan Youth Organization on Climate Change, offered up her own life experience as exemplifying the linkages. “I’m a climate change activist, I’m a young person, and I’m coming from a country that has suffered from civil wars for 40 years and a conflict over natural resources for 20 years.”
I had heard about the term ‘Genocide’ but then I had to google for this term ‘Ecocide’ for deeper insight on this. I got to know the meaning of Ecocide as ‘destruction of the natural environment by deliberate or negligent human action’.
Check out this video on Ecocide!
Please join us for more insight into this on 17th April 2021,7 PM IST/ 9:30 AM EST/1:30 PM London Time for an upcoming webinar by Speaker Kasha Sequoia Slavner Documentary Filmmaker, Photographer, Founder of The Global Sunrise Project
