Multiple issues surround today’s youth, and drawing attention to these issues is exactly the aim of International Youth Day 2023[1]. The theme for 2023 International Youth Day is ‘green skills for youth: towards a sustainable world’.
The UN states that ‘A successful transition towards a greener world will depend on the development of green skills in the population’. According to UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), green skills means: “the knowledge, abilities, values and attitudes needed to live in, develop and support a sustainable and resource-efficient society.”
“We don’t inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children[2]”
A number of different worldviews regard the planet and its resources as ‘on loan’ to us for the duration of our lifetimes. It is our duty, and privilege, to try to pass it on to future generations in as good, or a better, state than we inherited it from our ancestors. I won’t go into the debate as to whether and in what areas we have achieved this in the last fifty years. Safe to say that although it’s not all bad, the general state of the environment is worse.
The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership is demanding that we rewire the economy to be more environmentally sensitive. It flags three areas I find helpful: climate stability, health ecosystems, and resource reliance. I wince when thinking of where we are on each of those, generally, across society.
“…hope springs eternal in the human breast.[3]”
Is it all doom and gloom? No, I don’t think it is: we should have hope. Alexander Pope wrote about the feeling of hopefulness that endlessly renews itself. I feel hope when I hear of Greta Thunberg’s outspoken, but peaceful actions to highlight our climate inactivity. I feel hope in the continuing energy and talent of conservation ambassadors like scientist and former Marine Conservation Society trustee and Global 30 under 30 winner, Emily Cunningham, who is dedicating her life to ocean conservation. I feel hope, too, in my own children’s love of the environment and concern about climate change, wanting to talk about it and to take action to tackle it.
I feel hope.
That is good, but is hope enough?
“..the dreamers of the day are dangerous…they may act their dream with open eyes, and make it possible.[4]”
We can look for and expect change, but unless we are prepared to act – and inspire the next generation to do so – nothing will happen. There are three things, I suggest, that we can all do to enable youth to become ‘the dreamers of the day’ that will make the hope for our environment into a reality:
- Give them their voice, and listen – if we expect them to develop and share insight, they will. Don’t dismiss their enthusiasm and the simple purity of their view. It is unsullied by the smog of so-called ‘experience’ which clouds our vision as adults. Don’t belittle their righteous indignation, but harness it, and work with it for good.
- Invest time and resources in developing the science and their skills. Colleges and Universities, like the wonderful which is “…training disruptors…” can make a huge difference. We should be funding them, and supporting young people to go there, to learn their science and come away with the skills to make their dreams of green practice and living a reality.
- Expect change , support it and join in – this needs to be personal, and we need to accept and encourage others’ positive responses to it and be prepared to call out what is damaging to our lovely planet. , discuss their concerns and ours with them, and help, not get in the way of the actions individuals and groups are prepared to take to make a difference.
What will you do to nurture and develop the skills and passion of youth to care for our environment, and to challenge those who seek to dismiss it ?
Jim Clifford, CEO
[1] International Youth Day is held each year on 12 August. Organised by the United Nations since 2000, it is an initiative that recognises the challenges that today’s youth can face and celebrates the contribution that young people make in arenas like education, employment, conflict resolution and social justice, among others.
[2] American Indian proverb
[3] An Essay on Man: Epistle I, Alexander Pope
[4] Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence
