How the youth are revitalizing Martin Luther King's blueprints for environmental action.

Baffour Gyimah Kwame Owusu 18 October 2024

It is 2024, and a stark reality confronts us: the climate is the sitting judge, passing verdicts on our actions. Unsustainable practices are the charge. The youth stand as the victims, bearing the cost of this ruling.

While forgiveness may be granted for our transgressions, the climate remains unforgiving. Will we heed this urgent call for change or continue to gamble with the youth’s future?

The undeniable fact is that the world is at a crossroads of climate change, and numerous solutions are in incubation to find the perfect remedy. The universe is calling for people who are knowledgeable, smart, and filled with grit. It demands the tenacity of the youth—people who are thirsty, hungry, and fully committed to saving the world.

In this spotlight are people who have scored sustainable points for the earth and are a reflection of the aforementioned. A familiar name in this scope is Sweden’s Greta Thunberg, the architect behind Fridays for Future. This group of people will even go to the ends of the earth to fight for the climate—they are relentless, unwavering, and full of gusto.

Greta Thunberg revitalized climate change advocacy by adapting Martin Luther King's 'sit-ins' for environmental justice. Her efforts mobilized over 6 million people worldwide for the climate action day in 2019, as reported by Social Europe. Familiar faces in this climate action were Gen Z's. These young activists used persuasive language to encourage reduced meat consumption, fewer flights and advocated for the use of renewable technology to protect the environment.

Outside these social efforts, they influenced political reforms in environmental policy. Schürmann's research indicates a positive impact of these street protests on the political sphere. MPs imbibed these calls for a clean environment, and parliamentary debates were positively affected in Germany. Amid a political landscape difficult to lobby, the youth, actors, and the earth’s cavalry, redressed the odds.

Another unit in solidarity with the climate is Earth Guardians. Much like their name, they are reminiscent of the Guardian Angels but for the planet. Nurturing the youth to engage in positive activities for the environment and their communities is one of their core mandates.

The journey began at the four corners of Maui High School in the USA and has now developed wings at every corner of the earth. Earth Guardians is unifying the world through climate awareness and action. Figures from their official website project these statistics: 80 projects across 30 African countries, covering over 1 million beneficiaries. Moving the needle bit by bit, these groups have sustained points for sustainability.

Like the old saying, a great society is where the old plant trees under whose shade they might never sit. Fridays for Future and Earth Guardians are the modern-day representatives of this latter. Evidently, from the breadth and length of the world, the youth have picked up the clarion call of the climate; healing the environment through planting, storytelling, painting, writing, and advocating for reforms in environmental policies. From local grassroots efforts to international movements, it's heartening to see the passion, creativity, and commitment of these youth activists.

Be that as it may, the growing clamor of the climate requires all hands on deck, old and young. Unfortunately, the call to integrate the old and the young is often missed. The baseline for creating these differences includes diverse perspectives and priorities, communication gaps, technological advantages, power dynamics, resistance to change, and economic concerns; the bracket remains open.

Recognizing that climate change impacts everyone, irrespective of age, a forum was established to bridge generational divides and coordinate efforts. At the Local Conference of Youth on Climate Change, 2023, the Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO) and the Youth Climate Council Ghana (YCC) advocated for intergenerational collaboration and dialogue as a tool to combat climate change.

In line with this advocacy, Hon. Yves Hanson-Nortey, a Member of Parliament and a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Environment, Science, and Technology in Ghana, spoke emphatically on the importance of intergenerational collaboration and urged participants to keep this bond alive. He believes this provides a framework for learning and a unified society that will lead the effort to achieve the country’s climate change goals.

These requests came from two generational groups, advocating for inclusion and equality as powerful weapons to combat climate change. Clearly, climate change has gained the upper hand on the Earth, and it demands that the world fight this threat without differences. Considering the acceleration of this phenomenon, it is only a matter of time before we see the future of the famous saying, 'There's nothing new under the sun.' The time is now; we have to accept the clarion call for integration.

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