Written by: Kehkashan Basu, Earth Charter Youth Nework & Youth Ambassador World Future Council
The current state of the environment is a matter of great concern and this is possibly the greatest threat to our future well – being. We see the effects of climate change everyday , yet policy makers continue to debate and procrastinate , while global warming keeps pushing the Earth’s ambient temperature higher every day. We are the last generation that has the opportunity to stop and reverse this environmental degradation before it is too late and in order to be successful, we need to mobilize young people from across the world and build a movement which will force our leaders to take action.
With this objective in mind , I launched the “PUSH for the environment” at the Young Impact celebrations in Amsterdam , in my capacity as the winner of the 2016 International Children’s Peace Prize winner. The founders of this PUSH campaign are KidsRights, Amsterdam and KidsRights Youngsters of which I am a member. The PUSH! Environment campaign is the start of an international movement of young change-makers for their rights. With this movement, we want youth to take action and to speak out for matters that concern them directly; from education, equal rights and the end of violence, to a clean environment.
The campaign launch took place at Amsterdam’s iconic Ziggo Dome where over 10,000 young people had assembled for the inauguration. It was hugely motivating to connect to this vast crowd of passionate young people . In my speech I reminded youth that the time to act was now and if we all joined hands we could definitively bring about a positive change .
The onus is upon us, YOUTH, to take a leadership role and mold the future the way we want it.