Young Leaders in Todays Climate Conversations
[Applause]
within the past few years we’ve seen the
full extent of what young people can
accomplish through inclusive youth
driven moments
and we can clearly see this within the
most recent presidential election in
2020
where youth voter turnout they were able
to come out in record numbers
in fact according to circle which is the
center for information and research on
civic learning and engagement
53 percent of voting eligible young
people
ages 18 to 29 turned out to cast a
ballot
this was a significant increase to the
previous presidential election where
youth voter turnout in 2016
was only 42 percent this recent election
we were able to make significant impacts
and big differences
and the participation from youth of
color was one of the defining elements
of this election
he’s completely right and this just goes
to show that when young people see
something wrong with the system
we waste no time to take action we
organize
we educate and most importantly we don’t
give up
the top issues prioritized by young
voters this past year
was effective climate policy that looked
to combat our aggressively changing
climate
as well as major social justice reform
so if we want to battle the effects of
our world’s greatest crisis
climate change on a global scale and at
home in our communities
we must prioritize these powerful young
voices
and vulnerable communities in order to
accelerate climate action
and climate justice hi my name is arman
alex
and my name is maggie peacock and
between the two of us we are both young
environmental leaders sharing a similar
story of fighting for climate action
right now now to be straightforward with
you all and to immediately break down
the common misleading stereotype
we are not just young climate activists
just because we’ve got all this time
on our hands in fact that couldn’t be
further from the truth the reality
of our situation is that we’d much
rather live young
worry-less lives focusing on school
after school activities homework
undergrad work work in general
our friends are our family at home but
the cards have been dealt
and our hand clearly shows that if we’re
not willing to fight
for our generation and generations to
come after ours in the future
then no one will and by now we should
honor that climate change affects us in
more ways than we can imagine
the impacts predicted by scientists
decades ago are happening
right now and these symptoms extend well
beyond just an
increase in temperature they are
negatively affecting
vulnerable communities and ecosystems
here in the united states and around the
world
things we hold as necessities food water
energy transportation human health
wildlife
agriculture they are all experiencing
the dire effects of the changing climate
and with the changing climate in mind we
can see how the side effects like rising
sea levels
are endangering coastal communities
altering entire coastlines
and how because the ocean is just simply
taking in way too much co2
it’s creating things like dead zones and
ocean acidification
how because of these warming waters
entire fish populations are migrating to
cooler areas
that’s definitely destroying ecosystems
and altering
economies where they’re heavily
dependent on the fisheries
those economies are being negatively
impacted as well
and a recent report by the world
wildlife fund shows that we’ve
lost a staggering 68 percent of wildlife
since 1970.
along with biodiversity loss we’ve seen
an increase of severe weather patterns
threaten hundreds of thousands of lives
in recent years
the australian wildfires the texas
winter storm
the exponential disastrous hurricanes
and so on and so much more we simply
don’t have enough time to
list every disaster that has ended in
casual and
horrible fatalities the individuals that
are fighting for climate action
right now are the same individuals that
are fighting for their very livelihoods
and these people that will exponentially
see the effects of climate change in
their lifetime
are young people like our mom and i
these are the same people that are on
the front lines of this issue
yet most conversations about how to
address it are behind
closed doors filled with primarily older
white scientists and politicians
not only is climate change negatively
impacting young people overall
it is disproportionately affecting
communities of color
black indigenous and people of color are
being left
out of these conversations regardless of
the simple fact that these communities
are the most vulnerable and they remain
the most at risk
including young people and you know what
in order to include a more diverse group
into these discussions over climate
solutions
we can be inspired by earth’s
biodiversity where all of earth’s living
matter
regardless of species differentiation
listen to one another hear each other
and work together
to form functional ecosystems that
really exhibit the epitome of diversity
and it’s simple when young people are
heard they can begin to communicate
ideas
you know the majority of my work is
heavily involved with equipping other
young environmentalists like myself
and maggie with the tools to be
effective communicators
to talk about science to communicate
about climate action
just recently i was lucky enough to be
invited to be an inaugural member of our
city’s first ever
environmental task force as a young
person of color in this movement that
meant that my collective successes and
climate action
were finally being recognized it’s
amazing
how inspirational young people can be
whenever they’re fighting for something
that’s much bigger than them
whenever they can rely on others it’s
pretty simple
that when young people learn to listen
and speak to each other
they go out into their communities and
they teach they advocate for action
they listen for solutions they raise
funds
they listen to experts they collaborate
with experts
this example is a testament to how young
people like maggie and i are doing
the hard work right now we are also the
experts
and so there’s no denying that whenever
conversations about climate action and
climate solutions take place
we deserve a seat at the table and
honestly
what we’re asking you all is very simple
actually give us that seat at the table
let us speak at conferences committees
and summits and recognize our collective
successes as young environmental leaders
for instance in my hometown i’ve been
lucky enough to have teachers and
administrators
listen to me my goals and my mission as
a young elementary student i founded our
school’s first
student-led organization and our goal
was to raise funds and awareness
for endangered wildlife all over the
world and that’s exactly what we did
we raised thousands of dollars for
organizations across the globe
taught younger students in our school
district all about the importance of
environmentalism
and inspired not only other students but
teachers too
yes we accomplished a lot but only
because i had adults that listened
and actually gave me that seat at the
table because i’m
we’re both so young we’re incredibly
lucky to be to be standing here today
talking about this issue and about the
fact that a lot of other
young people like us feel like their
knowledge and hard work is not being
heard
the message is clear help us and raising
our voices
stories like maggie’s and mine are
inspirational help us by raising our
voices provide us with the opportunities
to help
involve ourselves with creating critical
environmental legislation and policy
world leaders have been too
excruciatingly slow to create legitimate
climate policy
and we need that to change just like
maggie said
we can’t help those accomplishments
without being present in these
conversations
so to the older generations if you’re
thinking about hosting these discussions
over climate solutions
keep the younger generation in mind
because we organize
we educate and most importantly we don’t
give up