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