Young People and Climate Change
I support this proposal. I believe it would be a huge contradiction to both young adults’ and young people’s oppression. I spent my childhood listening to adults talk about climate change but not take strong enough action to prevent it. I currently spend a lot of time around young people who care deeply about the environment. I believe young people are less confused about care of the environment than adults—and not following young people’s lead here is acting on young people’s oppression. I cried reading about the proposal because it contradicts the oppression I have faced as a young adult who has done climate work for over a decade.
It is not an urgency pattern to say we need to act quickly to avoid negative impacts on hundreds of millions of people. This is the reality of the situation. (A distress pattern of urgency can attach here, but the need to act quickly is real.)
The following ideas (in my own words) are from an International Young Adult Leaders’ Conference:
- We sometimes have to change something in our lives to be able to fully discharge a distress.
- Young adults should counsel on taking a stand, putting ourselves out there, and saying “I disagree.”
Diane’s proposal gives us an opportunity to use the above suggestions. It may be especially helpful for people like me, who are “scared passive.” I have found that taking action, especially on climate change, leads to more discharge and more free attention. I used to have no attention for the Sustaining All Life project. I would skip every article about it in Present Time and read the rest of the journal. My discouragement paralyzed me. After I started organizing with a climate group, I was able to start reading those articles. I have more discouragement to discharge, but it isn’t restricting my life as much.
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion
list for leaders of young adults