You are never too small to make a difference. And if a few children can get headlines all over the world for not going to school, then imagine what we could all do together if we really wanted to.
- Greta Thunberg
The next generation of climate heroes is rising.
A few months ago I was asked to speak to the Girl's Club at a local elementary school about actions they could take as individuals to reduce their environmental footprint.
Standing in the school’s library, with 30 eager pairs of eyes looking at me, I began the session with a question that I often pose in my undergraduate class on behaviour change: “What are some of the things we can do to get people to use less water at home?”
Hands immediately shot up in the air, and before long we had amassed an amazing list of strategies and solutions. I was inspired, to say the least. In fact, it was the best list I had ever had a group of students come up with, and in this case, from a group of girls in grades five and six.
I walked away from that visit with a feeling of hope, and imagined what this group of girls could accomplish if we had more time to work together.
Children and youth are majority shareholders in our climate’s future, yet are typically given a minor role in decisions that will affect this future. Recent strikes have demonstrated that students across the globe are demanding a stronger voice - and role - in climate change action. Many different elements have contributed to the growing frustration of youth. It is the voice of Greta Thunberg, a 15-year old from Sweden, who was able to articulate it in a way that lit a fire beneath youth on a global scale.
It is important that we give children and youth access to tools and solutions that can create the change they’re looking for. Successful social movements are organic, but they also need to have a coordinated approach. Protests and strikes from school will only get us so far.
As a researcher I have studied the role of children and youth in environmental sustainability through a number of different lenses – from watching pre-schoolers connect with nature in a project that I dubbed Into the Urban Woods, to working with high school students on a community-based outreach program to encourage local residents to reduce their energy consumption called Reduce the Juice. My experience with the Reduce the Juice project showed that one of the successes lay in the messenger. Local residents opened their doors to hear what the young person standing before them had to say.
But how could we harness this success on a larger scale to create even bigger change?
A few years ago I was asked to join a group of passionate environmentalists based in Elora, Ontario who were trying to put their heads together to create that bigger change I just mentioned. They weren’t your typical tree huggers. The group included, amongst others, a successful tech entrepreneur, a former CBC journalist, a product developer for a large software company and a brand architect. We gathered, strategized, listened and strategized some more until we came up with an internal manifesto we called the Climate Change Messaging Reboot and out of it was born the idea of “Plan E”.
Plan E is a new program dedicated to finding and equipping the next generation of Canadian youth with the tools, resources and platforms to champion and solve global climate issues.
Currently, Plan E is run out of the Elora Environment Centre (EEC), a not-for-profit, charitable organization founded in 1993 that has served as a launch pad for a spectrum of successful climate programs, including Green Communities Canada and EnerGuide for houses. The Climate Video Challenge is Plan E's first program. Launched in March 2019, the video challenge will give a platform to Canadian youth who want to see more action on climate change.
At Waterloo's Faculty of Environment and Plan E, our goal is to support youth to harness their passion and frustration and turn it into action.
We are inviting youth to flex their creativity, and embrace education, both in the classroom and through experiential learning opportunities. Nelson Mandela famously said that, ”Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” As Canadians, we must listen to and support the generation who will be most impacted from climate change.
Thank you to Chris Duchaine for creating the banner image used with this article.
