In a shocking turn of events, I will not be writing about algae! I found it hard to make it activism-themed, so instead I will be writing about another environmental topic that is very near and dear to my heart: environmental activism among youth.
Anthropogenic climate change is increasingly threatening our society with drastic and irreversible health threats to our planet and all of the species that call it home. Politicians fight over the best way to combat the consequences of climate change, but they have been largely unsuccessful in creating the change we need. So many of the individuals that are blockading the environmental movement should be almost irrelevant to this conversation. These oil company owners, conservative politicians, and other old, white, wealthy men with stakes in the oil industry are going to be dead before the more toxic, dystopian-like effects of climate change begin to seep into society. However, if we continue to let these individuals use their power to influence environmental legislation, the youngest generations could be living in a world not too far off from many of the dystopias described by Margaret Atwood and other authors whose works we read in class. It is absolutely essential that our youth — especially Generation Z — become educated and engaged with environmental issues such as climate change. Fortunately, there is already a wave of budding young environmental activists, from the 21 kids who sued the federal government for their lack of responsible climate action to the preschoolers in my mom’s class who have pledged to give up plastic straws to our very own “Acting Environmentally” class, the voices behind April 3 Plastic Free and Duke Divestment. In this paper I am going to discuss youth environmental activism from a number of angles. I will review research on environmental literacy among youth, analyze case studies of environmental youth activists, discuss some of my own experiences with climate change education to elementary schoolers, and attempt to conduct long-distance interviews with some of my mom’s preschool students who recently had an environmental unit that included the straw-free pledge.
