Young People Know What's at Stake at UN Rio Conference: Their Future
Posted June 6, 2012 in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably, Solving Global Warming
Last week I had the joy of watching my daughter get married in our backyard. Weddings make me think of the future, and while I know my daughter and her husband will build a good life together, I worry about the challenges their generation faces.
I wonder what kind of world they will inherit. Will we confront climate change and other environmental challenges in time for them to thrive and prosper? Or will we leave my daughter’s generation to deal with the health hazards, economic stagnation, and political upheaval that will result from our paralysis?
Some of these questions will be answered two weeks from now at the United Nation’s Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. This gathering of heads of state, environmental leaders, corporate executives, and activists has the power to shape what kind of future we create.
That’s why young people must make their voices heard in Rio.
If the conference produces nothing more than empty promises on paper, we will have failed my daughters’ generation and missed a precious opportunity to change course. But if the conference inspires leaders to commit to enacting real solutions starting today, then we can build a path toward vitality and sustainable growth.
Young people have the power to make this an historic summit. With the launch of the SummitWatch.org online tracking tool for country preparations, young “summit-watchers” are holding their leaders accountable for the commitments they make in Rio. Here are some of our youth activists explaining the initiative:
NRDC and our partners also launched a Date With History, a video contest inviting young people to record what they would say to world leaders gathered in Rio.
Passionate and inspiring submissions poured in from Nigeria, Belgium, Peru, China, and all around the world. Online viewers voted to select the finalists, then a panel of judges—including actor Leonardo DiCaprio, actor Hayden Panettiere, UN Foundation President Timothy Wirth, Former Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva, Brazilian actor Sergio Marone, and UNFCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres, myself, and others—made the final selection.
I was moved by every video I saw, but I was especially impressed by the winner, Brittany Trilford, a 17 year old from New Zealand. Brittany starts her video by acknowledging that world leaders have already said they would combat climate change and other environmental challenges.
“These promises have been made. That’s not enough. Still, our future is in danger. With all due respect, let’s be realistic. Many of you will be gone before any of the environmental consequences of your actions catch up with you. I may be too, but what about my children, my children’s children? We are all aware that time is ticking, and we may be running out.”
This is a message world leaders need to hear, and I am so pleased Brittany will be coming to Rio to deliver it in person. She articulates with strength and clarity what so many of us believe: “I want a future where leaders will stop talking and start acting. I want a future where leaders lead.”
I believe the conference in Rio can inspire this kind of leadership, because I saw how the first Rio Earth Summit created its own transformation 20 years ago. Today many nations, cities, and corporations have environmental sustainability programs. That was unthinkable before the first Earth Summit. Rio focused the world’s attention on the concept of sustainable development and prompted nations to create their own plan for promoting economic growth in ways that preserve natural resources.
Real progress grew out of the 1992 Rio conference. Now we have to make this Rio conference just as transformative. We have to create the next generation of environmental leadership—one in which action and accountability trump lofty pledges and inscrutable documents.
Young people are already creating this kind of change on campuses, in community gardens, in urban neighborhoods, in startup organizations. They are finding ways to curb carbon pollution, protect fisheries, and make cities more livable, and they are getting results. Now they expect results from national and corporate leaders.
We believe we can create a new model in Rio: one that focuses on concrete action instead of vague agreements. And we believe young people will help lead the way.
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Comments
Ian Welch — Jun 6 2012 11:01 PM
The simple act of eating is amazingly complex. Every decision you make regarding the food that passes your lips has a ripple effect in either direction.
The first ripple is inward and has everything to do with how your body interacts with the food. The second ripple is outward; it is the effect your food decision has on the environment.
The point of impact is your mouth.
We Are What You Eat
Ultimately, the decisions made at the point of impact, have profound implications beyond your own personal health. Your decision has a global reach. “But we don’t have the luxury of philosophizing about food. With the exhaustion of the soil, the impact of global warming and the inevitably rising price of oil — which will affect everything from fertilizer to supermarket electricity bills — our industrial style of food production will end sooner or later. As the developing world grows richer, hundreds of millions of people will want to shift to the same calorie-heavy, protein-rich diet that has made Americans so unhealthy — demand for meat and poultry worldwide is set to rise 25% by 2015 — but the earth can no longer deliver. Unless Americans radically rethink the way they grow and consume food, they face a future of eroded farmland, hollowed-out countryside, scarier germs, higher health costs — and bland taste. Sustainable food has an élitist reputation, but each of us depends on the soil, animals and plants — and as every farmer knows, if you don’t take care of your land, it can’t take care of you.”
(http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1917726,00.html#ixzz1tXJMf0GU)
Initially, you need to approach your personal nutritional intake for the benefits it can provide… the immediate benefits that result from deriving your nutrients from Plants. Once that transition has occurred a second benefit arises and it is as equally powerful as the first.
The second benefit is the satisfaction received when you realize the effect your diet has on the environment. Livestock now use 30 per cent of the earth’s entire land surface.
I never really gave it much to thought; you buy the food, you cook the food, you eat the food. I was not thinking about how the food made it to my mouth.
The irony is the greatest single activity we can do for the environment is to adopt a Plant Based diet.
Mark Bittman recently commented in the New York Times: Five years ago, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization published a report called “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” which maintained that 18 percent of greenhouse gases were attributable to the raising of animals for food. The number was startling. A couple of years later, however, it was suggested that the number was too small. Two environmental specialists for the World Bank, Robert Goodland (the bank’s former lead environmental adviser) and Jeff Anhang, claimed, in an article in World Watch, that the number was more like 51 percent. It’s been suggested that that number is extreme, but the men stand by it, as Mr. Goodland wrote to me this week: “All that greenhouse gas isn’t emitted directly by animals. ”But according to the most widely-used rules of counting greenhouse gases, indirect emissions should be counted when they are large and when something can be done to mitigate or reduce them.”
Honestly, until last year I had no clue what I was doing or eating. I had no idea of the long-term damage I was causing my body. At the same time, however, I was very concerned with the environment. I recall writing an action paper that analyzed the reduction in energy needs if we all kept our tires inflated to the proper PSI… good thought, wrong action.
I did not realize at the time the food that was slowly killing me was also killing the environment. It stands to reason that nutrition that does not sustain health would also be detrimental to the long-term health of our planet.
We are at an inflection point in our history. We need to support our own health. As I have stated before, prioritize your Body over your Mind.
( http://wholefed.org/2012/03/06/my-body-could-kick-the-shit-out-of-my-mind-in-a-fight/)
Make a commitment to support your health by embracing a Plant Based diet. Once that commitment is made you will realize the enormity of the impact it has on a myriad of issues.
We Are What You Eat
For a full report on livestock’s affect on the Earth: http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/Livestock%20and%20Climate%20Change.pdf