Change ourselves, then we change the world and fight climate change

While some leaders gracefully ignored the scary reality thrown upon us by the UN (backed up by specialists and scientists), millions of people around the world didn’t.

By MICHAL FREIKMAN
Climate change activists take part in a demonstration of the Fridays for Future movement in Lausanne, Switzerland January 17, 2020 (photo credit: REUTERS/PIERRE ALBOUY)
Climate change activists take part in a demonstration of the Fridays for Future movement in Lausanne, Switzerland January 17, 2020
(photo credit: REUTERS/PIERRE ALBOUY)
Climate change. You’ve probably heard this phrase lately, and unfortunately, over the last year more than ever, following the concerning the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report about what the future will bring if we don’t change our actions soon.
While some leaders gracefully ignored the scary reality thrown upon us by the UN (backed up by specialists and scientists), millions of people around the world didn’t.
Movements founded by ambitious youth groups and adults have arisen. The media’s headlines were all about activists like Greta Thunberg. Awareness is as high as ever, scientists are creating projects and finding substitutions to our wasteful industries and habits, and some nations are setting goals to reduce their industrial CO2 emissions to zero in the near future.
Sounds wonderful. Looks like humans are starting to learn our lesson and now we’re trying to fix or reduce the amount of damage climate change might cause.
But in reality, fires in Australia, floods in Israel and earthquakes in Southeast Asia are having a negative impact on both human and animal victims. And these are just a few examples of natural disasters happening right now.
For us as young people, reality is not simple at all. On one hand, this is our future. I want to take action. On the other hand, what I can do is limited.
Over the last few months, what I did was mainly protest under movements like Strike for Future. I was exposed to a new opportunity by my homeroom teacher: a project called the Scientific Youth Parliament, initiated and runs by the Bloomfield Science Museum and supported by the Jerusalem Education Administration.
This year’s topic was “Climate Crises.” There were three days of lectures, presentations, discussions and studying which eventually concluded with resolutions and suggestions for what we believe will make a lot of difference in the near future being presented to Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion.
Sixty teens from 16 schools in Jerusalem, both secular and religious, were divided into four committees titled by the topics of “Wisdom of Community,” “Renewable Energy,” “Sustainable Nutrition” and “Planning and Transportation.”
On the first day we heard a lecture about climate change as a whole, which helped us understand our world’s current position. Later we learned about other specific topics.
On day two we heard a lecture from Kfar Saba City CEO Itay Tzahar, which helped us understand what changes we can make on the municipal level.
Then we heard individual lectures from a variety of specialists. Being a part of the “Wisdom of Community” committee, I heard lectures about social businesses and collaborative economies and the ways these can help reduce pollution. At the end of the day, we wrote our proposals and submitted suggestions to the Jerusalem City Council.
On the third and final day, we presented our ideas to the City Council and to Mayor Lion, in the hope that our ideas will be heard and acted upon.
For me personally these three days made me full of hope. Seeing people whom I initially thought didn’t have any interest in these topics speak with passion to city officials, showed me how now, even though it seems like the struggle isn’t going anywhere, we cannot give up.
All I know is that we need to keep fighting, raising awareness and saving our city and planet with peace, wisdom and love. We need to be responsible and make things better in the future. In this way we can overtake the mighty point-of-no-return a lot faster than we ever thought possible. Sometimes all we need is to make small changes in ourselves, in our mindsets and everyday lives in order to make big changes.
The writer is in the 10th grade at Ziv Sieff and Marks School in Jerusalem. The above article is taken from a presentation given at the Scientific Youth Parliament in the Bloomfield Science Museum last week.


Related Tags
climate