So, are they forgoing all use of fossil fueled travel? No more car rides, bus rides? Ride bikes or walk to school? And to places to take their selfies? Significantly reduce their use of energy on their smartphones? Not get a new phone ever 2 years or less? No new clothes?
Miami kids eager to tackle climate change
At the forefront of the climate crisis, Miami is hosting three conferences in the coming days to discuss possible solutions, and two of them will focus on how young people are being affected and what they might be able to do.
What they’re saying: “As young people, it feels as though we are being handed this problem, one that has been piling up for longer than we can imagine, and asked to reverse it in 20-30 years,” Ransom Everglades School tenth-grader Mia Bouyoucef tells Axios.
How many will be travel in fossil fueled vehicles to attend?
What’s happening: Bouyoucef is co-president of Miami Youth Climate Summit, which is holding a conference this Sunday at the Ransom Everglades Middle School campus to push for climate action.
And tomorrow through Monday, the Future Leaders Climate Summit will bring together 250 researchers, activists and civil servants between ages 18 and 30.
Next week, Monday through Thursday, it will be the turn of the Aspen Ideas: Climate conference, featuring speakers like Vice President Kamala Harris, pop star Gloria Estefan and scientist Bill Nye.
How many of those speakers will be taking long fossil fueled trips? Harris and Nye (who is not a scientist, but, an engineer). Estefan’s concert tours use quite a bit of energy and fossil fuels.
Charouhis has outlined solutions to climate change: no new fossil fuel projects anywhere, no continued deforestation anywhere and a transition to 100% renewable energy by 2030.
Other than forcing people to “switch to a healthier diet”, none of the solutions require the kiddies to make changes in their own lives voluntarily.
What’s next: Isabella Perez-Compres, a tenth-grader at Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart and co-president of the Miami Youth Climate Summit, tells Axios, “I believe that if current politicians are replaced with people from my generation that more change would occur.”
Sure, that’s the solution.
As climate changes, climate anxiety rises in youth
Kids often worry about much different things than their parents do. One of the big ones is climate change. Research shows most youth are “extremely worried” about it, leading to a phenomenon called climate anxiety. Kids and young adults who struggle with this can perceive they have no future or that humanity is doomed.
“We see that a lot of young people are saying, I think my life will be worse than my parents’ lives,” said Dr. Sarah Schwartz, a professor of psychology at Suffolk University in Boston.
Perhaps the youts should not have been taught that they are doomed in a constant manner. They wouldn’t have mental health issues.