Young people take action to protect the environment
Ensuring environmental sustainability, one of the eight Millennium Development Goals, can sometimes seem an impossible task. Statistics we hear can easily overwhelm us, like the 23 billion tonnes of CO2 we release into the atmosphere every year (700 tonnes a second!).
There are so many examples of young people who are choosing to act on this issue, often combining their passion for the environment with their broader interest in community development.
Here are some great examples:
When Marc Kielburger was only 13 years old, he turned his passion for environmental issues into action. For a Grade 8 project, he tested the harmful environmental effects of household cleaning products. The hazardous signs on almost every household cleaner shocked Marc—if these chemicals were so harmful to humans, they must have been equally harmful to water systems and the environment.
He tested the brand-name household cleaners against environmentally friendly alternatives, such as lemon, vinegar and baking soda. His results were even more shocking: the natural alternatives cleaned just as well and in some cases better than the hazardous brand-name products!
Marc spoke out about his findings, started environmental clubs and created petitions to help spread awareness about the need to protect our environment. Now the head of Free The Children, Marc is responsible for guiding community development projects around the world and helps to ensure that environmental considerations are incorporated in each project.
Sharing Marc’s passion for the environment, young people around the globe have been taking action to combat the environmental degradation going on around us.
Learning that many developing countries are often hardest hit by changes in the environment, Lily Dart began a Youth In Action Group she called Kids for All Kids, to help promote environmental sustainability overseas.
By rolling loose change donated by her community, Lily is supporting the Brick by Brick campaign in Kenya. Providing children overseas with an education is key to sustainable development, as Free The Children schools not only teach the basics, like reading and writing, but also teach the students how they can positively impact their environment through learning about the natural world around them and activities like planting trees on school grounds.
As a complement to their Brick by Brick and Alternative Income campaigns for Sierra Leone, students at Port Credit High School also decided to take action on a local level, beginning with their own school. The students gathered all the garbage throughout the school and began sifting through it in the school gym! They found that almost 75% of the garbage was made up of recyclable items. They petitioned their educators to bring in more recycling bins and have been working on outfitting their school with other environmentally friendly items, such as energy saving lights.
This Earth Day, remember that the small actions we take can make a huge difference on the planet. Whether it’s encouraging your family to recycle and compost, walking instead of driving or even beginning an environmental movement at your school, what’s most important is that we never take for granted the amazing resource this planet is and continue to work toward protecting it.
Free The Children is the largest network of children helping children through education in the world, with more than one million youth involved in our innovative education and development programs in 45 countries. Founded by international child rights activist Craig Kielburger, Free The Children has an established track-record of success, with three nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize and partnerships with the United Nations and Oprah’s Angel Network. |
