We are the Youth and We Speak for the Trees

By: Sage Moccia

“Children are the future” is the platitude selected to pressure the young into making a change, but it is also a solid point. Throughout the centuries, human-related climate change has been noticeable, but recently the consequences have grown far beyond our dismissive tendencies.

According to NASA, from 1900-2000, Earth’s average temperature increased by two degrees Fahrenheit. While two degrees might not seem critical, Earth’s average climate had been stable for centuries prior. A minute change in heat will result in huge dilemmas to come.

Because some don’t see it affecting them anytime soon, or they just don’t buy it, many individuals do not take a stand against climate change. However, negative shifts from climate change are self-evident in our everyday lives, such as more intense heat waves, increased precipitation, and worse to come hurricanes.

But kids around the country aren’t standing for it. Teenagers have been taking a stand by conducting youth-led movements and marches to spread the much-needed word about encouraging change. While they may seem to be working on borrowed time, giving up is not an option.

Zero Hour is a youth-led, climate oriented, organization created by 16-year-old Jamie Margolin to speak up for the Earth. She and five other fighting activists have spent the last year creating this movement. On July 21, 2018, Zero Hour protested at the National Mall in Washington. They’ve also met with 40 federal lawmakers to discuss their platforms.

Young activists bring an advantage to physical movements that common marches don’t have. Bringing people so young to fight for such significant matters also brings more merit to the causes themselves. Adolescents now are the ones who will have to live with the consequences of climate change within the next ten years, and then continue to pass those consequences down to generations to come. This is not a trait that we will let be prominent on the face of the future.

This is not the only youth-led movement with fiery appetites to improve something. A couple others have taken the stage and melded with Zero Hour to show the adults in charge that we won’t stand for this.

The Youth Progressive Policy Group works with a number of causes, but most recently they have been working with problems concerning climate change. They meet with political figures and try to urge them to advocate for bills to alter environmental conditions. The group’s latest meeting promoted reducing carbon emission within the world’s atmosphere. The leader of The Youth Progressive Policy Group, Sylvana Widman, has concluded that currently, fossil fuel emissions are doing the most harm, so that takes priority. The Youth Progressive Policy Group continues to fight and march at every opportunity possible.

We can’t expect to get what we want without demanding it. The youth must come together and remind the adults that we don’t have much time left.

This is our planet. This is our home. How far will we let this go?