Activists in Training
For idealistic young people determined to save the environment, today's challenges seem far more daunting than those their parents faced. When Woodstock youth rallied on the first Earth Day in 1970, the issues were pretty straightforward: clean air, clean water and protection for furry creatures. And when the U.S. Congress enacted such tough laws as the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act, the young activists could raise their fists in triumph.
How times have changed. These days, environmental problems are global and discouragingly complex. Topics like climate change and animal protection have become tangled up with issues of poverty, trade and foreign debt. Which explains why some of the more radical of today's young environmentalists were among the angry throngs at the infamous 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle and the 2001 Group of Eight gathering in Genoa. Unfortunately, to most observers, those violence-marred demonstrations seemed more like confused mob scenes than coherent protests. The plethora of complaints was too bewildering. Why, for example, were kids in turtle suits parading down the streets of Seattle? Because the WTO had decided that a U.S.-mandated device designed to keep fishermen from accidentally killing turtles was an illegal restraint on international trade.
Happy to Confront Complexities
While such mind-numbing disputes might prompt some students to shrug and give up, others are more than willing to face the new intricacies of saving the planet. They realize that the troubles of turtles are part of a global decline in biodiversity. They understand that since the earth has only one atmosphere, pollutants emitted in Tokyo can someday land in Toledo, and vice versa. Jo Dufay, campaigns director for Greenpeace Canada, recalls that when she got started in the movement 20 years ago, action resulted from cries of "not in my backyard," but now, she says, "it's not about this one filthy stream or that particular pile of garbage, but the whole system." Myke Bybee, 23, director of the Sierra Student Coalition, the youth offshoot of the Sierra Club, agrees: "Our organization has seen its strongest growth from students involved in global issues. They know how interconnected all countries are, and they are concerned about such things as global warming and international treaties."
Clearly, some new approaches are called for. While the traditional environmental slogan is "think globally, act locally,'' more and more young people want to act globally as well. Members of the Atlanta chapter of Kids Against Pollution don't just clean up their own backyard; these kids are also trying to raise $22,000 to help establish a children's program in the Hluhluwe/Umfolozi game preserve in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal Province. "We want kids from around the world to be able to visit and learn about animals in their natural habitats, not in zoos like in the U.S.," says Illai Kenney, 13. Last March the United Nations brought about 100 young people from around the world to a Global Youth Forum in Copenhagen. They signed a statement declaring, "We are scared about the fate of the earth" and pledged, among other things, to reduce their consumption of natural resources. One idea raised at the conference was to promote an annual, international "Buy Nothing Day." Two of the kids, hailing from Turkey and Nigeria, were elected to represent the Youth Forum at this month's Johannesburg World Summit.
Going Green Online
The coming of the Internet has made it much easier for young people to network, even if they can't travel to U.N. conferences. SustainUS, an organization sponsored by environmental groups for people under 26, has chapters on more than 50 American campuses with the goal of educating youth about sustainable living. Through their website and e-mail, SustainUS urges students to pledge to reduce their personal contribution to the greenhouse effect by, for example, carpooling to school and taking shorter showers. The goal is for members to take a personal stake in reducing carbon dioxide emissions by a total of 20,000 tons this year.
E-mail also proved crucial to Canadian Simon Jackson's campaign to save British Columbia's Great Bear Rain forest and its most famous inhabitant, the white Kermode, also known as the Spirit Bear. Jackson, who was 13 when he started his crusade, persuaded thousands of kids to send messages to the B.C. government. Those emails helped persuade officials last year to put large tracts of the Great Bear Rain forest off limits to loggers.
Taking It to the Streets
It's not just governments that are getting caught in the crosshairs of environmental activism. Increasingly savvy young people realize that targeting corporations is a useful tactic. Hence, Green Mouse, the youth wing of France's Green Party, demonstrates against globalization by staging protest picnics at McDonald's outlets. When the Sierra Student Coalition launched a campaign to protect old-growth forests, they targeted the office supply giant Staples in an effort to persuade the chain to spare ancient trees and sell recycled paper.
Often, the chance to protest — rather than a long-term commitment to a cause — is what initially attracts young people. But today, more and more students are learning that there's more to changing the world than marching in the streets. Lindsay Poaps, 23, a co-founder of the Vancouver student group Check Your Head, regularly offers reality checks to kids anxious to man the barricades. "They want the glamour of these events," she says. "That's the image of being an activist, but we try to tell them there's a lot of work done before the protests and after the protests in educating others."
When it comes to getting results, students are realizing that what you know is more important than how loud you shout. The Sierra Club and several other conservation groups stage summer camps and seminars to help nurture the environmental leaders of tomorrow. Through its education fund, the League of Conservation Voters teaches students how to get involved in election campaigns, and the program has more applicants than it can accept.
Says Dan Jones, a senior at Hunter College in New York City and a member of SustainUS: "If you have an agenda, educate yourself and get a degree in the field that interests you. If you want to change policy, become a lawyer; if you're interested in how bottles are produced, get a degree in engineering." Students are getting that message in a way that League of Conservation Voters president Deb Callahan, who has been active in the movement for 20 years, finds "awe-inspiring." "In my day," she says, "we leapt first and learned second. Now, they learn first and leap second."
-- With reporting by Delphine Schrank/Paris; Regine Wosnitza/Berlin; Petti Fong/Toronto and Andrea Dorfman/New York