?We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children?, this chief seattel quote caught my attention. And made me ask myself how do we borrow from a generation after us, and then i realized life is today and tomorrow. The decisions we make today affect our tomorrow that is the future of the next generation, our children. Do we really want to compromise their future?  Thats not the case for todays generation thier is no doubt that these is a generation were young people are thoughfull and determined to make a better future for the coming generation.

WHAT CAN YOUNG PEOPLE DO?

Inheriting a world filled with climate disasters, fighiting climate change effects, environmental pollutions and all sorts of evils that endanger the earth young people all over the world have decided to take part in solving these problems. So here are some of the ways that i have gathered from various sources in which young people can use to solve  environmental disasters affecting the earth.

  Joining non govermental organization (NGO?s).

Its important to be in a formal organization were you can define your vision and mission of what you want to do for the environment, also organizations can be helpful in solving issues that are affecting our environment, because these organizations have well experinced people, specialits in various matters hence they bring better understanding of what we can do. Also from this you can decide to start your own organization or a group of young people that will be backed up by the main organization

 Create change.

Creating change means being a sustainble consumer, and encouraging other young people to practise sustainable consuption. Choosing products that are environmental friendly and using only what you need so that you make sure you have less waste. Creating change means becoming an environmental conscious citizen living a sustainable lifestyle. This will motivate other people around you to do the same.

 Creating awareness to other young people.

This can be done by creating clubs in your schools, or starting campaigns that encourage young people to protect the environment, and live sustainable, it can also be in form of posters which carry a behaviour change massage that  reminds young people of the bad beheviours that put the environment at risk. Creating awareness can go futher into writting a newspaper article that will reach a wide range of young people in your nation, but also the use of social media is a very effective means since most young people are users of social medias.

 Start local go international.

Its obvious you can?t go saving a big thing while a very little thing near you also needs saving, by this i mean small steps are needed in order to reach futher. Take a look at your local community and identify the problems that are affecting it. After learning the enviroment problems start by talking to individuals who can make a difference, this also includes eating locally grown food, and ecouraging local farmers. Its important to understant the things that you do for your local community are the ones that will take you to international levels. So always start local.

  Lobby the goverment.

Young people have a voice, but its important to use it well, in a non violent way, encoraging goverments to protect the ecosytem. These voice can be used to contact your local leaders and tell of thing that you need to be changed in your community. Young people should realize how powerful they are and how the next generation is going to blame them if the fail today to tell goverment officials and business leaders that we want a world free of environmental pollution.

 Being innovative, creating better solutions to bring positive change.

Being able to understand your community better than anyone else makes you a better candidate for bringing postive change to your community. Invent a project in you communty that will help in maitaing the enviroment, collaborate with other peole tell them about the importance of  the project your doing, allow other member to bring their innovative ideas and get better alternatives for your problems in this you can get positive change.

?span style="font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman" font-size-adjust: none font-stretch: normal">  Increase your knowledge.

As a young environmentalist you should undrestand that having correct information is very essential, these is because trends keep changing with time, some threats increase every day while some reduce, also you can get information from different people on how to deal with a similar problem they had, so i encourage young environmentalist to keep up there spirit for search of information  hence there knowledge increases.

  Protect endangerd spcies.

This is a very sensitive area, mostly to countries in east africa were animals like elephants, rhinos, and lions are being hunted down.  What you can do as a young person aside from lobbing the goverment is not to purchase produts that come from these animals the more we purchase the more their going to be hunted down, and the manufuctures will keep on with there bussiness. When you go to a store and refuse to buy a product made from this endangerd spcies only that will be enough to create awareness.

  Reuse, Repair, Recycle.

This is my favorite of them all, do you reuse? Do you repair? And do you recycle? There is no shame in doing one of this three, infact you become unique and who knows in a matter of  time everyone in your cycle will be following your ways. I would like to encourage you that you can have as littel waste as possible dont always think of throwing away things you think you have no use with them, who knows how usefull they can be if you reuse, repair and recycle them.

 Take action.

Lastly is don?t not hesitate, put your ideas into actions. Do not worry about funds there is  always means to do projects that requier you time and devotion and not money. And in taking actions remembers to start local . sometimes littel projects you do with your friens and families can result into very huge ones and succefull, so young people its your time to save this earth we have borrowed from the coming generation.

The foundation of  sustainable development in these world is this young generation, were is the world without a better environment? Young people as the eyes, pillars and safeguards of these world have an obligation to makes sure the world stays in the right position no futher damage is caused. Lets join actions each one of us in our respective communities to ensure sustainablity of our beautiful earth.

Soucers

-        Dira ya maendeleo na ujasiliamali

-        Food think tank

-        Geo-5 for youth