Thursday, June 21, 2012

We Got Mad!

Post by Nora Mahmoud

I attended and participated the side event, "Get mad and do something about it! Youth as initiators for change," co-organized by Temple of Understanding, Gender Progress Consortium, Zero Waste Youth, Zero Waste Institute Brazil, Government of the City of Porto Alegre, Interfaith Consortium for Ecological Civilization (ICEC), CliMates, MobilizeUS,Worldview Impact Foundation’s Green Apprentice Programme (GAP), Peace Revolution, and Novociclo.

The event's aim was meant to recognize the anger and disappointment many young people feel when we look to our future. Rather than meeting the future with a defeated attitude, the panel explored several of the environmental hurdles facing younger generations and then presented solutions, such as, alternative lifestyles, green business ideas, green growth, social media and virtual capacity building forums and short courses, and new ideas for institutional infrastructure that are currently being implemented by youth.
It was an extremely interactive and therapeutic session in which the audience was asked to participate and express their feelings about how they felt the negotiations were going and they were also to share what actions they felt needed to take place during Rio+20 and beyond. 
I talked about my experience with the Earth Charter youth network and emphasized the importance of education for sustainable development as the way forward.

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