A worrying new survey reported in The Guardian today suggests kids aren’t all that bothered about the environment.
In the poll conducted by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), only half of 11 to 17 year olds claimed to be worried about climate change, with just 12% believing they could make a positive impact through lifestyle changes.
But do not despair, as a recent Future Leaders survey of 54,000 university and college students delivered a more positive outlook. A whopping 91% of those polled believed that in only 25 years climate change would be “hitting the world hard”.
“Our survey is a sign that this group is, in fact, super-engaged on climate change,” said James Goodman from Forum for the Future, which commissioned the Future Leaders survey. “But they may not be thinking about doing something about it for a few years.”
Another group looking on the bright side is C-Change – a small collection of young activists looking to raise awareness among their peers. At last weekend’s Glastonbury festival C-Change worked with the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) to launch Climate:Mobile, a mobile application that calculates an individual’s carbon footprint.
“We will be beaming the climate calculator to mobile phones using Bluetooth,” said Alex Randall, creator of CAT’s climate calculator, prior to the mud-bath that drew over 170,000 revellers to the West Country last week. “Giving away the calculator is an innovation. It will mean people can share the calculator with their friends and keep improving their own carbon footprint scores after the festival has finished.”
Pushing the application’s yoooooof appeal, C-Change campaigner Emma Kosmin,18, added: “We aren’t a group of middle-aged adults trying to think up what is cool to get the message across. We are using what we know to be cool among our peers and what will connect with and open up their minds.”
To receive the calculator on your mobile phone simply text ‘climate’ to 80010 and, in the meantime, visit Global Cool’s MY CO2 application, where you can make pledges to reduce your personal greenhouse gas emissions and find out exactly how much CO2 you’ll be saving from clogging up the atmosphere.
Click here for MY CO2
Click here for more information on Climate:Mobile
This is great! I think one of the most important things to do is to make our children aware of these issues; and help them to become concientized-citizens from their early-years… We are trying to do a campaign here in Argentina with a group of activists, focused on young kids, so if you want to share your thoughts with us, don’t hesitate to contact me! (luciana.y@gmail.com) greetings from the south.
Comment by Lu — June 29, 2007 @ 2:47 pm
I am a teenager but I think that the enviornment the way that it is is a big deal I try and spread the word of the little that I know. I turn off light I recycle I do just about anything I know. Its great to have all of this information going out to th public so that we understand what we are doing to our home.Its our responsibility lets fix it!
Comment by Katheirne — July 13, 2007 @ 4:00 am