The Power of Youth Activism in Climate Change - English Version

Written by Lavina Lena Livia 

Youth and climate change. As present and future inhabitants of the earth, our role as youth in efforts to create a livable planet is very important. One of the roles of youth is to be actively involved in the issue of climate change which threatens the normal natural balance on our earth. This article will discuss why youth activism is important in protecting our planet. 

According to the KBBI, activism is the activities of activists. Activism, namely the activities of a person or community group that fights for the interests of the general public for a better life. In terms of climate change, youth activism means fighting for how our earth can be better. Fighting here is in the form of voicing problems related to climate change, which of course we must have good literacy in this matter. Youth activism is young people who care about the environment and want to make changes for the better. 

As a young generation, universally we have the characteristics of being brave in expressing our opinions, having the ability to absorb new values and ideas, being innovative, and creative, having interesting new ideas and ideas, having high levels of solidarity and social concern, being concerned and responsive to events around us, and many more. Again. These qualities that we have, make us the main driver that will make things easier to advance climate change control agendas in the world. Children and youth have a voice and the power to make adults listen. 

Greta Thunberg is a Swedish environmental activist known for leading the youth movement for climate change. Since 2018, he has protested the government's lack of action in addressing climate change. Since then, he has become one of the most recognized 'voices' in the global climate change movement. Greta Thunberg has spoken at various international forums and pushed for concrete action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the serious impacts of climate change. 

Based on data from Unicef, the British Council, Indonesian young people are in the 46th position in the world as the group most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The impact of climate change on human health is the spread of infectious diseases such as mosquitoes that carry malaria and dengue fever, then air pollution which causes respiratory problems, as well as natural disasters such as floods, storms, and drought. Therefore, this cannot be ignored. We as young people need to be critical of the issue of climate change, because, in the future, we will be the ones who occupy this earth in the future. 

Besides Breta Thunberg, there is a group of activists and influencers in Indonesia who focus on the waste problem, namely Pandawara.

Pandawara Group is a group consisting of 5 young people who carry out cleanliness actions and then actively upload their actions on their Instagram and TikTok, @pandawaragroup. Until now, Pandawara has been running for more than 1 year and has been followed by 8.4 million followers on TikTok. Instead of producing nothing, Pandawara's environmental cleanliness actions increased public awareness of environmental cleanliness. They have also received various awards. One of the biggest is being named Tiktok Local Heroes in the "Year on Tiktok 2022" by TikTok. 

We don't have to be activists first to be able to protect our climate. Start from the things around us. Try to care for plants in the yard or pots, save water and energy, and reduce plastic use by using cloth shopping bags. Apart from that, we can join environmental care groups or communities that focus on environmental problems. We can contribute and express our opinions and ideas in protecting the earth. 

We have the power to protect our planet. Share the ideas you get to continue protecting the environment with friends and family. Starting from small steps around us. Come on, let's be young environmental heroes!