Don't you care about your future?
- Katherine Hollingworth
Katherine Hollingworth is the first runner up of the Climate Change and Me essay competition.
In her essay, she gives a resounding call to action, highlighting the importance of the youth climate movement.
“We should wake up” - Greta Thunberg
Climate change is something that the world is starting to feel more acutely with every passing day. It fundamentally affects the way we live now and the way we will live in the future. So I was rather surprised to come across the disregard and lack of interest my fellow students showed when assigned a course on climate change. Many students expressed irritation and boredom when it came to completing the course or simply skipped through the material, claiming they already “knew enough” about climate change. This blatant indifference to such a serious and prevalent issue truly shocked me, especially since these interactions were with people privileged with education and the opportunity to make a difference.
Once I recovered from my surprise, I took a moment to consider one important question: Why don’t they care? I found my answer while reading an article written by Bright Nkrumah in 2021 on Eco-activism in South Africa. Nkrumah provided many explanations as to why South Africa’s youth do not engage with climate action, however, the ones that caught my attention the most were denial, detachment, and perceived powerlessness. I decided to reflect on each of these in hopes of better understanding the reactions of my peers.
Firstly, thinking about denial when it comes to climate change immediately sparks ideas about conspiracy theories and hoaxes prevalent on social media. Nonetheless, Nkrumah describes three types of denialism: future, causative and mounting. I believe that future denialism is the most common among my peers since their indifferent attitude reveals an underlying view of climate change as cliché and exaggerated. The fact that climate change is so prevalent in media and often discussed has desensitised the youth to just see it as a dismissible “everyday” issue. This explains my peers’ bored behaviour, nevertheless, I do not disregard that some youth may not believe humans have caused extensive climate change or that it exists at all - therefore falling under the other types of denial. Overall, this explains how youth may not engage with climate action due to desensitisation or denial of the issue.
Similarly to denial, detachment can cause youth to be disinterested in climate change. We can see floods and droughts everyday on the news, but if it’s not affecting us - why care? This detachment from the truly severe impacts of climate change can reinforce the future denialist idea that climate change is exaggerated in the media. But we cannot remain detached forever.
South Africa is already experiencing impacts such as Day Zero in Cape Town and floods in KZN. While the future seems bleak with WHO predicting that 80% of injuries, deaths and illnesses related to climate change will be suffered by children and youth. Climate change is happening, its impacts are severe and it isn’t something we can ignore.
This brings me to the final reason hindering youth activism: perceived powerlessness. Once we manage to push past all the denial and detachment we get to the bare and ugly truth. Extreme climate change will end the world. And isn’t that a nauseating thought to sit with, especially when you view it as something inevitable. Whenever we try to reduce our carbon footprint, we are faced with that haunting question - what’s the point? No matter what I do as an individual it will never be enough. The youth of today face a constant feeling of powerlessness. We think our voices won’t be heard, hence believing that we cannot change the real issue on industrial-scale pollution. But is that true? Are we really powerless?
The history surrounding South African youth shows that we are not passive victims. From the Soweto Youth Uprising to the #FeesMustFall campaign, South Africa’s youth have constantly challenged the idea of powerlessness and incompetence. So why is it different when it comes to climate change? When we, as African youth, are going to suffer the full force of its consequences? It is imperative that we unite and take action. Yes, it is incredibly daunting to tackle such a global issue - but luckily we have somewhere to start.
Nkrumah describes some of the most important aspects when it comes to building a youth climate movement: awareness, education, building a collective, planning and social media. I encourage the readers to read more about how each of these can assist in the climate movement. Or even look into South African organisations like Fridays for Future, Project 90 by 2030, Climate Action Africa and others. I won’t force you, because at the end of the day you need to make the decision. You need to put the effort in. You need to decide if you care about your future.
But I will leave you with this: Greta Thunberg has urged us to “wake up”, with her unapologetic actions inspiring hundreds of young climate activists around the world. Thunberg has spearheaded a movement (aptly described as the Greta Effect) of mobilising young people into climate action thanks to her publicity. However, she is not the only one.
The are hundreds of young leaders across the globe doing everything they can to combat this imminent threat. Here are just a few of them: Yero Sarr, Raeesah Noor-Mahomed, Ahmed Elhadj Taieb, Remy Zahiga, Dixon Bahandagira, Winnie Cheche, Gabriel Klaasen, Fatna Ikrame El Fanne, Evelyn Acham, Anisa Bek Derna, Greta Thunberg, Adelaide Charlier, Luisa Neubauer, Jamie Margolin, Hilda Nakabuye, Vanessa Nakate, Oladosu Adenike and Ayakha Melithafa.
Why not add your name to the list?