UNA-Atlanta Youth Envoy
Youths are the future. Their voices, often marginalized, need to be acknowledged in order to create a world that is sustainable and just for all. The Programs & Education team is proud to host youths who are passionate about building sustainable communities.
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UNA-Atlanta youth envoys were asked to watch "David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet" and write a reflective essay. See below for their essays. |
My Witness Statement
by Aleyna Cirig-Beebe, UNA-Atlanta Youth Envoy Lead
“If we take care of nature, nature will take care of us.” - Sir David Attenborough. Our planet has begun to lose control; it has lost control to us humans. Nature is losing control with a fight like never before. Ice caps are melting, causing sea levels to rise, causing more hurricanes and flooding. There is a war going on, not between countries, but between the environment and us. David Attenborough, much like me, has an ecocentric view on nature, meaning nature can work on its own to find a solution to the climate crisis. He also has a technocentric view, meaning renewable energy plays a big part in our future along with other means of technology.
Every day I watch the news, and every day I get more concerned and saddened by the climate crisis. I want to be able to be an environmental scientist when I’m older, but in order for me and many others of my generation to do so, we need ecosystems to study. They’re deteriorating. Soon, what will I be studying? Dead Trees? A warm Antarctica? This isn’t normal, and yes this scares me. It is important that the public is educated about how serious climate change is. Most of the time, news about climate change gets brushed to the side. Why? Because maybe we don’t have the right people out there who are promoting it. Maybe we need a younger generation to promote it. If we can get people my age to pay attention, maybe we can get everyone's attention.
David Attenborough was only 20 years old when he went out on his first expedition. He explored multiple different countries, and multiple different habitats. But now, all those places have changed. Why? Because we’ve taken over, and we’ve become selfish. We are taking advantage of this beautiful place that has been given to us. We have destroyed ecosystems on land and in the water. We have killed for what? For our needs!? At one point we must ask ourselves; Have we gone too far? Have we taken too much, too much of something that wasn't ours? Have we robbed nature? The answer is yes, yes we have.
In David Attenborough's “Life on Our Planet," he shared his witness statement to the world. He discussed the many years of his life and the many discoveries that he made, but the thing that stood out most wasn’t where he went or what he saw, but what he was going to do. It was the actions he was going to take. One thing in particular is making rules. Rules for nature. This would be anthropocentrism, where humans believe things like taxes and legislatures will fix our problems.
Overfishing is a big problem in this world. In Paulua there are many no fishing zones, which are there in order to keep the ecosystem alive and untouched. It also allows nearby areas to thrive with fish. If we applied this rule across the world a third of our coastal seas would provide the whole world with all the fish that is needed. Currently, the UN is trying to enforce no fishing zones in International waters, and I hope to be able to contribute to that in some way. While
many of my environmental beliefs revolve around ecocentrism, I do believe rules and restrictions must be made in order to control the environment. Many places have fishing restrictions, and many places around the globe have areas where it is forbidden to cut down trees. I believe if we can apply some rules to nature, we’ll be on our way to a healthier planet.
Many people usually relate environmental issues to ice caps melting, greenhouse gasses and so on. While yes that is it in the big picture ,it's not the whole picture. In order to address the climate crisis, we must look beyond the most popular topics. We must look beyond the fact that the world is warming up. We must understand why it is warming up.
It's not just greenhouse gas emissions, or sea levels rising, but the food that we eat affects our environment. I am a pescitarian for many reasons. One reason is eating meat is less efficient. In order for someone to get one burger, that cow must be raised on a farm, and a shelter must be built for them. Then, in order to give them food and water, farmers need to use more water. They must also use transportation and a big factory to create the food for the cows, which emits a lot of CO2 into the air. Then, the cow is taken to a slaughter house by a truck using diesel. Then there's the manufacturing in the slaughterhouse , then another truck must take the cow to where it will be processed, and so on. For this one person to get this one burger, a lot is contributing to global warming. It would be easier to just grow some vegetables and ship them to a market where there isn’t that much of a carbon cost. Everything we do, even the smallest things affect nature.
Currently, our world has a population of 7.8 Billion people, 415 part per million of Carbon in the Atmosphere, and our remaining wilderness is at 35%. Compared to when David Attenbrough was just 10, our wilderness has dropped a whopping 30%. What scares me is the people who don’t care. In order to make this work, we must all work together, and if I can help and reach out to other students in Atlanta, that's a start for me. From here, I will spread information to the whole world. I feel everyone was put on the earth for a reason, and I think my purpose is to solve this problem and to work with others. It is my duty to solve this problem. Renewable energy is available now, more efficient ways of farming are available now. I plan to campaign for Biden and his clean energy act, I plan to join the Green Team at school and help our school be more eco-friendly. I plan to work day and night to help our environment. I plan to follow in David Attenboroughs footsteps, and listen to his “witness statement”. It is important that our home is kept safe and clean. We’re running out of time, and there is no planet B.
by Aleyna Cirig-Beebe, UNA-Atlanta Youth Envoy Lead
“If we take care of nature, nature will take care of us.” - Sir David Attenborough. Our planet has begun to lose control; it has lost control to us humans. Nature is losing control with a fight like never before. Ice caps are melting, causing sea levels to rise, causing more hurricanes and flooding. There is a war going on, not between countries, but between the environment and us. David Attenborough, much like me, has an ecocentric view on nature, meaning nature can work on its own to find a solution to the climate crisis. He also has a technocentric view, meaning renewable energy plays a big part in our future along with other means of technology.
Every day I watch the news, and every day I get more concerned and saddened by the climate crisis. I want to be able to be an environmental scientist when I’m older, but in order for me and many others of my generation to do so, we need ecosystems to study. They’re deteriorating. Soon, what will I be studying? Dead Trees? A warm Antarctica? This isn’t normal, and yes this scares me. It is important that the public is educated about how serious climate change is. Most of the time, news about climate change gets brushed to the side. Why? Because maybe we don’t have the right people out there who are promoting it. Maybe we need a younger generation to promote it. If we can get people my age to pay attention, maybe we can get everyone's attention.
David Attenborough was only 20 years old when he went out on his first expedition. He explored multiple different countries, and multiple different habitats. But now, all those places have changed. Why? Because we’ve taken over, and we’ve become selfish. We are taking advantage of this beautiful place that has been given to us. We have destroyed ecosystems on land and in the water. We have killed for what? For our needs!? At one point we must ask ourselves; Have we gone too far? Have we taken too much, too much of something that wasn't ours? Have we robbed nature? The answer is yes, yes we have.
In David Attenborough's “Life on Our Planet," he shared his witness statement to the world. He discussed the many years of his life and the many discoveries that he made, but the thing that stood out most wasn’t where he went or what he saw, but what he was going to do. It was the actions he was going to take. One thing in particular is making rules. Rules for nature. This would be anthropocentrism, where humans believe things like taxes and legislatures will fix our problems.
Overfishing is a big problem in this world. In Paulua there are many no fishing zones, which are there in order to keep the ecosystem alive and untouched. It also allows nearby areas to thrive with fish. If we applied this rule across the world a third of our coastal seas would provide the whole world with all the fish that is needed. Currently, the UN is trying to enforce no fishing zones in International waters, and I hope to be able to contribute to that in some way. While
many of my environmental beliefs revolve around ecocentrism, I do believe rules and restrictions must be made in order to control the environment. Many places have fishing restrictions, and many places around the globe have areas where it is forbidden to cut down trees. I believe if we can apply some rules to nature, we’ll be on our way to a healthier planet.
Many people usually relate environmental issues to ice caps melting, greenhouse gasses and so on. While yes that is it in the big picture ,it's not the whole picture. In order to address the climate crisis, we must look beyond the most popular topics. We must look beyond the fact that the world is warming up. We must understand why it is warming up.
It's not just greenhouse gas emissions, or sea levels rising, but the food that we eat affects our environment. I am a pescitarian for many reasons. One reason is eating meat is less efficient. In order for someone to get one burger, that cow must be raised on a farm, and a shelter must be built for them. Then, in order to give them food and water, farmers need to use more water. They must also use transportation and a big factory to create the food for the cows, which emits a lot of CO2 into the air. Then, the cow is taken to a slaughter house by a truck using diesel. Then there's the manufacturing in the slaughterhouse , then another truck must take the cow to where it will be processed, and so on. For this one person to get this one burger, a lot is contributing to global warming. It would be easier to just grow some vegetables and ship them to a market where there isn’t that much of a carbon cost. Everything we do, even the smallest things affect nature.
Currently, our world has a population of 7.8 Billion people, 415 part per million of Carbon in the Atmosphere, and our remaining wilderness is at 35%. Compared to when David Attenbrough was just 10, our wilderness has dropped a whopping 30%. What scares me is the people who don’t care. In order to make this work, we must all work together, and if I can help and reach out to other students in Atlanta, that's a start for me. From here, I will spread information to the whole world. I feel everyone was put on the earth for a reason, and I think my purpose is to solve this problem and to work with others. It is my duty to solve this problem. Renewable energy is available now, more efficient ways of farming are available now. I plan to campaign for Biden and his clean energy act, I plan to join the Green Team at school and help our school be more eco-friendly. I plan to work day and night to help our environment. I plan to follow in David Attenboroughs footsteps, and listen to his “witness statement”. It is important that our home is kept safe and clean. We’re running out of time, and there is no planet B.
Reflective Essay
by Selling Buyan, UNA-Atlanta Youth Envoy Assistant Lead
Slaughtering... an absolute destruction of our planet; This is exactly what I learned from this documentary. The daily actions I take without realizing is supporting what we now call a climate crisis. From pumping gas to my car, to using plastic bags in the grocery store. From printing out pages and pages of paper for my school work, to leaving the lights on. While I often try my best to take a role in more environmentally friendly options such as; walking instead of driving, trying to bring reusable bags to the grocery store and recycling, I can do much better.
After watching the documentary and viewing a completely different perspective on how rapid our environment is collapsing, I came to the realization that the small things that I ignore, that can contribute to this issue, at the end have greater consequences. I had forgotten the importance of collaborative work of individuals when it comes to making a difference. Therefore, this brings us to the concept of informing as many individuals as possible on this issue, so that they can join this fight against climate change.
However, the idea of “inspiring” and trying to warn people have proven to be unsuccessful since over the past 100 years, a major action has not been taken. When I was younger climate change was introduced in schools as a future problem, and what people fail to recognize is it is no longer an awaited issue, and it never has been. If we want to cause a grand change, the cooperation and efforts of individuals are needed.
The concept of a sustainable lifestyle must be covered by our education system more, especially the public school system. If students are guided on the climate crisis issue at a young age, they will take more precautions towards it. By education, I do not only refer to a half an hour long assembly every week. Environmental science should be a part of the science curriculum, recycling must be mandatory, students should be taught alternative options for activities that are damaging to the environment...etc.
A collaborative help from people in our society overall would cause a major change on how we view environmental problems and finalize with a bigger action towards it. However, a leading step forward cannot be taken if big companies and corporates that drastically contribute to climate change don’t change their methods too. The biggest contributors to global warming in the world in terms of countries are; China, United States, India, Russia and Japan. If we want to make vast change, these are the countries we should be focusing on the most.
In terms of the United States, we have so many possibilities regarding action towards climate change, considering our technological advancements and economic status. What we need are laws and regulations that make it illegal for companies to overlook certain sustainable development goals. For example, if we take sustainable energy production into consideration, while smaller companies could potentially be willing to switch to sustainable energy production, bigger companies such as; ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Chevron (which are in the list of 100 companies responsible for 71% of global emissions) won’t support the idea of reducing the production of fossil fuels. What’s the reason? Money.
Money is a social construct, but our planet is not. It’s not a secret that the biggest concern with transforming to a sustainable society is that it will have an impact on the economy. The argument is that we cannot afford to have such exceeding reformation but it’s ironic that we can spend 25% of the economic income on the military every year, which in 2019 was equal to almost 640 billion dollars.
Sustainability should not be considered as a task, but a lifestyle. The budget that is going to be spent to transform ourselves into an eco-friendly society is the price of years worth environmental massacre. Another great way to proceed forward is to look at countries such as; Denmark, Switzerland, and Norway, which are considered to be the top three most environmentally friendly countries. All three countries mentioned above have legally established regulations that have successfully increased their overall renewable energy percentage to between 95-97%. This proves that with the right approach, we can save our environment, which is our only chance to be able to comfortably live on earth. As I mentioned before, this is not a “future” problem and the possibility of reversing this critical issue. If not, sooner or later we will start facing problems such as lack of water, food, excessive heat, poverty, various health problems and many more significant consequences.
It is our job as members of society to be able to participate in the most basic acts such as recycling, being aware of our electricity and plastic usage, taking the opportunity to use walking, biking or public transportation as our transportation method, and overall just being conscious about our daily activities. The small changes we can do in our lifestyles will go a long way. It is also our responsibility to advise others around us to be more cautious.
We have witnessed the intelligence of the humankind, we have seen the world improve and now being destroyed. It is now up to us as individuals to try our best to reverse climate change for a livable future. As far as our current knowledge, we do not have a safe and efficient way to start life on a new planet. Earth is all we have got… and not for too long.
by Selling Buyan, UNA-Atlanta Youth Envoy Assistant Lead
Slaughtering... an absolute destruction of our planet; This is exactly what I learned from this documentary. The daily actions I take without realizing is supporting what we now call a climate crisis. From pumping gas to my car, to using plastic bags in the grocery store. From printing out pages and pages of paper for my school work, to leaving the lights on. While I often try my best to take a role in more environmentally friendly options such as; walking instead of driving, trying to bring reusable bags to the grocery store and recycling, I can do much better.
After watching the documentary and viewing a completely different perspective on how rapid our environment is collapsing, I came to the realization that the small things that I ignore, that can contribute to this issue, at the end have greater consequences. I had forgotten the importance of collaborative work of individuals when it comes to making a difference. Therefore, this brings us to the concept of informing as many individuals as possible on this issue, so that they can join this fight against climate change.
However, the idea of “inspiring” and trying to warn people have proven to be unsuccessful since over the past 100 years, a major action has not been taken. When I was younger climate change was introduced in schools as a future problem, and what people fail to recognize is it is no longer an awaited issue, and it never has been. If we want to cause a grand change, the cooperation and efforts of individuals are needed.
The concept of a sustainable lifestyle must be covered by our education system more, especially the public school system. If students are guided on the climate crisis issue at a young age, they will take more precautions towards it. By education, I do not only refer to a half an hour long assembly every week. Environmental science should be a part of the science curriculum, recycling must be mandatory, students should be taught alternative options for activities that are damaging to the environment...etc.
A collaborative help from people in our society overall would cause a major change on how we view environmental problems and finalize with a bigger action towards it. However, a leading step forward cannot be taken if big companies and corporates that drastically contribute to climate change don’t change their methods too. The biggest contributors to global warming in the world in terms of countries are; China, United States, India, Russia and Japan. If we want to make vast change, these are the countries we should be focusing on the most.
In terms of the United States, we have so many possibilities regarding action towards climate change, considering our technological advancements and economic status. What we need are laws and regulations that make it illegal for companies to overlook certain sustainable development goals. For example, if we take sustainable energy production into consideration, while smaller companies could potentially be willing to switch to sustainable energy production, bigger companies such as; ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Chevron (which are in the list of 100 companies responsible for 71% of global emissions) won’t support the idea of reducing the production of fossil fuels. What’s the reason? Money.
Money is a social construct, but our planet is not. It’s not a secret that the biggest concern with transforming to a sustainable society is that it will have an impact on the economy. The argument is that we cannot afford to have such exceeding reformation but it’s ironic that we can spend 25% of the economic income on the military every year, which in 2019 was equal to almost 640 billion dollars.
Sustainability should not be considered as a task, but a lifestyle. The budget that is going to be spent to transform ourselves into an eco-friendly society is the price of years worth environmental massacre. Another great way to proceed forward is to look at countries such as; Denmark, Switzerland, and Norway, which are considered to be the top three most environmentally friendly countries. All three countries mentioned above have legally established regulations that have successfully increased their overall renewable energy percentage to between 95-97%. This proves that with the right approach, we can save our environment, which is our only chance to be able to comfortably live on earth. As I mentioned before, this is not a “future” problem and the possibility of reversing this critical issue. If not, sooner or later we will start facing problems such as lack of water, food, excessive heat, poverty, various health problems and many more significant consequences.
It is our job as members of society to be able to participate in the most basic acts such as recycling, being aware of our electricity and plastic usage, taking the opportunity to use walking, biking or public transportation as our transportation method, and overall just being conscious about our daily activities. The small changes we can do in our lifestyles will go a long way. It is also our responsibility to advise others around us to be more cautious.
We have witnessed the intelligence of the humankind, we have seen the world improve and now being destroyed. It is now up to us as individuals to try our best to reverse climate change for a livable future. As far as our current knowledge, we do not have a safe and efficient way to start life on a new planet. Earth is all we have got… and not for too long.
