If you keep hurting the planet, how do you expect us to truly live?

Young people are the future of humanity yet, humanity has dealt us a deck of disenfranchisement, disaster and dismay. We now live in a constant state of anxiety about our future that is shrouded with an onslaught of climate catastrophes. How can you expect us to have promising prospects when our perspective of tomorrow is of doom?

The older generations, you had the privilege of being able to go about your life without having to bounce between the polarity of the: “earth is fine”, “the earth is dying”. That fact that you did not have to grow up watching the very world that you live in perish is a privilege in of itself.

We are least responsible yet we shoulder most of the consequences.

And I ask you: How is that fair?

The developed world has selfishly caused most of this catastrophe and yet remains adamant that it should be the global south who should try to develop more greenly. Have you forgotten that it is the young people in developing countries that will and are suffering the most from the effects of climate change that is worsening?

Cyclone Ana paying untimely visits. States going cold. Smothering heatwaves in the Americas. Floods and wildfires across Asia and Europe. Droughts plague Africa. The Amazon, dying. Animals disappearing. Natural habitats, desolate. Natural resources, mass depleted.

We have been Betrayed. Ignored. Abandoned.

And yet young people have been proactive, in our own ways. We have been more conscious of how our actions affect the planet. We are thrifting more as a result of being more self-aware of our contributions to fast fashion. Protesting more to hold those with power to account. Learning more by having these discussions.

Eco-anxiety amongst young people is very real and is on a rise. We cannot be the only ones who care about the earth, about our home. So, listen to when we voice our concerns and take action.

Be proactive. Be the change. Act now!

Written by Olivia Opara