A report entitled The Climate Generation; Survey Analysis of the Perceptions and Beliefs of Young Americans, was released today from the Yale Project on Climate Change. The report puts into question "... conventional wisdom [that] holds that young Americans, growing up in a world of ever more certain scientific evidence, increasing news attention, alarming entertainment portrayals, and school-based curricula, should be more engaged with and concerned about the issue of climate change than older Americans," and, "reveal[s] that Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 are, for the most part, split on the issue of global warming and, on some idicators, relatively disengaged when compared to older generations."  (Feldman et. al., 2010)

The results of this survey are surprising, especially to those of us here at the Will Steger Foundation.  Indeed, members of our Emerging Leaders Program and most recently our Copenhagen delegates demonstrated more maturity, concern and engagement than the majority of individuals I encounter on a day to day basis.  It will be interesting to follow other reactions to these survey results as they emerge in the coming weeks.

Click here to find this and other reports from the Yale Project on Climate Change

YouthJan2010yale.pdf

So many things are happening at the U.N. Climate Change Summit - it will make your head spin! Bringing awareness and attention to an issue or group can be done in many ways. "Actions" are a large part of the Climate Change Summit and in making statements worldwide. Particular planned "actions" with different organizations and groups must be planned, requested and approved by U.N. with certain regulations and guidelines for all. I just wanted to share some amazing action photos with you here.

These are just some of the incredibly inspiring youth actions that took place at the U.N. Climate Summit.

This past Thursday, one day before the end of the 2009 Conference of Parties (COP 15), I fasted to help call attention to the great injustice of global climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions, which come disproportionately from people in industrialized countries, are imposing serious climate impacts on the rest of the world--droughts and desertification in places like the Horn of Africa, and crop-destroying floods in places like Bangladesh. By emitting like we do, we are depriving people in vulnerable places everywhere of food and other basic means of survival. Forgoing food voluntarily for a day was a small and completely inadequate token of my care for these impacted people.

But I was not the only one fasting. I was joined by hundreds of other temporary "solidarity fasters" from around the world, including fellow Will Steger Foundation delegate Holly Jones, and a brave team of eight long-term hunger strikers and organizers, who created the Climate Justice Fast campaign earlier this year.

I met one of the co-founders of Climate Justice Fast last year when we were in Poznan, Poland for COP 14. She is a 24 year-old Australian named Anna Keenan. Anna's capacity to sacrifice for just climate solutions was evident then as well--the two of us stayed up together at a print shop until four in the morning one night making placards that read "Survival," which we then handed out to official country negotiators for them to place on their desks during the plenary session. This effort, together with a wider coordinated campaign, yielded enough interest in the principle of "Survival" among the negotiators that the chair of one ministerial roundtable inserted a reference to "safeguarding survival of the most vulnerable countries and people" into her Conference summary.

Despite occasional victories like the "Survival" campaign, which originated with a team of youth climate activists and negotiators from small island states, the pace of progress in the UNFCCC has been depressingly slow. The apparent failure of traditional advocacy efforts compelled Anna and Sara Svensson, co-organizer of Climate Justice Fast, to try a more serious approach.

At the end of the UNFCCC's Barcelona negotiating round this past November, during which a bloc of African delegates walked out of the conference center in disgust with industrialized countries' unwillingness to commit to adequate mitigation targets, Sara, Anna, and their team stopped eating, drinking only water, and committed to continue their fast until the world agrees on a fair, ambitious, and binding global climate treaty. Sara described her decision to begin the fast in a press release:

“I undertook this fast in solidarity with those who are suffering the effects of climate change, but also to show my dedication to the climate movement – to show that there is something that I care about more than myself, more than my own personal comfort and gratification.”

Sara and Anna continued their fast for 44 days. They broke it on Saturday morning, drinking juice together with two other long-term strikers at a cafe in Copenhagen. That afternoon I ran into Sara as I entered the Bella Center, where the night before delegates had forged a weak "politically binding" Copenhagen Accord. My mood was grim during much of that day, and my frustration with the shameful outcome of these talks continues. But I felt a new sense of hope after my brief conversation with Sara, who spoke with joy about her first meal since the fast started.

“We have decided to end this fast today because we know that we need to keep on working as climate activists for our whole lifetime," she said. "We will keep on pushing on our governments, harder and harder, until we see the necessary political shifts achieved and a global deal sealed.”

As Obama addressed the plenary hall inside the Bella Center, many watched from outside since NGO's had limited to no access to the center today. His speech echoed through the concrete hall while all stared in silence. Furrowed brows headlined the uncertain glances around the hall at friends and strangers.

Is this the same President that moved us all so deeply just one year ago?

Is this the same President that called for change and the hope of a new future?

These questions, among many others, flooded my brain as a straight-faced Obama recited a cold, political speech that lacked his trademark hope, optimism, inspiration and humanity. The very traits that got him elected seemed to be buried underneath political goals and selfish motives. To his defense, his administration has done so much more than the previous. Yet today, a day that we all secretly (or publicly) hoped would bring a silver lining to the difficult and sometime dismal negotiations, we were left with seemingly empty words.

The moment that instilled great hope, passion and inspiration came from our peer; Juan Carlos is a native to Peru and is here with the SustainUS US delegation. He has been working hard and spent last night in the Bella Center with the other three youth that obtained access. His speech today, written in collaboration with the International Youth Climate Movement speaks to humanity across the globe, demands action and has moved me to continue forward.

Today premiered my stint with Stonyfield Farm's daily feature with Expedition Copenhagen delegates' interviews with some of the top leaders of the grassroots climate change movement. Check out today's interview with Garett Brennan, Executive Director of Focus the Nation.