Children tackling Climate Change

It's one of the great unfortunate truths: those who will suffer most from climate change are not those currently making decisions, but future generations (and, to an extent, young people who are not currently in powerful positions). The ecological debt they will have to pay for our (and our ancestor's) mistakes is tragic. Which makes initiatives such as Children in a Changing Climate (CCC) particularly impressive.

CCC works to put children's voices into the debates - from the UN to their communities, and connects children with one another around the world. They hope that children will be able to participate in the next annual Conference of Parties. Researchers concerned about this issue look at child-led adaptation techniques and provide children the opportunity to influence policy.

In the Philippines, kids are re-drawing 'hazard' maps to discover where are the greatest risks in their communities, monitoring rain level (to know when landslides will occur) and moving endangered buildings (including schools) to safer areas. In El Salvador, they are planting trees on the and other plants on the erosion-prone hillsides that have been deforested and clean out misquito larvae (which can lead to dengue and malaria).

THey believe that children have a powerful effect.

As one child engaged in El Salvador said, 'adults can be a bit boring. they dont talk with any humour and are very serious. children are much better communicators.' And the adults find them inspiring. As their website says, 'for effective climate change adaptation, the voice of the children need to be heard." (www.childreninachangingclimate.org)

Forming international links is powerful for many of them; according to one story I heard by a woman who works with the organization (which is supported by Save The Children and the Institute of Development Studies), when a young boy in England realized that his new-found friend in Bangladesh was going to loose her home if global warming trends continued, he said, wait, so, if we don't stop driving our cars, you loose your home? And she said, yeah, I guess so, and he said wow. We have to stop driving cars!

For some inspiration, visit the website, and don't forget to check out their great films!