One Planet One Chance postcard

Reflection: 

Myself, along with about ten of my peers, planned this virtual postcard over the span of about two months. We partnered with the Environmental Protection and Round Square clubs to create an event discussing the global climate emergency and how we as students from around the world can create action. Our driving question was, “To what extent can individual action be used to combat climate change?” This question was designed to allow students to really dive into their personal proximity to the issue of climate change and some of the steps that they should take to either further or start their journey towards sustainability. By having these conversations as high school students, we can move towards a future where our further education and professions after that are modified to fit a future capable of sustaining humanity. 

Another student and I lead this virtual postcard of over one hundred students from various parts of the world. We gave a short presentation about some of the most pressing areas of climate change and therefore the areas that require the most urgent attention. We did this to get people thinking about the overall picture before diving into the details of specific regions of the world and the issues that predominantly affect those areas. 

Primarily what I took away from this experience was not the information, because I am largely informed on many areas of climate change and not to mention I helped make the presentation we gave about it; I found that the context that was given of students living in regions with ecosystems quite foreign to the dry, arid one I have grown up in. One girl in my baraza group shared the story of watching the trees near her home die in just a few years due to an overpopulation of beetles, brought in largely by human introduction., and then the warmer temperatures that allowed their population to flourish. While this idea was not unfamiliar to me, the girl’s proximity to being affected by climate change shocked me, especially when she showed pictures just five short years apart. As humans we tend to only consider the things right in front of us, which is partially a fault of the new and partially a fault of our own. Now, more than before, I think of my day to day impact and continue to research so I and therefore those who care to listen to me can be more informed.