THIRTY-ODD youths cramped into the home-turned-office of Ukuya to reflect, argue, learn and thrash out ideas on climate change.
Many of them had found out about the Conversations on Climate Change (COC) event on Facebook and took the risk to meet like-minded peers. The organiser, Malaysian Youth Climate Justice Network (myCJN), had intended the series of six COCs to be the platform to "represent the collective youth voice" in climate change debate.The first COC on July 4 turned out to be a success. "It was great. The more people knew how the system worked, the more agitated they became because they feel a lot more can be done at a much faster pace," said Adrian Yeo, one of the founders of myCJN. 
Barely two months old, myCJN was founded by five friends who felt strongly that the younger generation had been sidelined even though "it is us who will suffer in the future".
"Think about it. Today's decision makers will not be around in 2050 whereas the young people will feel the effects of climate change if nothing is done now."
The COCs, which are held every Saturday, are purposely limited to a group of between 20 and 30 people so that everyone gets a chance to speak.
"We want to engage and allow everyone to have a say."Yeo expressed the hope that the COCs will get people to start talking about climate change and that it will eventually be a topic of conversation at mamak stalls.
"It's funny that people don't talk about climate change when the climate affects us all. We want everybody on the streets to talk about it, to make it a part of our lifestyle. Then, the action will come naturally."
Their strategy is simple: outreach, empowerment and action.
"If all goes well, we hope to have an empowerment symposium in a few months." (MyCJN notes: This symposium is on 28th Aug and application is open for M'sian youth 18-30 years of age, apply today via our facebook page)
But the icing on the cake, said Yeo, would be to send representatives to the COP 15 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December." We're really hoping and working hard for it."
Many of them had found out about the Conversations on Climate Change (COC) event on Facebook and took the risk to meet like-minded peers. The organiser, Malaysian Youth Climate Justice Network (myCJN), had intended the series of six COCs to be the platform to "represent the collective youth voice" in climate change debate.The first COC on July 4 turned out to be a success. "It was great. The more people knew how the system worked, the more agitated they became because they feel a lot more can be done at a much faster pace," said Adrian Yeo, one of the founders of myCJN. Barely two months old, myCJN was founded by five friends who felt strongly that the younger generation had been sidelined even though "it is us who will suffer in the future"."Think about it. Today's decision makers will not be around in 2050 whereas the young people will feel the effects of climate change if nothing is done now."
The COCs, which are held every Saturday, are purposely limited to a group of between 20 and 30 people so that everyone gets a chance to speak."We want to engage and allow everyone to have a say."Yeo expressed the hope that the COCs will get people to start talking about climate change and that it will eventually be a topic of conversation at mamak stalls.
"It's funny that people don't talk about climate change when the climate affects us all. We want everybody on the streets to talk about it, to make it a part of our lifestyle. Then, the action will come naturally."
Their strategy is simple: outreach, empowerment and action.
"If all goes well, we hope to have an empowerment symposium in a few months." (MyCJN notes: This symposium is on 28th Aug and application is open for M'sian youth 18-30 years of age, apply today via our facebook page)
But the icing on the cake, said Yeo, would be to send representatives to the COP 15 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December." We're really hoping and working hard for it."
1 green notes:
Great to see the youth express their concerns about the environment. We have reason to be optimistic about climate change negotiations. However, there is much work yet to be done if we are to meet the December deadline for a global agreement on a climate change strategy. Many obstacles must be overcome before we can hope for an agreement in Copenhagen. The fact that we have yet to find the formula to finance the fight against climate change is one of the important hurdles that must be addressed. Finding a way to bring all 190 nations onboard is an unprecedented challenge but we are seeing positive signs.
See THE GREEN MARKET
http://thegreenmarket.blogspot.com/2009/09/climate-change-optimism.html
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