There is a deafening debate surrounding the recent youth-led March for Our Lives in Washington, DC and across the United States. Many are proudly calling it the largest youth movement since the Vietnam War while others without surprise are saying the students themselves should do more to combat gun violence, not elected leadership. But this youth movement does not end at gun reform. Millions are realizing the cries from our future go unheard while the truth is swept under a rug. Earth Day is around the corner and every year around this time I shake my head. I wonder what are we leaving to clean up after we are gone. Right now we are leading humanity midway through the Anthropocene.
Has an aging generation failed that one of the future?
A quote that stuck with me from the recent March for Our Lives protest was, “When you strip away all of the partisan bullsh-t, the simple fact is kids are dying at school and they’d rather not. They are asking for help. From adults. That’s it.” I’m not here to discuss my opinions on the NRA or Washington’s inaction on gun reform. Sentiments surrounding gun violence in the United States are just about everywhere you turn. I am here to address an even bigger picture, a message I have seen repeated over and over from protest signs, student essays, to rants in memes. Much of youth today feels that the generations before have failed them- and their cries for help are being ignored.
Anyone who can hold a phone has access to limitless information at their fingertips and has quickly learned not to rely only on the rational of parents, teachers, or elected officials. This is the very reason why schools have cut long division and forced memorization and replaced it with critical thinking. As good or bad as you think that may be, certain facts (and opinions) are no longer hidden. Gun control, access and cost to education, healthcare, gender equality, and environmental protection are all issues I see fought for regularly. So where do we go from here? We can continue to ignore a maturing population and vision- that will already outnumber baby boomers at the polls in the 2020 election. Or do we back them because it seems today’s youth, the generation with the most to loose, which includes humanity’s future, is the most concerned.
We failed on more than just gun violence.
Undeniably advancement of the human collective over the last few generations spiked on an exponential curve, but at a cost. The planet is conquered. Forests razed. Natural resources depleted. Oceans emptied and poisoned. Few even realize we are going through the Anthropocene, the 6th major extinction comparable to the one that wiped out the dinosaurs. This extinction is all man made.
But there is no turning back. We will always need to mine for steel, we will always need to build bigger and stronger and that is the direction we need to go in. But we need to do it confidently knowing we are protecting the future, not just today.
Everyone hates to admit we were tricked to believe it is okay to consume and use at the levels we do. And we are all so removed and so afraid of the truth, that we believe whatever brands fed us that lie. I used to think society would wake up when it would witness a cataclysmic event that shakes the core of our being. I just never realized that event had been happening since before I was born and so few people stopped to notice.
There are countless models out there. And even if your neighbor does not believe in climate change, they know there is a finite amount of natural resources left, there are dwindling fishing stocks in an ever poisoned sea, they know plastic waste Does Not Go Away. What they don’t realize is they probably don’t deserve the environmental cost of eating that steak before them.
Remember the saying, “leave the world better than you found it.” Will YOU? It is the responsibility of every human to come to terms with our place in the world, that our actions are part of something bigger than our day-to-day lives, and we need to change the way we operate as a society, if not from the top down than by the bottom up. Every action from turning on a faucet to buying groceries has a ripple effect that changes the course and ultimately determines the fate of tomorrow.
Have faith in the next generation, and we need to help them
I have so much faith in Millennials and the maturing Generation Z (defined as people born from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s). Simple access to information has leveled the playing field in so many ways when it comes to views on equality, justice, and vision for the future. Yes anyone over the age of 35 rolls their eyes when they look in disapproval at lazy the youngsters of today but so has every generation before them. Few teenagers adore getting out of bed early and doing chores and likely neither did you at the same age.
The buying power and social consciousness of this emerging generation is a force to be reckoned with. I believe they will continue to see through much of the short-sightedness of the past. I hope they will have enough time to clean up and save what is left from what will be handed to them. They need the support to build up from where we have failed.
Here at SEVENSEAS Media, we do everything we can to educate and inspire nature lovers, professionals, and students of today and tomorrow. We love the work we do and we hope you love and share our message. This Earth Day, listen to someone young and do something to help them launch their dreams into a sustainable tomorrow.
Maybe youth isn’t wasted on the young after all, it is the only hope the future.
Safe travels and happy swimming,
Giacomo Abrusci
Executive Director, SEVENSEAS Media