Editor’s note: Brenna Dardolph is a student at the University of Kansas who recently finished Prof. Simran Sethi’s course Media & the Environment.
When we were seven, my good friend Julia’s parents finally quit smoking. The cause? Their little first grader’s nagging. As part of her elementary school curriculum, Julia was learning about the perils of smoking. It was her concern that finally convinced her parents to kick the habit.
As much as we believe parents shape their children, rarely do we consider that the opposite may be true. But the British government apparently does. Recently, seventeen local councils called on citizens, including children as young as seven to become the nation’s environmental watchdogs– to be on guard for littering, noise pollution and other environmental infractions. Participants in programs like “Eyes for Islington” in Islington or the “Junior Street Champions” in Luton receive information about collecting evidence and reporting environmental crimes. As a writer in the Independentpointed out, it is a chance for Britain’s youngsters to leave their computer games, get out their notebooks and commit themselves to a better community.
Talk about a recipe for potential disaster. Combine a down economy, changing agriculture practices, rising unemployment and the end result looks grim. But here’s the secret ingredient revitalizing and greening our countryside: young people under 35.
Profiled in the new book, Renewing the Countryside: Youth, this new generation is making their mark on rural areas, from starting new farms to putting out their own entrepreneurial shingle in small towns. Renewing the Countryside: Youth showcases fifty case study stories, one from each state in the United States, cooking up a super-size serving of inspiration for what can be done in similar communities throughout rural America.
Renewing the Country (RTC), a Minnesota-based non-profit organization, specializes in championing such stories, telling the story of the small-scale but big impact individuals and organizations that are creatively crafting livelihoods that positively impact their rural communities. While other RTC books focus on stories within specific states such as Wisconsin, this latest book project, published in partnership with the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE), uniquely celebrates rural youth.
In addition to the case study stories themselves, the engaging writing and photography also came from a team young artists across the nation. But beyond the inspiring read, this book serves as a starter blueprint for others looking to either return to or plant new roots in rural America, no matter one’s age. Looking at these case study stories collectively, five themes emerge that identify why this particular group of young people are succeeding in the countryside:
When Earth Hour was celebrated on the 28th of last month, the city of Delhi saved 600 MW of electricity - the highest in any Metro city in India - just by switching off non-essential lights. In terms of Carbon emissions, it was as if 2.3 million small cars were taken off the road. It was thus decided by the Chief Minister of Delhi that the Earth Hour will be celebrated every month in the city, and 22nd April - the Earth Day was appropriately chosen to be the day for this month.
Earth Day this year was also a landmark event for the city. Delhi faces several environmental issues most of which are actually the challenges of a rapidly evolving capital city of a country which is developing at an equal pace. Trees being cut almost every day, a polluted river only getting worse, the mobility crisis and the inequity, vehicular pollution and unplanned urban planning are all issues faced by citizens who wanted a solution to these by having a say in the decision making and access to basic information.
Both “clean coal” and carbon trading are lies. They are huge scams perpetrated by massive energy companies that are choking our planet. Over twelve thousand students converged on Washington D.C. to demand an end to polluting coal plants, and that the United States start to lead the world in creating truly sustainable clean energy and green jobs. Students filled the halls of Congress, lobbying their elected officials to fight global warming and demanding an end to polluting coal.
A 2007 survey issued to approximately 9,000 adults by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that 367,000 children are vegetarians, that translates to about 1 in every 200 kids. It is estimated that the number could be four to six times higher for teens and young adults since they have greater control over their diet. An Associated Press article, CDC Study: 1 in 200 American Youths is Vegetarian, details the results of the CDC survey and interviews with young vegetarians.
There is brief mention of kids who are berated and made fun of for their dietary choice, as in the case of Sam Silverman, co-captain of his high school’s football team, says, “my friends try to get me to eat meat and tell me how good it tastes and how much bigger I would be.” But in some settings, such as Agnes Scott College, vegetarianism is widespread and food choices at cafeterias are beginning to cater to the students’ dietary choice.
At the launch of the India Climate Solutions Road tour…
Not so long ago, and supported by Delhi Greens, the Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) was formed to give a voice to the next generation of India in the climate dialogue. The Network called for youth to come together in order to ensure a clean, bright future. Several city summits amidst a National Youth Summit on Climate Change, and the first ever Indian youth delegation sent to theCOP at Poznan ensured that the Indian youth got its voice heard both nationally and during the international climate negotiations.
Now, members of the Indian Youth Climate Network along with a solar powered band are traveling a distance of more than 3500 kilometers in the country in solar plug-in electric cars and alternative-fueled buses. The focus of this journey is to both raise awareness and convert awareness into tangible actions. Climate solutions would be documented all through the journey and the underlying objective is to communicate the message of working to bring down the Carbon concentration to well below 350 ppm.
The Magical World Of Disney And Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth Are Bringing Teens Across America To The Front Of The Line In The Fight Against Climate Change.
About 2,000 teens have signed on with an organization called Inconvenient Youth to tell their friends, neighborhoods, generation and anyone who will listen that the time to take action is now. Why? The founder of Inconvenient Youth, Mary Doerr, believes the young people “can solve it.”
Nobel Laureate And Former Vice President Al Gore Calls On Youth To Vote, And Hold Leaders Accountable For Campaign Promises On Clean Energy
The webcast which was organized by Power Vote — spear headers of the Energy Action Coalition — and seeks to emphasize the issue of climate change in the current election. The webcast is co-sponsored by Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection: the Alliance’s We Campaign has enlisted some 1.6 million individuals committed to solving [...]
What happens when corporations stop greenwashing…and start being real? MTV wants to find out. The NYC-based network just launched a global marketing push to tackle climate change with TV ads attacking those guilty of greenwashing. All of this is part of their youth-targeted climate change initiative called MTV Switch.
The launch includes not only TV ads, but also a series of five short films. With the
The New York Times ran an article today about the growing number of urban professionals in their 20s and 30s who leave their city lifestyle behind and move to the country to farm. Aptly, these people are called “first-generation farmers” as if they have arrived from a different culture altogether. In many ways they have abandoned a whole culture for another one, but they have taken with them one urban sensibility that may be the key to their success.
The best way to find out how important the environment is to Korean youths, I thought, is to ask them. Luckily, I happen to know a number of Korean youths: they’re my English students. Ah! A captive audience.
So, I handed out strips of paper to each student and asked them to anonymously mark the answer choice that they agreed with. On the paper were three lines:
Protecting the environment is very important to me.
Protecting the environment is a little bit important to me.
Protecting the environment is not important to me.
What happens when corporations stop greenwashing…and start being real? MTV wants to find out. The NYC-based network just launched a global marketing push to tackle climate change with TV ads attacking those guilty of greenwashing. All of this is part of their youth-targeted climate change initiative 
The New York Times ran an 
