Something that I’ve noticed about youth climate activism is that youth activists are constantly compared to older generations. However, it’s about how they are compared that really intrigues (and annoys) me. Younger generations of activists are, generally, not presented as following in the footsteps of older activists, nor are they shown to be working with older activists at all. Most of the time, I see these young people presented as our “last hope,” completely separate from older generations. Xiye Bastida sums it up well in “Calling In” when she says that “many people are now giving all the credit to young people when looking for key players in the climate movement. But as youth, we know that we didn’t start the movement at all.”
The journal Nature does this exact thing when an article from 2019 says that “because young climate protestors don’t represent someone else’s agenda, their message is strikingly direct and unvarnished.” The article then goes on to talk, in part, about how much harder it is for adult activists to talk candidly and radically about issues like climate change without risking their careers. By distancing youth climate activism from previous generations of activism in this way, it takes the onus off of older generations to do anything.
Needless to say, it’s not helpful to the climate movement to put so much distance between different generations of activists and what their capabilities may or may not entail. However, the line being drawn between these generations can be easily identified: the voting age.
My greatest wish for youth climate activism in the next few years is for a serious petition to have the voting age lowered as soon as possible. And I am not the only one who thinks this way. NYRA (National Youth Rights Association) has put together a list of 10 reasons why the voting age should be lowered. The most pertinent of these reasons, for climate activism specifically, out of the list (although all points make excellent arguments) is reason #6 which states that “lowering the voting age will improve the lives of the youth.” NYRA goes on to make the point that “by disenfranchising young people society tells us that we do not have anything of value to add to the political conversations in our society.”
Youth activism has never been taken seriously. One way to look at my earlier examples of how different generations of activism were separated is to say that youth activists are put on a pedestal and that they can do no wrong. However, I’d like to push that thought a bit and say I think that that pedestal keeps the older generations safe. The pedestal doesn’t just say that we, as youth activists, can do no wrong, it also says we can do no right. We have no power at all- we are harmless. That is until we become adults, but then we’re busy and have careers to protect. To lower the voting age is to protect our futures, not only from older generations, but alongside older generations.
This was really well written and you brought up some very good points that I had never realized before. I definitely agree that lowering the voting age is very important and would have a large impact on how people view the younger generation and how much power the younger generation has. I think people need to stop seeing climate change as a future problem and start seeing it is a current problem. I think that a shift in thinking like that would also help to bridge the gap between the older generation and the younger generation. While it's true that climate change will have even worse effects in the future it is also effecting our current world.
ReplyDeleteThis post was very well written, and you articulate your voting point beautifully. The perpetuated idea that environmental justice is solely a youth activist issue is non applicable if these said youths can't even legally contribute to legislative change. I completely agree with your wish to lower the voting age requirement, since it's our future on the line if we can't lower our carbon emissions as a country. However, I also acknowledge your point of needing to involve adults in the movement as well. The more people there are actively fighting for change, the more likely it is that change is actually going to happen. Fantastic post!
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