Youth effort to tackle climate crisis

With future generations likely to bear the consequences of global warming over the next few decades, young people from Barbados and elsewhere in the world have come together to find solutions to the climate change problem.

Thursday morning marked the start of the Youth Climate Summit and Expo, which will be held at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre over the next two days.

“The climate crisis is a children’s crisis and we are glad that more children are beginning to understand this and recognise that they must take action in order to safeguard their future,” said Executive Director of the Ashley Lashley Foundation and UNICEF Youth Advocate for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Ashley Lashley.

Lashley said children from 20 primary and secondary schools across Barbados as well as delegates from the Caribbean and further afield will participate in the conference.

“We will have the United Nations Youth Special Envoy as one of our featured speakers on Friday, and our aim is to have our youth fully engaged in the conversation on climate justice. Barbados is one of the nations in the forefront of the climate crisis, and this conference will show that we are making a stand and that our youth and children are meaningfully engaged in the discussion,” she said.

Prior to the start of the conference, ten-year-old Layla Licorish rode from the St John Parish Church to the Garfield Sobers Gymnasium to draw attention to the issue.

“I did it because I want change to happen and for the world to be protected,” she said after completing her ride. “It was a really good ride. It was a bit wet but I managed to work through that and I completed the ride within the time I had set for myself.”

She was accompanied by her father Randy Licorish and members of her cycling team.

Following Layla’s bike ride, students who are taking part in the Youth Climate Summit and Expo marched from the Garfield Sobers Gymnasium to the Barbados Community College.

One of the international delegates attending the conference, Xiye Bastida, a climate justice activist from Mexico, stressed the importance of the world’s youth speaking out on this issue.

“Climate change has generally been portrayed as something far away from us in terms of the timeline, as well as geographically. We always hear about what is likely to happen by 2050 and 2100, and in terms of geography we talk about the North Pole and polar bears and recycling, but it goes a lot deeper than that,” the young Bastida said.

“We have to look at community health, pollution, the spilling of oil and dumping waste in the ocean, not the same conversation we have had for the last 50 years. For example, at my university, they are talking about getting away from fossil fuels by 2040, but by that time I will be 40 years old and we need to do it sooner.

“I would say as young people we must engage our local politicians, ask them what they are doing about reducing the use of plastics, and other such matters. This issue is already affecting people in this part of the world because although we are not responsible for the bulk of the problems that have led to this crisis, we will bear the brunt of it,” Bastida contended. (DH)