Our planet needs you!

Sina Develioglu

From the Kyoto Protocol to the upcoming conference in Paris this December, governments, non-governmental organisations, people and also youngsters from all over the world have been working for some time on making the situation better about climate change. It was very important for the parties to decide of a universal legal agreement on this matter as soon as possible, no later than 2015. 4 years have passed since Durban COP17, but still the problem remains. There has not been any significant change, and by postponing the important decisions we will endanger our future.

As the young people of our world, we should feel equally responsible , as the world leaders are for saving our planet. We should push our governments to make cuts on their carbon emissions and encourage them to invest more on renewable energy than fossil fuels or nuclear energy. Nearly everything depends on the energetic choices being made today. Creating false or temporary solutions will only slow us down. In order to really make a difference, all of the countries in the world must act as one team and reach a final agreement at the end of year. We really don’t have much time.

Although it looks bad, I personally think that there are still things we can do but we have to act fast. People who care about the planet unfortunately rely on politicians (decision makers) and if they are not willing to cooperate with us, then everything we have done (recycling, protests against nuclear energy, workshops, conferences etc) would not matter anymore. To save Earth we need everyone. To save Earth, we need to take responsibilities. To save Earth we need to act. To save Earth, to have a future on Earth we need to become the decision makers itself to take the decisions some leaders nowadays won’t take. A man has a lot of potentials, both good and bad. All we have to do is to believe that all of us have the power to do well and to reach others.

Think big. Act big.

I would like to ends my words with the main question of our youth conference in Brussels:

If not us who and if not now when?