Voice of Gen Next
Arielle KouyoumdjianTeen Podcaster, Founder, Changing Planet Justice, US
Vinisha UmashankarFounder, Solar Ironing Cart, India TEDx and COP26 Speaker, The Earthshot Prize Finalist
Rahmina PaulleteClimate activist at Fridays For Future International, Founder of Kisumu Environmental Champs, Kenya
Stay hopeful, but not too hopeful. Stay frightened, but not paralyzed."
You chose podcasting as the medium through which to spread awareness about climate change and drive behavioral change. What are some of the other approaches that interest you in terms of inducing a change in society?
I’m still searching for the most impactful ways to catalyze change. Sometimes, I wonder why the raw facts of climate change aren’t sufficient on their own to scare those in power into overhauling social, political, and economic systems.
Civil disobedience can be an effective way to drive widespread change but, beyond protests, we need positive action that everyone can get behind. I think that financial incentives would encourage adults to commit to behavioral change: taxing and/or capping carbon emissions; cutting financial support for fossil fuels; and subsidizing sustainable energies would all make a big difference.
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Large organizations can help and collaborate in a variety of ways by engaging with, investing in, and empowering young environmental activists."
In a powerful speech that you have given on various platforms, including COP26, you have emphasized the impact that the younger generation can have on climate change. What are some of the approaches through which young people can induce change in society?
Being able to express myself through speeches is great, but the world requires action.
Spreading the word, keeping up the political pressure, using public transport, cutting down on electricity use, buying locally grown produce and locally made products, eating plant-based meals, not wasting food, buying fewer clothes, planting trees, and recycling used products are some of the ways in which everyone can help change society.
I see myself as a policymaker on climate change and the environment."
You launched a campaign called Let Lake Victoria Breathe Again, to support the restoration of the lake's ecosystem. How did your journey start?
(Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes, and is the world’s largest tropical lake, spread over nearly 60,000 square kilometers across three countries.)
Pollution of Lake Victoria and related flooding have accelerated, posing many threats to my community. So, I began the work of restoring Nam Lolwe [the name of the lake in the local Dholuo dialect), the lake that my ancestors grew up with.
