WEBVTT - Throwing soup on artwork distracts from climate activism 0:00:00.000 --> 0:00:02.300 this is a C N A podcast. 0:00:06.150 --> 0:00:09.830 Oliver is 11 years old, hasn't even taken his yet. 0:00:10.780 --> 0:00:16.030 Ellen is 17, hasn't taken my a levels yet is 19, 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:20.620 hasn't even graduated from university. They shouldn't be having to 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:24.270 come out here to give speeches because they're worried about 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:25.910 future without a stable climate. 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:34.530 That was he was 23 years old giving a speech 0:00:34.540 --> 0:00:38.000 at Singapore's first climate change rally in 2019. 0:00:38.670 --> 0:00:41.900 When you picture young climate activist, you may think of 0:00:41.900 --> 0:00:45.690 Greta thunberg making passionate speeches or being detained by the 0:00:45.690 --> 0:00:49.450 german police at a coal mine protest, but beyond big 0:00:49.460 --> 0:00:54.170 rallies and rousing speeches. Young activists are working hard behind 0:00:54.170 --> 0:00:57.950 the scenes to drive climate action. Hello and welcome to 0:00:57.950 --> 0:01:01.020 the climate conversations. I'm your host, julie you 0:01:01.870 --> 0:01:05.670 on today's episode, you'll hear from two young Singaporeans about 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:09.870 what you don't see about youth, climate activism, their reflections 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:14.319 and what they hope for in 2023 is the co 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:18.240 founder of Lepak NSG Andronicus Alvin is a member of 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:20.190 Singapore Youth for climate action. 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:24.070 So welcome Xiangtan Ruzicka, thank you both for joining me 0:01:24.069 --> 0:01:29.779 on the climate conversations first. Let me start with you. 0:01:29.780 --> 0:01:31.510 It's great to have you on again. I think the 0:01:31.510 --> 0:01:33.430 last time you were on the show was back in 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:38.300 2020 you were 24 then three years on, I mean 0:01:38.310 --> 0:01:41.520 by definition, have you sort of outgrown the age bracket 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.020 of youth activists. Tell me, how do you 0:01:44.020 --> 0:01:44.830 feel? 0:01:46.050 --> 0:01:48.840 Yeah, but I think in Singapore we can follow. Nyc 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:52.029 definition of a youth, so hopefully I'll still be a 0:01:52.030 --> 0:01:53.930 youth activist until I turned 35. 0:01:53.940 --> 0:01:57.800 Okay. 35. All right. So 34 years on how has 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:01.130 it changed your involvement in climate activism? What sort of 0:02:01.130 --> 0:02:04.240 meaningful outcome have your movement achieved 0:02:04.250 --> 0:02:07.400 having Singapore commit to? Net zero by 2050. 0:02:07.710 --> 0:02:10.380 But that's the climate side of things. For nature side 0:02:10.380 --> 0:02:13.510 of things. I have a team that looks at land use, 0:02:13.510 --> 0:02:16.900 planning and development in Singapore. So, for example, your H 0:02:16.900 --> 0:02:19.959 D B S that's being built or even L ta 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:23.510 projects like the cross island line and we do also 0:02:23.510 --> 0:02:27.940 managed to change the way they do mitigation and development. 0:02:27.950 --> 0:02:31.870 Okay, chica, I understand you're fairly new to the climate activism. 0:02:31.870 --> 0:02:32.250 See 0:02:32.266 --> 0:02:34.856 I want to know what galvan managed you to join 0:02:34.856 --> 0:02:37.335 the movement and speak up in the first place? I 0:02:37.336 --> 0:02:42.596 think it started off with watching Greta's infamous speech. I 0:02:42.596 --> 0:02:45.176 did a lot of research and then I realized, yeah, 0:02:45.186 --> 0:02:47.896 I would be as passionate as she is and I 0:02:47.895 --> 0:02:50.676 am upset by a lot of things that were going on. 0:02:50.686 --> 0:02:53.546 So I wanted to do more. And so the first 0:02:53.556 --> 0:02:56.446 two or one year was doing a lot of individual 0:02:56.446 --> 0:02:56.806 work 0:02:56.822 --> 0:03:01.632 and studying mall and then I joined a WWF program called, 0:03:01.632 --> 0:03:05.702 we got this which was to rally young people in 0:03:05.702 --> 0:03:08.302 the space who really want to make a difference, I 0:03:08.302 --> 0:03:10.782 guess that was my start. So what would you say 0:03:10.792 --> 0:03:13.522 the areas you're hoping to have the biggest impact on. 0:03:13.522 --> 0:03:17.322 And would you say your target audience is the youth? Yeah. 0:03:17.332 --> 0:03:20.232 Currently I am a core team member at Singapore Youth 0:03:20.232 --> 0:03:21.380 for climate action 0:03:21.570 --> 0:03:24.399 and I think our target audience would probably be the 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:26.660 youth and I guess the general public and I think 0:03:26.660 --> 0:03:28.190 a lot of the work that we do kind of 0:03:28.190 --> 0:03:31.950 surrounds how do we help the public understand policy making 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:34.930 because there's a lot of like technical terms and policies 0:03:34.940 --> 0:03:37.890 are not really written in a very easy to understand manner. 0:03:37.900 --> 0:03:40.180 The work that we do is really just to translate 0:03:40.180 --> 0:03:42.960 policies and stuff like that to everyday people so they 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:46.060 can really understand how these policies are going to impact them. 0:03:46.070 --> 0:03:49.200 The thing is when young people come forward to engage 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:49.680 and 0:03:49.703 --> 0:03:54.893 anything there quite often met with patronizing responses from their 0:03:54.903 --> 0:03:58.173 elders or adults who often see youth is not knowing 0:03:58.173 --> 0:04:02.023 enough or have no real world experience. How do you 0:04:02.023 --> 0:04:04.163 get grown ups to take you guys seriously? 0:04:04.593 --> 0:04:08.653 So I think for us we do everything science based 0:04:08.653 --> 0:04:11.793 and fact based right, as long as we are talking 0:04:11.793 --> 0:04:14.763 sense and we know what we're talking about. I think 0:04:14.763 --> 0:04:17.813 generally people listen, especially because 0:04:17.836 --> 0:04:22.515 people don't really know much about environmental issues. So even 0:04:22.526 --> 0:04:25.856 something like where does our marine trash come from? People 0:04:25.866 --> 0:04:28.966 always think it's a little from land based sources, but 0:04:28.966 --> 0:04:33.086 actually other activists have done some research and they found 0:04:33.086 --> 0:04:34.926 that actually a lot of marine trash comes from our 0:04:34.926 --> 0:04:37.486 floating fish farms and some also comes from other countries. 0:04:37.496 --> 0:04:40.496 So when we tell people that you shouldn't litter, you 0:04:40.496 --> 0:04:43.786 should also look out for the bigger sources of marine trash, 0:04:43.796 --> 0:04:45.969 not just your personal stuff. 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:48.180 I guess they'll be convinced by what we say. So 0:04:48.180 --> 0:04:50.240 if you find a fridge on the beach, it's not 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:51.650 going to come from your house and 0:04:51.940 --> 0:04:55.060 the same challenge of being taken seriously, they may be 0:04:55.060 --> 0:04:58.350 hearing you, but maybe not really listening. Do you know 0:04:58.350 --> 0:05:00.710 what I mean? Does that road your confidence or morale 0:05:00.710 --> 0:05:03.159 over time? How do you overcome that? I think one 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:07.990 of the things that my team, we've really heard a lot, 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.230 you guys are not pragmatic enough, sometimes it really does 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:12.690 impact us, right? Because we know, 0:05:12.706 --> 0:05:15.885 you know that we've done our study and thankfully like 0:05:15.886 --> 0:05:19.426 last year leading up to the conference of parties, we 0:05:19.426 --> 0:05:23.065 released green policy paper and then we've had a lot 0:05:23.065 --> 0:05:25.746 of support from like the green community and they're coming 0:05:25.746 --> 0:05:28.356 in to explain a lot of things that we may 0:05:28.356 --> 0:05:33.096 not understand ourselves in certain like areas like corporate responsibility. 0:05:33.106 --> 0:05:36.126 I guess it's really about how can we supplement our 0:05:36.136 --> 0:05:38.996 argument per se so that they don't just see us 0:05:38.996 --> 0:05:39.196 as a 0:05:39.212 --> 0:05:42.052 like emotional, like I feel like emotional as a term 0:05:42.052 --> 0:05:44.942 that like use also a lot of studying and making 0:05:44.942 --> 0:05:48.941 sure that we can evidence whatever we say. Speaking of 0:05:48.952 --> 0:05:51.882 being heard of late, there have been news of a 0:05:51.882 --> 0:05:55.472 new tactic when it comes to finding climate change, throwing 0:05:55.472 --> 0:05:59.672 food at famous paintings in the name of the climate 0:05:59.672 --> 0:06:02.302 crisis for some of us who are used to seeing 0:06:02.302 --> 0:06:05.719 activists holding placards in the street, these stunts maybe 0:06:05.910 --> 0:06:08.150 a bit confounding. What is your view on that or 0:06:08.150 --> 0:06:12.140 there's just attention seekers and can they give activism a 0:06:12.140 --> 0:06:15.279 bad name? What do you think? Would you 0:06:15.290 --> 0:06:19.480 so okay, I definitely wouldn't do this, not in Singapore, right, 0:06:19.490 --> 0:06:22.099 because I'll probably end up in changi prison, 0:06:23.260 --> 0:06:26.919 but honestly, I think it's very context dependent on other 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:30.099 countries where they have different considerations and if they feel 0:06:30.100 --> 0:06:33.330 it's a legitimate tactic for them, then they're free to 0:06:33.330 --> 0:06:37.080 do it and face the consequences. Well, I personally support 0:06:37.089 --> 0:06:40.010 them doing it. I don't know. I've been thinking about 0:06:40.010 --> 0:06:40.570 this also 0:06:40.580 --> 0:06:44.130 as a fellow activists because their point is to raise 0:06:44.130 --> 0:06:47.010 awareness and draw attention to the climate crisis in a 0:06:47.010 --> 0:06:48.280 nonviolent way. 0:06:48.510 --> 0:06:51.980 I guess from what I see, the outcome that they 0:06:51.980 --> 0:06:54.680 are having is not really more attention to the climate crisis, 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:57.600 but more people asking why are you being so stupid 0:06:57.610 --> 0:07:01.130 and throwing soup on a painting has never done anything 0:07:01.130 --> 0:07:04.040 to you, stop it. So, if you look at the outcome, 0:07:04.050 --> 0:07:06.849 I think probably isn't an effective tactic for them. 0:07:06.860 --> 0:07:09.260 Would you, would you agree? Yeah, I think context really, 0:07:09.276 --> 0:07:12.346 it definitely does matter a lot. Also thinking from the 0:07:12.346 --> 0:07:16.146 point of activists, I guess for them to throw soup 0:07:16.146 --> 0:07:18.956 at a painting, they have a lot of anger inside them. 0:07:18.966 --> 0:07:23.096 And I feel like whenever we plan something, we really 0:07:23.096 --> 0:07:25.766 have to think about what we want to gain from this, 0:07:25.776 --> 0:07:27.706 it's like do we want people to ask why are 0:07:27.706 --> 0:07:30.030 we throwing soup at a painting? Or do 0:07:30.042 --> 0:07:31.892 we want people to ask, Oh 0:07:32.322 --> 0:07:33.092 yeah, 0:07:33.102 --> 0:07:38.192 like what's happening with climate dresses, so different tactics, different approaches. 0:07:38.202 --> 0:07:43.712 I wonder has your approach to climate activism changed over 0:07:43.712 --> 0:07:46.262 the years? Do you think there's a need to change 0:07:46.262 --> 0:07:50.802 with the times, new developments or challenges? What do you think? 0:07:51.100 --> 0:07:54.770 So I think our approach is generally science based, sex 0:07:54.770 --> 0:07:59.790 based and targeted at the national level, but before you 0:07:59.790 --> 0:08:02.020 were doing this actually we would I guess trying to 0:08:02.020 --> 0:08:05.690 persuade individuals to change their lifestyles. And one thing that 0:08:05.690 --> 0:08:07.910 triggered this change was because I was at a food 0:08:07.910 --> 0:08:08.320 court one day 0:08:08.335 --> 0:08:10.435 And it's a hot day, right? So me and my 0:08:10.435 --> 0:08:13.095 friend wanted to get cold drinks and then we were 0:08:13.095 --> 0:08:16.635 like environmentalists, so we shouldn't use straws. But before we 0:08:16.635 --> 0:08:18.505 could even get to the counter, the lady at the 0:08:18.505 --> 0:08:22.295 counter knocked over an entire container of straws. So I 0:08:22.295 --> 0:08:25.554 guess in three seconds 100 straws were gone. And then 0:08:26.310 --> 0:08:28.850 And then we got thinking right, like, oh if we 0:08:28.850 --> 0:08:31.010 reject a straw every day of our life, maybe you 0:08:31.010 --> 0:08:35.569 can reject 365 straws a year, right? And in three 0:08:35.570 --> 0:08:38.780 seconds someone can undo your efforts and it's because they 0:08:38.780 --> 0:08:40.959 have straws on the table top in the first place, right? 0:08:40.970 --> 0:08:44.740 If we can have systemic change whereby let's say they 0:08:44.750 --> 0:08:47.800 don't give out straws in the first place or they 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:49.050 hide the straw somewhere 0:08:49.390 --> 0:08:53.330 right? Then actually the amount of change that we can have, 0:08:53.340 --> 0:08:56.320 it's way bigger than just convincing everyone to not use 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:59.040 straws because they're always be someone who wants the straw. 0:08:59.050 --> 0:08:59.079 I 0:08:59.090 --> 0:09:01.579 think I definitely agree. It brings up like this very 0:09:01.580 --> 0:09:06.480 common debate in activism is individual action better or is 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:10.349 collective action better. Right? That's the huge mind shift change 0:09:10.350 --> 0:09:13.050 that I had also at the beginning, although I can 0:09:13.050 --> 0:09:15.630 do all these changes sometimes a bigger impact can be 0:09:15.630 --> 0:09:18.400 created when I contribute my resources or like 0:09:18.416 --> 0:09:21.706 my skill sets to I guess like a bigger organization. 0:09:21.716 --> 0:09:24.086 But I also do feel that individual action is what 0:09:24.086 --> 0:09:27.756 gets most people like started on like their journeys right? 0:09:27.766 --> 0:09:30.286 For me, it kind of reminds me why do I 0:09:30.285 --> 0:09:33.296 make these minor changes in my life? I just drop 0:09:33.296 --> 0:09:36.316 in the bucket. Yes. I think that's definitely like one 0:09:36.316 --> 0:09:39.106 thing I like a mind shift change. I think another 0:09:39.106 --> 0:09:41.706 thing for me would be this idea that how involved 0:09:41.706 --> 0:09:44.925 cancers or Corporates get right initially at the start, I 0:09:44.926 --> 0:09:46.896 always saw them as like, oh, it's very different. The 0:09:46.896 --> 0:09:47.425 people 0:09:47.442 --> 0:09:51.322 and the private and the public sector are like very different, right? 0:09:51.332 --> 0:09:53.912 As I grow, I start to realize that the issue 0:09:53.912 --> 0:09:56.802 that we're facing is all hands on deck kind of issue, right? 0:09:56.812 --> 0:10:00.062 And it's like we can't keep working in like separate circles. 0:10:00.072 --> 0:10:03.322 That's an area that I'm particularly very interested to study 0:10:03.322 --> 0:10:05.332 even more. Like how do we get all hands on 0:10:05.332 --> 0:10:07.442 deck and how do we get really the mind shift 0:10:07.442 --> 0:10:10.832 to change from discussions to action? Yeah, I mean you 0:10:10.832 --> 0:10:13.962 guys just mentioned the systematic change in the government and 0:10:13.962 --> 0:10:16.470 corporation level is what's needed. But 0:10:16.780 --> 0:10:18.939 we all know that it's not easy to take on 0:10:18.940 --> 0:10:22.940 these powerful businesses and governments and some critics might say 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:25.870 that all of these sort of youth led protests have 0:10:25.870 --> 0:10:29.219 done little to sway politics or policies on climate change. 0:10:29.220 --> 0:10:29.520 But 0:10:29.660 --> 0:10:33.140 I want to ask you guys how effective are they really? 0:10:33.150 --> 0:10:34.250 Youth activism. 0:10:34.260 --> 0:10:37.570 Okay. So what context? Sure. For what we do at 0:10:37.780 --> 0:10:40.599 NSG actually I think we've been fairly successful. 0:10:40.610 --> 0:10:41.500 Okay, when 0:10:41.500 --> 0:10:45.860 we first started covering environmental impact assessments, the government and 0:10:45.860 --> 0:10:48.300 the family are basically reached out to us and said 0:10:48.309 --> 0:10:50.330 look we know you're interested in E. I. S. And stuff. 0:10:50.346 --> 0:10:53.366 Can we invite you to some engagement sessions where we 0:10:53.366 --> 0:10:56.206 will share the findings of an E. I. A what 0:10:56.216 --> 0:10:58.746 mitigation measures we're taking to save as many trees as 0:10:58.746 --> 0:11:02.536 we can or build as least destructively as they can. 0:11:02.546 --> 0:11:05.606 We went in and then during these consultations we did 0:11:05.606 --> 0:11:08.366 give some inputs and then when you see the final 0:11:08.366 --> 0:11:11.016 product they really did try to take our input. 0:11:11.032 --> 0:11:16.152 So for example. Okay this one's not from but from 0:11:16.152 --> 0:11:19.372 any young who's a primatologist. She was talking about how 0:11:19.372 --> 0:11:21.842 the L. T. A. Across the line work site should 0:11:21.842 --> 0:11:25.352 be shifted to not affect the habitat of this very 0:11:25.352 --> 0:11:29.062 rare monkey called the raffles banded langur so far across 0:11:29.062 --> 0:11:31.720 the land line they really did shift the work side 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:34.490 and they tried to reduce the amount of land that 0:11:34.490 --> 0:11:37.400 they would need to deforest for their work sites so 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:40.350 we can see that yes the construction goes ahead but 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:44.520 the destruction that they create, it's less than what would 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:47.679 have been without the inputs of nature groups. I think 0:11:47.690 --> 0:11:50.500 even four years ago they said that zero is impossible. 0:11:50.510 --> 0:11:53.890 It's not practical to have net zero because we have 0:11:53.900 --> 0:11:55.130 our petrol camps, 0:11:55.155 --> 0:11:58.045 how many percent GDP how many 1000 jobs fast forward 0:11:58.045 --> 0:12:00.475 to today and suddenly oh look it's perfectly acceptable for 0:12:00.475 --> 0:12:04.275 us to get to zero right? So things can change 0:12:04.285 --> 0:12:07.974 and they have changed. I wouldn't say like our activism 0:12:07.975 --> 0:12:11.175 has been not effective but it's just sometimes a lot 0:12:11.175 --> 0:12:13.535 of the changes are not seen by people who are 0:12:13.535 --> 0:12:15.385 not part of the process. Yeah 0:12:15.395 --> 0:12:18.429 it takes time doesn't it? Yeah and great efforts. 0:12:24.610 --> 0:12:27.860 Hello everyone, my name is Christina and I'm Adrienne and 0:12:27.860 --> 0:12:28.369 we're the host 0:12:28.370 --> 0:12:29.670 of a podcast called work 0:12:29.670 --> 0:12:31.750 It if you never heard of it. Well it's a 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:34.250 good time to tap in in the last 20 episodes. 0:12:34.250 --> 0:12:37.380 We've discussed topics like how to negotiate for a salary 0:12:37.380 --> 0:12:40.309 increase or how to get along with younger colleagues who 0:12:40.309 --> 0:12:41.970 have different values from you, which 0:12:41.980 --> 0:12:45.750 incidentally is our top performing episode. If what consumes your 0:12:45.750 --> 0:12:49.470 life and you want some perspective on issues like management stress, 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:53.229 even office romance. This podcast should be on your list. 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:56.230 A new episode drops every monday. Catch us on the 0:12:56.230 --> 0:12:59.350 C N A M or wherever you get your podcast. 0:13:05.220 --> 0:13:06.750 Alright, so Jessica, 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:12.510 you were in Egypt for last year's cop 27 representing Singapore. 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:15.640 Obviously there are highs and lows at the event. Some 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:18.270 of your colleagues and other youth activists I spoke to 0:13:18.270 --> 0:13:21.550 told me that they left energized or while some of 0:13:21.550 --> 0:13:24.110 them said that they became a little bit more jaded 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:27.120 due to the lack of will and ambition they saw 0:13:27.130 --> 0:13:30.240 from the leaders at the event. What was your experience like? 0:13:30.250 --> 0:13:32.910 Um I guess something that really stuck out to me 0:13:32.910 --> 0:13:36.220 was this jarring disconnect because you have all the 0:13:36.236 --> 0:13:39.846 these negotiators and they're just really making decisions on behalf 0:13:39.846 --> 0:13:42.866 of the countries that ultimately whatever decision that they make 0:13:42.866 --> 0:13:45.436 their will trickle down to people on the ground. You 0:13:45.436 --> 0:13:49.706 see them arguing and arguing over certain texts and certain 0:13:49.706 --> 0:13:53.116 words on the other hand, you have youth activists and 0:13:53.116 --> 0:13:56.836 you have ingenious groups and marginalized groups really just calling 0:13:56.836 --> 0:14:00.106 for urgent action now and it's just like why is 0:14:00.106 --> 0:14:03.096 the process so long? I guess that's the real thing 0:14:03.096 --> 0:14:05.420 that really hit me. And do they really 0:14:05.432 --> 0:14:09.362 see what's going on in the same space? You have 0:14:09.362 --> 0:14:13.852 two different sets of realities. Right. And I guess like 0:14:13.852 --> 0:14:19.662 seeing it for two weeks straight was very, very overwhelming. 0:14:19.672 --> 0:14:23.222 It's like a first time also because it's like oh 0:14:23.222 --> 0:14:27.662 my gosh, absolutely inspiring and frustrating at the same time 0:14:27.662 --> 0:14:30.372 I must say. And big conferences like copper always a 0:14:30.372 --> 0:14:33.002 sobering reminder of just how difficult it is to get 0:14:33.012 --> 0:14:34.622 that genuine climate action. 0:14:34.850 --> 0:14:40.280 And and some young people remain skeptical of these climate conferences, 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:44.400 big events. What frustrates you and worries you the most. 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:46.580 I mean would you ever go to a cop event 0:14:46.590 --> 0:14:47.450 anytime soon? 0:14:48.780 --> 0:14:50.730 I might go this year. 0:14:50.740 --> 0:14:53.450 Okay Dubai will 0:14:53.450 --> 0:14:56.210 be there. So I've actually never gone to court previously 0:14:56.220 --> 0:15:01.200 for several reasons. One was because I felt like whatever 0:15:01.210 --> 0:15:03.980 action needs to be taken needs to happen before the 0:15:03.980 --> 0:15:06.090 cop even happens. Right. And that's where I can 0:15:06.475 --> 0:15:10.275 most like pushing people in Singapore like commit to stronger 0:15:10.275 --> 0:15:13.285 targets for example. And then the other thing was because 0:15:13.295 --> 0:15:18.035 international negotiations is very complicated and then there's so many 0:15:18.035 --> 0:15:22.145 environmental issues already learning about and I was like, do 0:15:22.145 --> 0:15:23.690 I want to take up one more? 0:15:24.470 --> 0:15:27.910 Yeah. Yeah. That's why I haven't really gone for previous cops. 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:28.660 Yeah 0:15:28.670 --> 0:15:30.650 but how about this year 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:36.030 I was offered an opportunity to go and I thought 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:37.020 why not 0:15:37.030 --> 0:15:39.550 Cop 28, What would you like to see? 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:43.110 It is a hard question because I evidently have not 0:15:43.110 --> 0:15:45.150 been following the national negotiations, but 0:15:45.150 --> 0:15:47.310 if your voices can be heard. I mean the good 0:15:47.310 --> 0:15:49.290 thing about last year's cop is that it was the 0:15:49.290 --> 0:15:52.420 very first time Children and young people and having their 0:15:52.420 --> 0:15:55.560 own pavilion a space where they can run their own 0:15:55.570 --> 0:15:57.060 events at cops. So 0:15:57.230 --> 0:16:01.240 Cop 27 If you're there, is there something that you 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:03.210 would like to address? Who would you say is your 0:16:03.210 --> 0:16:05.260 climate villain? Maybe we can start there. I 0:16:05.260 --> 0:16:07.290 guess the climate villains would be the big oil and 0:16:07.290 --> 0:16:08.440 gas companies 0:16:09.060 --> 0:16:10.510 cool as well. 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.190 The message that you maybe like to get across 0:16:15.030 --> 0:16:16.260 B. L. C. 0:16:16.790 --> 0:16:19.810 Keep everything in the ground because I was reading about 0:16:19.810 --> 0:16:22.730 how some of the oil and gas companies were planning 0:16:22.730 --> 0:16:26.229 to extract even more oil and gas from the ground 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:29.910 when they publicly committed to net zero targets. I guess 0:16:29.910 --> 0:16:33.200 what their internal documents leaked out and what they publicly 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:36.110 say don't really tally so keep it in the ground. 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.660 So re chicha for those use out there who not 0:16:39.660 --> 0:16:42.050 only wish to take part and have their voices heard 0:16:42.050 --> 0:16:42.590 but want to 0:16:42.590 --> 0:16:45.900 be a real effective youth activist share with me sort 0:16:45.900 --> 0:16:48.890 of a step by step guide to becoming one where 0:16:48.900 --> 0:16:52.220 should they start I guess for me, I started off 0:16:52.220 --> 0:16:55.260 with studying because like people doing volunteer work maybe to 0:16:55.260 --> 0:16:59.900 get away from studies but studying more studying, I think 0:16:59.900 --> 0:17:02.610 that a lot of great resources, I think industry is 0:17:02.610 --> 0:17:06.410 definitely one of those resources shout out. 0:17:06.740 --> 0:17:09.960 Um but I think you can start with like podcasts 0:17:09.970 --> 0:17:13.100 recommend the climate conversation. There we go. 0:17:13.590 --> 0:17:18.330 Thanks. I think don't be defined by what you think 0:17:18.330 --> 0:17:22.060 that advocacy can be or what traditional forms advocacy is, 0:17:22.070 --> 0:17:25.860 because advocacy really truly comes in like many different ways, right? 0:17:25.970 --> 0:17:29.379 Arts and then you have music and people have different 0:17:29.380 --> 0:17:31.659 strengths and people have different talents. So I think that 0:17:31.660 --> 0:17:33.630 we do in our policy workshop is I guess like 0:17:33.630 --> 0:17:37.200 we help people brainstorm the strength that they have and 0:17:37.210 --> 0:17:38.220 if they can be used 0:17:38.230 --> 0:17:40.879 in movements and how they can be used and we 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:43.560 do that through a series of discussions with other youths 0:17:43.570 --> 0:17:46.590 for people to understand that activism is not really like 0:17:46.590 --> 0:17:49.260 categories like you're either it's never like you're on the 0:17:49.260 --> 0:17:51.219 streets or you're not on the streets, There's like a 0:17:51.220 --> 0:17:56.070 whole broad spectrum say, well what would you say? How 0:17:56.070 --> 0:17:57.940 loud do you have to be to be heard? You 0:17:57.940 --> 0:18:01.179 have to be a good orator like yourself, be creative, 0:18:01.180 --> 0:18:05.290 tell a good story, surely can be about throwing food 0:18:05.290 --> 0:18:06.900 and artwork or anything. 0:18:07.260 --> 0:18:09.410 What would you say based on your experience? 0:18:09.420 --> 0:18:12.910 So I would think it's more important to know your 0:18:12.910 --> 0:18:17.030 own skills and also to identify gaps in current efforts 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:19.850 and finding our own. It is very important because there's 0:18:19.850 --> 0:18:23.020 actually so many issues out there that we could be 0:18:23.020 --> 0:18:26.510 working on. Right, not just climate, there's no civil society 0:18:26.510 --> 0:18:29.389 group talking about water security for example, but that's because 0:18:29.570 --> 0:18:31.920 he's doing a great job, I guess even in the 0:18:31.930 --> 0:18:32.869 climate space, 0:18:33.140 --> 0:18:37.290 a lot of people talking about climate mitigation and how 0:18:37.290 --> 0:18:40.370 we should reduce our greenhouse gasses, but we don't really 0:18:40.369 --> 0:18:42.510 think about how we should be doing climate adaptation as 0:18:42.510 --> 0:18:46.060 well because rising sea levels are a thing. The urban 0:18:46.060 --> 0:18:46.960 heat is a thing, 0:18:47.430 --> 0:18:52.380 even vector prevention, like mosquitoes, Dengue, Those are things that 0:18:52.390 --> 0:18:55.909 no one is really talking about in the environmental civil 0:18:55.910 --> 0:18:57.460 society space, people 0:18:57.460 --> 0:18:58.530 can actually relate to. 0:18:58.540 --> 0:19:01.850 So there's so many potential things that people could do 0:19:01.859 --> 0:19:03.750 and what we are working on now is really just 0:19:03.750 --> 0:19:07.200 like a tiny, tiny subset of what needs to be done. 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:09.200 So there's a lot of space for people to come in, 0:19:09.210 --> 0:19:12.359 find your niche, know what your own skills are. 0:19:12.830 --> 0:19:13.890 And you can do something 0:19:13.900 --> 0:19:16.830 as a person who actually launched these sort of movement. 0:19:16.830 --> 0:19:20.370 I've seen many of feel my friends or contacts that 0:19:20.369 --> 0:19:25.430 have tried to rally people, create groups and make movement, 0:19:25.430 --> 0:19:27.790 but they failed. It just ended up being sort of 0:19:27.790 --> 0:19:31.540 fizzle out and became nothing. So what's the best way 0:19:31.540 --> 0:19:35.240 to gather these people with the same mind? Would you 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:39.470 have like a formula or meet the right people? 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:40.640 I think everyone 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:44.730 would have their own way, the way I do, it 0:19:44.740 --> 0:19:47.970 might not work for everyone, but I'm personally very interested. 0:19:47.980 --> 0:19:50.770 So I just ask people, would you like to read 0:19:50.770 --> 0:19:55.310 through 500 pages of environmental impact assessments and then if 0:19:55.310 --> 0:19:59.600 you say yes, welcome. Right. If we keep working on 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:03.169 something over time we become known for that thing and 0:20:03.170 --> 0:20:07.000 people automatically email into us. Can we join? I guess 0:20:07.010 --> 0:20:10.560 if you just keep working on it and don't give up, 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:13.820 you'll get somewhere eventually Refik 0:20:13.820 --> 0:20:16.590 a you're also in this journey, what do you think 0:20:16.590 --> 0:20:20.160 will actually incite change based on your experience? I think 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:22.950 change is like a really big word, right? And I 0:20:22.950 --> 0:20:24.869 guess when we look at change we look at many 0:20:24.869 --> 0:20:27.430 different things, but I feel like an all hands on 0:20:27.430 --> 0:20:30.760 deck approach would be very, very useful. But I suppose 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:34.580