Picture this, for a minute. You step outside of your house and there are trees again. Real ones, that live and breathe. You trade oxygen and carbon dioxide with them—an age old bartering system. They are not obstructed or uprooted by the concrete, and blessedly, neither are you. The air you breathe is unclogged, free of the countless pollutants human kind has invented. In this world, factories do not expel the kind of waste that makes you sick. In this world, humans do not burn in order to build. At night-time, you can see the stars, and learn the constellations your ancestors knew. The sky is as clear as your lungs.
In this world, we do not kill the creatures of the earth with our plastic, or with our toxins, or with our greed. Our water is clean and clear and accessible, and we do not take from the earth without replenishing. In this world, landfills have been leveled, and the clock of climate change has been reset. Disease and death as a result of bad practice are circumvented and avoided as a result of good practice. In this world, chemicals do not kill us, or change our lives irreversibly. We do not dare to ravage our planet. We take care of the earth, and she rewards us.
The world I am describing is one every child has a right to. A world that is safe. A world that is healthy. A world that allows every person alive to experience their lives uninterrupted. A healthy environment shouldn’t feel like a pipe dream. That is what the right to a healthy environment means to me. The right to experience the world without suffocating it, and experiencing suffocation in turn.
The truth is, we only destroy our planet because we don’t realize what we’ve already lost. The sky. The stars at night. The seasons as we knew them. Clean air. Clean water. Sound agriculture. The right to the organic in a world of the artificial. Almost 1,000 animal species in around 500 years, and a projected million more plants and animal species in the next thirty years. Unhealthy environments steal slowly, but shouldn’t each and every one of us have a right to recover ground?
Because here's the thing: the conversation surrounding sustainability and ecoconsciousness and whether or not it’s possible to cure our planet of its ills is not solely an adult conversation. Children have their seats at the table. At the very least, they deserve to. I’ve seen kids of almost every age propose powerful and pertinent solutions. I’ve seen kids speaking about littering and recycling and the demerits of single use plastic. As a young person, I theorize that the biggest thing we can do to make a difference is get the world to listen. Children have always been directly affected by the consequences of an unhealthy world. Often, children are the first to succumb to the ills of poor nutrition, sanitation, and air quality, as well as climate change. Shouldn’t we then be the first to speak? Environmental health isn’t just something that we want. It’s something we have the right to, and rights should be fought for when needed.
I want to challenge us all to remember the things we have lost and are losing, and fight for a healthier world. Remember the vision I mentioned before? The vision of a pure and clean world? That vision is one worth fighting for. Fight the best that you can.
Speak on your right to a clean and healthy world—the right you share with all children. Create clubs, host fundraisers,and hold rallies. Use social media to spread the word beyond your locality, but remember that a neighborhood campaign is still a campaign, and can change something, no matter how small. Read, watch, learn and listen. Understand exactly what’s at stake. Get the world to hear you, and remember this one thing: you are never too young to make change.