CHAPTER 1: OUR EARTH, OUR STORY 1.1 No time to wait, act now!
In many communities around the globe there is a lack of care or understanding of environmental issues that are essential to human existence. These include climate change bringing global warming and unpredictable weather patterns that in turn lead to food and water shortages, the deterioration of air quality as a result of urban pollution, and species extinctions and loss of biodiversity caused by human development since the Industrial Revolution that began 200 years ago. As a result of inaction, the issues are becoming more severe and the number of deaths attributable to a poor environmental conditions continue to increase.
In Asia and the Pacific, there are a number of threatening environmental issues – air and water pollution, deforestation and loss of biodiversity, rapid rural-to-urban migration, food shortages, increased frequency of extreme weather events and poor waste management. Environmental action and sustainable life choices have the potential to lessen the intensity of these issues. Young people have the capacity and have a responsibility to influence and promote environmentally positive outcomes, stimulating the social and political changes needed to mitigate these severe environmental issues.
1.2 Overcoming the challenges
Asia and the Pacific, comprising 41 countries (UNEP 2016), supports a vast diversity of cultures, people, landscapes and natural resources. It is the most populous region in the world, and although it occupies only 30 per cent of the world’s land mass, the region
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supports 60 per cent of the global population (UNEP 2016). Over the past 50 years, the region’s population has grown and gained economic momentum (IMF 2018), with many countries in the region considerably improving the standards of living of their citizens. This progress, however, has come at the expense of the region’s natural resources and its vulnerable communities. Figure 3 provides an overview of the contemporary potential and challenges faced by Asia and the Pacific.
With almost half of the world’s young people calling the Asia-Pacific region their home (UN-DESA 2017), the potential revolution they can bring about equates to an undeniable force in the race to address urgent environmental issues and drive sustainable development. Whatever their personal reality, the youth of the region are influential members in their own communities, have the ability to promote positive environmental outcomes through their daily lives, and be agents of change. Each and every young person must assume a mindset that promotes environmental stewardship to make both local and far-reaching changes that address the planet’s environmental challenges. This will help to ensure that both their own and future generation’s needs can be met (Brundtland 1987).
1.3 Youth in Asia and the Pacific matter!
The concerns and responsibilities of youth play a vital role in the health of the planet and are influenced by the environmental conditions they have inherited from their parents. With their life expectancy forecast to be longer than their parents, today’s young people face the very real threat that the environment they will live in will be unhealthy and so damaged that their
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