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GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT OUTLOOK FOR YOUTH IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC 3.1 Development for wellbeing


Every day, most young people ride a bike, car, bus, train, metro or boat to school or work. When seeing something that interests us, we can look it up on our mobile devices. There is enough light to study (or procrastinate) at night. There is generally enough food, and when hungry, we can drop by the nearest convenience store. Our lives are dramatically more convenient than they were 100 years ago; but are our convenient lifestyles really sustainable? It seems we are walking a thin line, trying to balance environmental lifelines and economic development (Figure 16). People are actually compromising our own lives by polluting and contaminating our surroundings. Why is this happening? Is there anything that can be done so that we won’t have to choose between economic or environmental wellbeing but aim for sustainable development without sacrificing the environment?


3.2 Watering the future


When the parent’s generation eats salt, the child’s generation thirsts for water. (Vietnamese proverb)


Past generations have built an industrial, consumption- based economy requiring vast volumes of water and emitting many pollutants. How does that impact young people? And what can be done about it?


Figure 16: Life on the line


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