To avoid ‘youth-washing’ politicians and corporations, young people now are more likely to coalesce around radical policies or campaigns.

Between 2016 and 2020, children were the vital force at the centre of the climate movement. Youth strikers organised record-breaking mass mobilisations and protests between geography and double maths. In the US, young people from the Sunrise Movement occupied Nancy Pelosi’s office demanding climate action. Youth activists got extraordinary media attention, invitations to speak at climate summits, and to address the UN. Teenagers such as Vanessa Nakate and Greta Thunberg became household names; both of them appeared on the cover of Time magazine, the latter as person of the year in 2019.

This coincided with a moment in climate politics that was awash with ideas around children, the future, and intergenerational justice. Extinction Rebellion activists used the next generation as a proxy for the future: climate action in the present was a moral necessity for our children and grandchildren. Politicians also adopted this framing. At the same time, young people were taking matters into their own hands. For a time, it seemed that a climate movement was emerging in which children acted simultaneously as the spark, inspiration and energy. This wave seemed unstoppable.

But that moment has passed. Young people’s climate activism is rarely headline news any more and Thunberg has taken a step back from the movement spotlight. There are fewer older eco-warriors in the limelight talking about their grandchildren, and politicians seem to care less about photo-ops with young activists blocking roads.

Of course, youth organising has not simply disappeared – young people still populate much of the activist scene and movements such as Green New Deal Rising remain explicitly for under-35s. But media focus and activists themselves are placing less emphasis on age; it is often incidental, and less central to activists’ strategy.

The political terrain has changed since the age of the youth activist icon. The events of the past couple of years have thrown down challenges for climate organising more broadly: the pandemic was a major chiller for activism and came hot on the heels of the 2019 general election, the biggest Tory victory since 1987 and a crushing experience for the left and wider green movement.

But the climate movement is not just moving across a different political landscape; it has also taken a different form. There has been a critical repositioning in parts of the UK climate movement, recognising climate breakdown is not a future issue, but a devastating present reality for millions in the global south. And on the whole, young activists have grown out of organising along generational lines, instead moving into issue-oriented movements.

From the beginning, youth strikers were holding together a complex coalition of children, allied around their age and the tactic of striking, rather than an explicit political agenda. After sustaining impressive turnout at protests but achieving little political shift, UK organisers were burning out, as was the shock of the strikes.

This was compounded by the feeling that world leaders and corporations were “youth-washing” by co-opting child climate activists – inviting them on to platforms and into private meetings to burnish their own images but ignoring their demands. Despite the increase in representation on the world stage, importantly including indigenous young people and children from the global south, it’s hard to say how much world leaders took their voices into account. Children were seen, but their demands – from urging for financing for loss and damage, an end to the racist Home Office or an end to capitalism itself – were not heard. The UK Youth Climate Coalition was so frustrated with this co-optation it set up a campaign in 2019 to call out youth-washing.

Some adults were youth-washing to cover their problematic policies or business models, others to divest action on to a younger generation. Thunberg spoke out about it in her now-famous speech to the UN: “You all come to us young people for hope. How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.” Ultimately, what is lacking is real decision-making power for young people.

So now, instead of using youth as a rallying flag, young people across the country are building movements around radical policies or clear political campaigns. These are both harder to co-opt, and more coherent than the loose association of a movement based on age alone. Given the fragmented politics and the fleeting nature of childhood itself, building youth-led movements around strong campaign foundations – from Stop Jackdaw to Just Stop Oil – is proving more sustainable.

The climate movement still needs powerful ideas and metaphors that can unite big coalitions, but children are no longer its future. That focus was temporary, and besides kept attention off the millions for whom climate breakdown isn’t the future but the present. It’s a good thing that young activists are now viewed less as angelic saviours, and more as political actors in their own right.

By Eleanor Salter writes about climate, culture and politics – theguardian.com

L’article Children aren’t the future: where have all the young climate activists gone? est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Environmentalists are deeply concerned by the Kenyan government’s move to allow boundary changes to protected forests, watering down the powers of conservation authorities.

The forest conservation and management (amendment) bill 2021 seeks to delete clause 34(2) from the 2016 act, which makes it mandatory for authorities to veto anyone trying to alter forest boundaries. The same clause protects forests from actions that put rare, threatened or endangered species at risk.

Tabled by the National Assembly’s procedure committee, the amendment would weaken the role of Kenya Forest Service, mandated to protect all public forests, allowing politicians to decide who can change forest boundaries.

In an election year, many have read the proposal, due to be debated at the end of the month, as politically motivated.

The committee’s memorandum to MPs said current laws “unnecessarily limit the rights of any Kenyan to petition parliament” as provided for in the constitution.

But conservationists have said this would be a serious setback for the country, which was seeking to increase forest cover to 10% of land by 2022, up from 7.4%. Forest authorities said the move puts endangered species at risk, as well as clearing the way for unscrupulous individuals to encroach into forests that, according to a 2014 government paper, have been shrinking at a rate of 50,000 hectares (124,000 acres) annually.Advertisement

“I am astounded any right-thinking person would consider submitting or supporting such an amendment,” said Paula Kahumbu, chief executive at WildlifeDirect, a conservation NGO. “It will open the door to forest destruction after decades of hard work by agencies, communities and NGOs to increase forest cover, as committed to in our constitution. One can only read mischief in such a motion, with elections around the corner.”

Kahumbu added: “At risk are indigenous forests and the biodiversity therein, the integrity of our water towers, generation of hydropower and productivity of our farms. The environmental experts of Kenya and the conservation community call on all citizens of Kenya to reach out to their MPs to wholeheartedly and aggressively reject this heinous bill.”

She said the amendment would destroy the legacy of Wangari Maathai, the late environmentalist and Nobel Peace prize winner, who was once attacked and seriously wounded as she led a tree-planting exercise in Nairobi’s Karura Forest.

In a tweet, Christian Lambrechts, executive director at Rhino Ark said: “Considering what Kenya has lost in the past, any change that weakens, rather than strengthens the mechanisms to protect our forests, is ill-advised.”

Rhino Ark has been spearheading an initiative to put up electric fences around Kenya’s public forests to hamper poachers and illegal incursions.

Dickson Kaelo, head of the Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association, said the move by parliament is intended to “give legitimacy” to those who would destroy Kenya’s biodiversity.

“This is a well-calculated move to open the doors for forest excisions and allocation to private persons for development, and may even be a means to normalise current excisions. It is a threat to our forests coming at a time when we have a low forest coverage and a high risk of climate crisis-induced vulnerabilities. We call upon parliament to reject the amendment,” said Kaelo.

Protecting forests from developers has been a daunting task in Kenya.

Last July, Joannah Stutchbury, a prominent environmental activist, was killed near her home in Nairobi after her protracted opposition to attempts by powerful businessmen to build on Kiambu forest near the capital, Nairobi.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has yet to fulfil a promise to catch her killers.

World Opinions +theguardian.com

L’article Planned change to Kenya’s forest act threatens vital habitats, say activists est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Loujain al-Hathloul, 31, has already been in a maximum security prison for two and a half years.

#SaudiArabia: Conviction and 5yrs 8 month sentence handed down to prominent women’s rights campaigner #LoujainAlHathloul, already arbitrarily detained for 2 ½ years, is also deeply troubling. We understand early release is possible, and strongly encourage it as matter of urgency.

— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) December 28, 2020

She and other activists were detained in 2018 on charges including contacts with organisations hostile to Saudi Arabia.

International human rights groups have repeatedly called for her release.

But on Monday, the country’s Specialised Criminal Court, which was set up to try terrorism cases, convicted her of various charges including trying to harm national security and advance a foreign agenda.

It sentenced her to five years and eight months in prison. Two years and ten months of the sentence are said to have been suspended.

She and her family have denied all charges. They have also said that she has been tortured in jail – accusations the court dismissed.

Hathloul was detained just weeks before Saudi women were finally allowed to drive in 2018 – the cause she championed.

Saudi officials insist her detention has nothing to do with that issue.

Hathloul’s family says she was held incommunicado for three months following her arrest, and that she was subjected to electric shocks, whippings, and sexual harassment. They also allege that she was offered freedom if she agreed to say she was not tortured.

Human rights experts have said her trial did not meet international standards.

In November, Amnesty International condemned her transfer to the Specialised Criminal Court, saying it exposed “the brutality and hypocrisy” of Saudi authorities.

The case is seen as further damaging the reputation of Saudi Arabia’s controversial de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, known as MBS.

He has led a programme of reforms, including lifting the ban on women driving, in a bid to open up the conservative kingdom to investment.

But he has also been condemned for the continued crackdown on rights activists, as well as the Saudi authorities’ role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

World Opinions News – agencies

L’article Loujain al-Hathloul: Saudi woman activist jailed for five years est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.