'Inconvenient Youth' Organize to Tackle Global Warming

COMMUNITY NEWS

Like many people my age, I have become so cynical about Washington D.C. politics. Between all the partisan bickering, stalling and unkept promises, our country's leaders have become inefficient. Left behind in the wake of this partisan paralysis is a plethora of issues that remain unaddressed, including global warming.

My frustration has only grown deeper as short-sighted slogans like "drill baby drill" have become all the rage in certain political circles. With major economic woes threatening our global economy, climate change and the search for eco-friendly energy alternatives has again taken a backseat.

So, I decided I needed to act. I found a place to turn my frustrations into something positive by joining Inconvenient Youth (ICY), an organization that believes that now is the time to come together to act in the face of climate change. ICY (www.inconvenientyouth.org) is composed of high school and college students seeking to educate and inspire their peers to become agents of change.

The program coordinates youth and young adults from all over the world, arming them with the knowledge, tactics and tools to become environmental activists in their own communities. Members are taught how to give an abridged version of former U.S. Vice President Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" presentation with the goal of sharing it with their peers and community members. In today’s Information Age, the world's youth have the opportunity to communicate, coordinate and organize unlike any generation before them. By taking advantage of these opportunities, my generation can maximize the collective power of youth to generate change.

I know that it is my responsibility to act, and I can only hope that you do, too. While my generation will endure the consequences of global warming more than any generation before us, it is important that everyone act collectively.

We are certainly capable of addressing the problem. What's missing is not the means, but the political will. Inconvenient Youth hopes that by taking matters into our own hands, we can organize a group that will be loud enough to ultimately influence public opinion, and eventually change environmental policy.

-Nick Brokaw
Nick is a teenager from Sacramento, CA, who is an active member and blogger of Inconvenient Youth. When Nick isn’t combating global warming, he’s beginning the next phase of his life as a student at UC Santa Barbara.

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