YOUNGO

Let’s talk trash. Your country is so screwed by climate change it probably won’t exist by the time negotiators figure out a balanced financing mechanism. Burned. Okay, that was a poor attempt at a joke. Reality is harsh. Just like your mom (for real though, that was the last one). Trashy jokes aside, trash is no joke when it comes to climate change. Approximately 5 percent of all anthropogenic greenhouse gases can be traced back to landfills and waste management.

Something that I come across daily at Luther College is the emphasis on using the youth as effective agents of change; finding the critical areas through which the energy of young people can influence greater politics. Here in Paris and throughout the history of the UNFCCC, the youth are impacting the content of the negotiations. Tim Damon, as a member of SustainUS, has worked tirelessly to promote intergenerational equity as a key outcome of these discussions and currently has two sentences referencing this concern in the negotiating document.