INTERACTIVE SESSION INTERACTIVE SESSION WITH THE YOUTHWITH THE YOUTH

Dr. Sushita Gokool-Ramdoo, TECDr. Anwarbhai Rumjaun, MIE

Dr. Shaheen Motala-Timol, TECDr. Vele Putchay

Part 1Part 1YOUTH AND MEDIA

Role of the youthRole of the youth

A growing number of young people around the world are major consumers of clothes, food, gadgets, communication devices, travel and entertainment.

Advertising and peer pressure encourage young people into consumption patterns that are most often unsustainable and carried, often subconsciously, into adult life.

Trend is driven by globalization with increased media, travel, communications and trade influencing ever greater numbers of young people.

The challengesThe challenges

Young people have immense power to determine the future of our planet.

1. They can be catalysts for change, using their power as citizens, consumers campaigners and change -makers to champion alternative ways of living.

2. From across the world, many young people are finding solutions to the challenges of climate change.

Low carbon lifestylesLow carbon lifestylesLow carbon lifestyles are not universally the same. They are complex and depend on the environment, resources, people and cultures around us. They can be lean (using less stuff), clean (having only enough or sufficient) or green, which combines using less stuff and having enough. It is the only lifestyle that connects less consumption with more health, creativity, prosperity and wellbeing. It is also not just about thinking feeling and looking good for ourselves, but also about doing good for others and the planet.

Which media can be used to Which media can be used to promote ESD?promote ESD?

Earth SongEarth Song

Food for thoughtFood for thought

• What did you find appealing, in the context of sustainable development, in the Earth Song?

• What values, according to you are depicted in the song?

• Do you think these values are necessary and have we moved far from them?

• What strategies can be used to reinstate the importance of such values, if you think they need to be reinstated?

Part 2Part 2Values and Youth: Our holy books and belief systems

speaketh…

Christianity And God created the great whales,

and every living creature that moveth, which the water brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.  And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.   (Genesis 1:21-22, KJV).

Humanism Humanism is a group of philosohies

and ethical perspectives which emphasize the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers individual thought and evidence (rationalism, empiricism) over established doctrine or faith.

JudaismBut ask the beasts, and they will

teach you; the birds of the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth and it will teach you; the fish of the sea, they will inform you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Eternal has done this? (Job 12:7-9)

ConfucianismConfucius fished with a line but not with a net.

While fowling he would not aim at aroosting bird.Analects 7.26

If you do not allow nets with too fine a mesh to be used in large ponds, then there willbe more fish and turtles than they can eat; if hatchets and axes are permitted in theforests on the hills only in the proper seasons, then there will be more timber than theycan use... This is the first step along the kingly way.Mencius I.A.3

Hinduism and JainismEarth, in which lie the sea, the river, and other

waters,in which food and cornfields have come to be,in which live all that breathes and that moves,may she confer on us the finest of her yield....

Set me, O Earth, amidst what is thy center and thy navel,and vitalizing forces that emanate from thy body.Purify us from all sides. Earth is my Mother; her son am I;and Heaven my Father: may he fill us with plenty....Atharva Veda 12.1

Buddhism Rajah Koravya had a king banyan tree called Steadfast, and the shade of itswidespread branches was cool and lovely. Its shelter broadened to twelve leagues....None guarded its fruit, and none hurt another for its fruit. Now there came a man whoate his fill of fruit, broke down a branch, and went his way. Thought the spirit dwellingin that tree, "How amazing, how astonishing it is, that a man should be so evil as tobreak off a branch of the tree, after eating his fill. Suppose the tree were to bear nomore fruit." And the tree bore no more fruit.

IslamThe All-Merciful has taught the Qur'an.He created man and He taught him the explanation.The sun and the moon to a reckoning,and the stars and trees bow themselves;and heaven - He raised it up and set thebalance.Transgress not in the balance, and weigh with justice, and skimp not in the balance. And earth - He set it down for all beings, therein fruits and palm trees with sheaths, and grain in the blade, and fragrant herbs.Of which your Lord's bounties will you and you deny?55: 1-12

Consuming the EarthConsuming the Earth

Our global consumption has already exceeded the Earth’s carrying capacity. In fact, considering the way and the amount we consume, we will soon run out of many of the Earth’s finite resources. Currently, we need 1.4 Earths to sustain our lifestyles.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that while the Earth’s carbon sinks such as trees can absorb only 3.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, carbon sources like cars are emitting 7.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere each year, more than double the absorption capacity of the Earth!!!

Food for thought…Food for thought…

What are your views concerning our holy books and belief systems regarding to a desirable attitude to our planet and natural resources?

Do you think that we have deviated and why?Can you give examples from your own

experience and experiences related to the world, regarding how values have eroded?

What recommendations can you make so that we reinstate our earlier values in our lives?

Part 3 – A responsePart 3 – A response

Ms. Raphael BhembeMs. Elisabeth Knopell