Feature

Youth Leaders' Meeting and
International Climate Action Day

Shamir Shehab

ON October 24th- the youth leaders representing the largest youth community of the most prominent and well recognized universities and colleges of Bangladesh gathered together at Youth Leaders' Meeting, organized by Bangladesh Youth Environmental Initiative (BYEI), to discuss and fix the key strategies for youth action plans in Bangladesh on tackling the impacts of Climate Change in the upcoming years as part of the largest day of climate change activism. A large number of participants joined more than 2,000 communities in over 150 countries as part of the global day of action, which was coordinated by 350.org to urge the world leaders to take bold and immediate steps to address climate change and reduce carbon emissions. “Global Warming and Climate Change are no more concepts or jokes, young generation should come forward to push the government to take the necessary steps to prevent the likely consequences,” said Sayed Ridwan from North South University. “Global leaders can no longer debate on this issue; they need to take bold actions,”said Belal Hossain from Dhaka University.

Around the world from capital cities to the melting slopes of Mount Everest, even underwater on dying coral reefspeople held rallies aimed at focusing the attention on number 350 because scientists have insisted in recent years that 350 parts per million is the most carbon dioxide we can safely have in the atmosphere. The current carbon dioxide concentration is 390 parts per million.

“That is why glaciers and sea ice are melting, drought is spreading, and flooding is on the increase,” said Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org and the author of the first major book on climate change. 'And it is why we need a huge worldwide movement to give us the momentum to make real political changes. Our leaders have heard from major corporations and big polluters for a long timefinally, it is time, they heard from citizens and the scientists.'

These global actions came six weeks before the world's nations convene in Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference to draw up a new climate treaty. Around 89 countries has already endorsed the 350 targets, as well as the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, the world's foremost climate economist, Sir Nicholas Stern, and Nobel prize-winner Al Gore.

Images of the events from around the world, including the Youth Leader's meeting in Dhaka, were featured on a giant video screens in the Times Square in New York as part of a 350 countdown, and are accessible at 350.org as part of an online photo stream. Visual documentation from the 'Day of Action' will be delivered to the United Nations on Monday.

“People have said the science of global warming is too confusing for average citizens to understand,” said McKibben. 'Yesterday's events prove that millions of people understand exactly what is at stake in the next few years, and that they want quick actions to safeguard the future.'

(Student of North South University and Coordinator, Bangladesh Youth Environmental Initiative, BYEI)