https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/nico-cordoniergehring
Hello, my name is Nico. I am fourteen years old, a scholar at Winchester College, and I live in Cambridge, UK. As wildfires, heatwaves and floods worsen, I am desperately concerned about the terrible impacts of climate change on our local fenlands and our natural systems worldwide, and on the most vulnerable people especially children.
Together with my friend Wezi from Zambia, I recently wrote a response to the Call on General Comment 26 for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, about children’s rights and the environment, especially the importance of fighting climate change and protecting nature. We studied the science, also the politics, and became very, very worried. Our future, our very survival, is at stake. Children and nature, who are voiceless and vulnerable, are already suffering. We need all the help we can get, to stop this global nightmare.
Rather than staying sad and angry, though, this summer I am going to kayak from Cambridge where I live to the sea, to raise funds for local and global charities who are trying to protect children’s rights and nature from the impacts of climate change. Please sponsor me? 🙂
All funds raised will go directly to the Voices for Future Generations Children’s Initiative, and to local charities working to protect our fenlands and promote education about sustainability solutions.
As a volunteer UN Child Ambassador and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Children’s Rights, I have spent years working to help promote sustainability education and the rights of future generations locally and globally. I love nature and animals, and believe it is important to protect and restore habitat for endangered species (including my two Hermann’s tortoises), and to advance the global SDGs for kids. To help make this happen, I edit a blog (nicosnaturalworld.org) with hundreds of followers. I also volunteer as co-chair of the Global Youth Council on Science, Law and Sustainability which was founded by young people during the Glasgow Climate Change COP26 and edits an online journal (harmonyyouthvoices.com). As a leader of my primary King’s College School Eco-Society, I was also founding co-chair of Cambridge Schools Eco-Council with pupils from many schools in my community. We won the UK Rotary Young Environmentalist Award with my team for our work to protect local fenlands by stopping sources, restoring sinks and mobilising our school and society on climate change. Through speaking out in conferences and events, hosting online Eco-Seminar mini-series about the SDGs, and helping to organise Cambridge’s climate-strikes, I’ve been trying to raise awareness and educate about sustainability locally and globally.
But it’s clearly not enough – climate change is getting worse, not better, and we need to do everything we can to support organisations who are helping to make a difference. That’s why I’m paddling to the sea this summer, and I hope very much that you could help sponsor my campaign here://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/nico-cordoniergehring
My efforts support our local Wicken Fen wetlands conservation and education efforts (National Trust) and the Cambridge Botanical Gardens locally, as well as the UNESCO Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative (with which I have been a volunteer for years) and the IUCN International Union for the Conservation of Nature globally.
Keep an eye out for updates on my training!
Submitted by Nico Roman (13, Canada, UK, Switzerland & Germany), Child Ambassador of the Voices of Future Generations (VoFG) Children’s Initiative & Co-Chair, Cambridge Schools Eco-Council, as one of the VoFG Child Authors, Child Ambassadors & Friends
Thank you very much for the opportunity to comment on the draft of General Comment 26, which will guide governments by explaining how children’s rights are related to the environment and climate change, and what they must do to protect our rights. We especially appreciated your extra effort to provide a Child-Friendly version of the first draft General Comment 26 in different languages. This has allowed us to more easily discuss your draft with the younger youth and children from all over the world in our networks, and really helps us to contribute our voices for future generations.
As child authors and child ambassadors who work very hard to raise awareness and inspire action for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), many of whom are also climate-strikers in our communities, we are very concerned about our world’s current climate change and biodiversity emergencies, and how the impacts will violate children’s rights. Through your General Comment, we hope that governments can help children and everyone to change all our ways before it is too late, in order for future generations (including our own) to hope for survival.
We feel that the General Comment first draft is a good start but could be stronger in many ways, especially by committing more clearly to non-discrimination, to prevention and to much greater ambition in climate action. You have asked us to focus on specific sections of the General Comment, and to provide our views. We are happy to do so.
Right to education (GC26 para 31 – 38)
Your General Comment 26 says: “Children should be taught environmental education that is accurate and in ways that they understand. Environmental education should support children to connect with, and respect, the environment and other human beings. The places where children learn should be safe from environmental harm.”
Many of us are able to receive some environmental education, even if information is often outdated and upsetting, so we really appreciate para 33. However, much of our current environmental education is not very focused on solutions and on how we can all contribute to children’s rights and advancing the SDGs. Our schools are the first place where many of us are trying to make a difference. In some of our schools, we have formed Sustainability Councils or Eco-Societies, then Eco-Councils of the clubs and societies. We have drafted Climate Action Plans and even helped to implement them for our schools and our communities. These small steps make a big difference to us.
Might this kind of action please be mentioned in your GC26? If at all possible, could the General Comment 26 highlight the need for education but also action in our schools, so that we do not feel hopeless and angry, but instead we can contribute to sustainability solutions.
Rights of Indigenous children (GC26 para 49)
Your General Comment 26 says: “Indigenous children’s lives, survival and cultural practices are often very connected with their natural environment. Governments should make sure to protect their rights and involve children in all decisions being made about their lives.”
We really appreciate that you highlight indigenous children’s relationships with nature, survival, and the need to stop destroying our world, especially. The indigenous child authors and child ambassadors in our networks, with all our support and solidarity, feel it is very important to also mention the importance of indigenous languages, that are at the heart of the relationship with nature. So many irreplaceable and precious indigenous languages are being lost right now – just in our generation – and with them, so much important culture and understanding of the environment and climate change is lost too.
Right of non-discrimination (GC26 para 50-51)
Your General Comment 26 says: “No group of children (for example, girls or children with disabilities) should suffer from environmental problems more than others. Governments should collect information to learn more about the inequalities between groups, and take specific actions to resolve them.”
We deeply support this point, but we also hope that you could highlight the need to find ways to involve children of all differing abilities, and children from all groups in environmental and sustainability activities. If at all possible, you could also highlight the terrible situations that are being faced by children who are losing their entire territories, countries and communities due to climate change impacts, and how unfair this is, just a bit more clearly and strongly.
Right to be heard (GC26 para 56-58)
Your General Comment 26 says: “Children should have a say on issues related to the environment and climate change, and to be taken seriously by adults. Governments and businesses should involve children when making decisions about the environment and climate change.”
Many of us are trying to have our voices heard in decision-making about climate change, biodiversity and global health emergencies, so we really appreciate paras 56 and 57. We have learned to work together online, through digital meetings, and we think it is helpful that you highlight these opportunities in para 56. We actually edit an online journal for children and youth concerned about global sustainability (harmonyyouthvoices.com) and we hope it really helps to inspire and empower youth worldwide.
While we totally agree that children and youth voices should be heard, and that we can and should participate in adult decision-making on all levels, we also think we can contribute a lot to developing and acting for solutions for children’s rights, protecting and restoring our environment, and advancing the SDGs ourselves too. Our communities are very important places where many of us are trying to make a difference. We can form Sustainability Councils or Eco-Societies in our schools, we can also create Eco-Councils or Guardian’s Networks among these clubs and societies in our communities. We have drafted Climate Action Plans and even helped to implement them for our schools and our communities as mentioned earlier. On other levels, for such councils or guardian’s networks, we do need some support and help to link us all together and connect, and also to help keep our councils or networks going year by year, with youth and children especially. It’s about empowerment and agency. Might this kind of action please be mentioned in your GC26? If there is a way to encourage youth and children organizing ourselves, we would greatly appreciate it.
Right to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly (GC26 para 59-61)
Your General Comment 26 says: “Children often stand up for their environmental rights as human rights defenders. Many children also spend time with friends and groups in different environments. Governments must protect children from anyone who wants to stop them from doing so.”
Thank you for including the section recognizing our rights to express our concerns. This is very, very important. Many of us are climate-strikers, and we are prevented or punished for trying to stop the actions that are destroying our Earth. We greatly appreciate that the General Comment is very clear on this. We also greatly appreciate the advocacy and hard work of the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights and the Environment Prof David Boyd and the others who have held this role, they have helped us a great deal and is tirelessly defending defenders.
Access to justice and remedies (GC26 para 62-70)
Your General Comment 26 says: “When children’s rights have been affected by environmental harm and climate change, children should be able to access justice – that is, solutions, support and compensation for the harm and consequences they are experiencing – at regional and international levels.”
Thank you especially for directly speaking about children and youth climate justice cases, and our access to courts and remedies. We really appreciate this aspect of our friends’ efforts being highlighted, and feel it can make a real difference if children and youth can use our justice systems to advance change. It might be good to highlight indigenous laws and governance systems, as many of these justice systems are so important for the environment, the natural world and climate change. We strongly support the efforts of youth, academic leaders, governments and others to request an Advisory Opinion in the International Court of Justice, and in other courts including the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and we hope that this General Comment can be understood to strongly support it too. In such a high-profile and symbolic case, an Advisory Opinion can bring our entire future to the world’s attention, and that is desperately needed.
Right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment (GC26 para 71-74)
Your General Comment 26 says: “While this right is not directly included in the Convention, the Committee explains that children have the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Children need a clean environment in order to enjoy all of their human rights. Children should have access to clean air and water, safe climates, healthy ecosystems and biodiversity, healthy food and non-polluted environments.”
Thank you for including the section recognizing our rights to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. This is very, very important to us all. We agree that action needs to be taken immediately on all fronts to protect and realise this right for children. We understand that you might need to ask to ‘phase out’ fossil fuels (para 73 d), but many of us who are climate-strikers feel very, very strongly that it is already nearly too late, and all fossil fuels need to be banned as soon as possible. It is crazy that current generations of adult are still allowing our energy to be coming from non-renewable sources that poison our Earth, and this has to change immediately.
General Comment 26 Section V (GC26 para 75-81)
Further, we really appreciate that the General Comment includes how States should ensure a clean, healthy and sustainable environment in order to respect, protect and fulfil children’s rights, focusing on their obligations.
Thank you for including this section – it is very important. We were a bit confused by the part in para 76 about ‘paying due regard’ to the precautionary approach. Would it be possible to make this stronger and commit to the precautionary principle for all children and for nature directly? We also strongly support the call for laws and policies. If possible, could these laws and policies clearly refer to environmental health, safety and also sustainability? The SDGs are very important to us, and where international guidelines exist, they should all be respected. New guidelines and treaties are also needed in some areas, like to stop plastics from destroying our natural world.
General Comment 26 Section VI (GC26 para 98-123)
Finally, we deeply thank you for including such a long and careful section on the responsibilities of governments to take action on climate change. However, we feel that since the global Biodiversity Emergency, globally, is just as serious and equally terrible, impacting millions of species that our generation, and all future generations, might lose forever, and never even know about. You do mention that climate change is devastating biodiversity, and you mention the rising problems of biodiversity loss and destruction of nature in your discussions of some of the children’s rights, but we believe that right before or after the sub-section on Business and climate change (D, para 114-118), a new section should be inserted recognizing the need for urgent action to protect nature and biodiversity in the interests of current and future generations. This section can refer to some of the commitments agreed in Montreal during the Convention on Biological Diversity’s COP15, especially the important promises in the Global Biodiversity Framework to look for ‘nature-positive’ solutions to climate change and biodiversity emergencies, and to protect much more of land and sea for current and future generations. As another idea, you could do a second General Comment specifically on biodiversity, even though we do think that the advice could be stronger and clearer (and more interconnected) if it was included here. (For more on children, youth and the GBF, please see Nico’s Natural World blog – nicosnaturalworld.org).
We hope that this contribution is helpful, and again, really appreciate the opportunity to comment on your Draft General Comment 26.
Yours sincerely,
Nico Roman (13, of UK, Canada, Germany and Switzerland)
YR9 Scholar of Winchester College, UK; Co-Chair of the Cambridge Schools Eco-Council; Child Ambassador of the Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative; and Junior Editor of the Global Youth Council on Science, Law and Sustainability online journal Harmony.
Background on the Voices of Future Generations Children’s Rights Initiative consultations among child authors, child ambassadors and friends from different countries and regions.
Who are we, and how are we consulting among our networks?
Our consultations are taking place online between December 2022 and February 2023, engaging children and youth leaders from the Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative network from Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Germany, Ghana, Kenya, Mexico, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Uruguay, Zambia, Zimbabwe and other countries (www.vofg.org), also indigenous children and youth from their territories and nations. Many of us are boys and girls involved in creating stories, artwork, music and drama about protecting our earth, climate chante and sustainability, we also serve as child leaders of eco-councils and other student clubs in our communities, and we range in ages from 7-8 years old (new members) to 17-18 years old (alumni). We have also posted our comments on Nico’s Natural World, a blog led by the student who prepared this comment (nicosnaturalworld.org), and on our online journal (harmonyyouthvoices.com)
The Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative (VoFG CI) is a movement on children’s rights and sustainable development. VoFG CI is a unique programme of action that empowers children to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Worl’s Sustainable Development Goal agenda (SDGs). Our mission is to assist children to advance the right to education and literacy globally through the children’s book series. Books are authored by children aged 8-12, for children aged 6 and above. These stories from around the world are illustrated and published, and the books disseminated globally to schools and libraries for all children to benefit from the knowledge and insight. Through our Intergenerational Dialogue Programme, Online Roundtables and Eco-seminars we enable children to enter into effective and inspiring communication with experts and global leaders, who are effecting positive change in the fields of children’s rights and sustainable development.
By Nico Roman
Introduction
Nature is very important for youth, not just to value the uniqueness and wonder of the natural world, but also because we depend on natural systems, natural resources and ecosystem services for our quality of life and our very survival. Young people can connect with our environment and the natural world through green spaces, protected areas on land and underwater, and other areas. We can help to protect and restore biodiversity, finding and promoting nature-positive solutions for sustainability.
According to the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN): “Our generation has seen many of the promises of the Millennium Development Goals, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, and the Kyoto Protocol fail.”
“We need real transformative change – for humankind to realign priorities, values, behaviours, and actions. We have the creativity, will and energy to reinvent our systems, equitably and sustainably. But for our generation to have hope for a future built on peace and harmony with nature, we need unprecedented action.”
The adoption of the Global Biodiversity Framework in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of the United Nations in Montreal this December 2022 represents an historic moment – our opportunity to bend the curve on global biodiversity loss.
The newly adopted Global Biodiversity Framework includes several very important commitments by countries, stakeholders and communities.
In the Global Biodiversity Framework, countries have promised to take action, before 2030, to ensure effective conservation and management of at least 30% of the world’s lands, inland waters, coastal areas and the ocean; to have restoration completed or underway on at least 30% of degraded terrestrial, inland waters, coastal and marine ecosystems; and to reduce to near zero the loss of areas of high biodiversity importance, including ecosystems of high ecological integrity. These promises are important for youth because many of us have not yet had the opportunity to explore and learn about our lands, inland waters, coasts and oceans – we need to protect natural systems for current and future generations, and to save the millions of plant and animals that many young people love from extinction.
Countries have also committed to reduce by half both excess nutrients and the overall risk posed by pesticides and highly hazardous chemicals. This commitment is important for youth because chemicals can be dangerous for wildlife and also communities who live near areas that are contaminated, especially young people and the elderly who are often much more vulnerable to poisons and hazards.
Further, countries have promised to prevent the introduction of priority invasive alien species and reduce by at least half the introduction and establishment of other known or potential invasive alien species and eradicate or control invasive alien species on islands and other priority sites. This is important for youth because such efforts give a fighting chance to the species which we need to protect for future generations and prevent invasive species from destroying the habitats and ecosystems that many young people depend on for food and income.
In addition, in the Global Biodiversity Framework, countries commit to cut global food waste in half and significantly reduce over consumption and waste generation. This will mean, if we can also improve food distribution, that there is more food for the future families who would otherwise suffer from nutrition and food insecurity. Further, it will mean less waste in the natural environment, affecting quality of life for youth and others who depend on nature.
These commitments are underpinned by new finance for nature, which includes to mobilise by 2030 at least $200 billion/year in domestic and international biodiversity-related funding from all sources; and to raise international finance flows from developed to developing countries, in particular least developing countries, small island developing states, and countries with economies in transition, to at least US $20 billion per year by 2025 and to at least US $30 billion per year by 2030. This is important for youth because nature-positive finance can open new jobs and opportunities for young people to help protect and restore nature and earn their livelihoods while doing so.
Further, countries community to progressively phase out or reform by 2030 subsidies that harm biodiversity by at least $500 billion per year. This is quite important for youth because it means finance is redirected towards projects that are good for biodiversity, which can support new efforts in these areas, and also that finance does not support activities which degrade and destroy that natural world, making young people who depend on it suffer.
They further committed require large and transnational companies and financial institutions to monitor, assess and transparently disclose their risks, dependencies and impacts on biodiversity through their operations, supply and value chains and portfolios. This is important for youth because it will mean there is accountability for companies which ruin environments and habitats, and if companies can assess and manage their activities and products more sustainably, they can sell higher quality more sustainable products to young consumers who can learn to consume more responsibly.
Conclusion
All countries including youth should take action immediately to implement the Global Biodiversity Framework before it is too late. Even with these new targets and commitments, we need to scale up the action, partnerships and resources that are desperately needed right away to keep these promises for our natural world. We face a terribly urgent biodiversity crisis which is sure to worsen as climate change, conflict and other conditions worsen. Our efforts need to be backed by education, awareness and political will, and supported by more widespread media coverage. As youth, we have an opportunity and an obligation to make change in our schools and communities, so that everyone will be able to respect, restore and appreciate the natural world.
Are you interested in learning about the links between education, children’s rights, and sustainability on the UN’s International Literacy Day?
Are you inspired by the leadership of children and youth to advance the global Sustainable Development Goals, especially quality education (SDG 4)?
Would you like to help implement the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by encouraging children’s voices?
Register now for a very special Online International Roundtable on Education, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the World’s SDGs, which takes place on Thursday 8 September 2022 at 9:00 am EST | 2:00 pm BST in celebration of International Literacy Day.
The International Roundtable on Education, hosted jointly by the Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative, in partnership with the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL), and experts from the University of Cambridge and McGill University, among others, convenes teachers, child and youth leaders, mentors and experts on intergenerational equity, children’s rights and sustainable development for an interactive dialogue to raise awareness and speak up for education, children’s rights and the global Sustainable Development Goals.
Objectives of the 2022 Online International Roundtable
The 2022 Online International Roundtable aims to spread awareness, empowerment and implementation of the SDG4 Education and the UN CRC by:
- engaging children, civil society leaders and expert adults in dialogue to strengthen understanding of sustainable development and children’s rights.
- Facilitating a common vision, action plan and action plan for children to help implement SDG4 and the UN CRC.
- Sharing inspiring children’s stories, written by Child Authors from around the world, with other children, teachers, leaders and civil society.
- Raising awareness and promoting engagement by all stakeholders in support of the implementation of the SDG4 by children and strengthening awareness of the UN CRC.
The International Roundtable on Education, hosted jointly by the Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative, in partnership with the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL), and experts from the University of Cambridge and McGill University, among others, convenes teachers, child and youth leaders, mentors and experts on intergenerational equity, children’s rights and sustainable development for an interactive dialogue to raise awareness and speak up for education, children’s rights and the global Sustainable Development Goals.
Objectives of the 2022 Online International Roundtable
The 2022 Online International Roundtable aims to spread awareness, empowerment and implementation of the SDG4 Education and the UN CRC by:
- engaging children, civil society leaders and expert adults in dialogue to strengthen understanding of sustainable development and children’s rights.
- Facilitating a common vision, action plan and action plan for children to help implement SDG4 and the UN CRC.
- Sharing inspiring children’s stories, written by Child Authors from around the world, with other children, teachers, leaders and civil society.
- Raising awareness and promoting engagement by all stakeholders in support of the implementation of the SDG4 by children and strengthening awareness of the UN CRC.
Are you interested in learning about the links between education, Indigenous rights and sustainability?
Are you inspired by the leadership of children and youth to advance the global Sustainable Development Goals?
Would you like to help implement the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, by encouraging Indigenous children’s voices?
Register now for a very special online International Roundtable on Indigenous Children’s Voices & Rights, which takes place on Tuesday 9 August 2021 at 8:00 EST | 11:00 EST |16:00 BST in celebration of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.
This Online International Roundtable on Indigenous Children’s Voices & Rights engages young leaders from different Nations as well as specialists and experts working to promote Indigenous Peoples’ and children’s rights. In an interactive and intergenerational dialogue, it seeks to strengthen and promote Indigenous Children’s Rights and the global Sustainable Development Goals.
The event features Indigenous Child Author Adelyn Sophie Newman-Ting*, the first Voices of Future Generations Indigenous Child Author. Adelyn wrote Finding the Language, a creative and captivating story about reclaiming language through the land and its creatures, highlighting the interconnected cycle of life and culture. The event also features Indigenous Child Ambassadors Bella Morrisseau and Sydnee Wynter. Honoured chairs and speakers also include an Indigenous member of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO Youth Advisory Group (YAG), Ms. Portia Garnons-Williams (Senior Editor of Harmony Online Journal & University of Toronto student), Master Nico Roman (Junior Editor of Harmony Online Journal & Child Ambassador, VoFG CI), Dr. Aruna Alexander (UNA- Canada, Quinte Branch), Ms. Jaydum Hunt (Interim Director, Waterloo Indigenous Student Centre, WISC) Adv. Wayne Garnons-Williams (National Sixties Scoop Healing Foundation of Canada Chair), Ms. Elaina Cox (Senior Researcher, First Nations Treaties for SDGs Project, University of Waterloo), Ms. Eva Wu (Senior Researcher, First Nations Treaties for SDGs Project, University of Waterloo), Prof. Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger (University of Cambridge / University of Waterloo / CISDL), Prof Carey Newman Hayalthkin’geme* (University of Victoria Professor & Impact Chair, Master Carver), Adv. Neshan Gunasekera* (Lead Counsel for Peace, Justice and Governance, CISDL), Dr. Odeeth Lara-Morales (University of Waterloo / CISDL / UNA-Canada), Ms. Courtney Defriend (Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange, First Nations Health Authority) and Ms. Kyla Judge (Canadian Commission for UNESCO’s Youth Advisory Group Member and Cultural Program Officer at the UNESCO Georgian Bay Biosphere Region).
With warmest thanks to the partners and collaborators:
Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL)
National Sixties Scoop Healing Foundation of Canada
Audain Professorship of Contemporary Art Practices of the Pacific Northwest, University of Victoria*
Waterloo Indigenous Student Centre Shatitsirótha’ (WISC)
And a special thanks to our friends and mentors from:
Canadian Commission for UNESCO
United Nations Association in Canada (Quinte Branch)
On Sunday, June 12, 2022, I joined the Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative to host a virtual storytime as part of the Festival of Nature.
The Festival of Nature is the UK’s largest free celebration of the natural world. (We) Children from around the globe took the audience on a magical journey by sharing our stories, hopes, dreams and vision for a sustainable world.
I was the speaker who opened up the event for the VoFG CI delegation, then Child Authors followed.
If you missed it or want to watch it again here is the video:
My short story Song Spark Recovery Magic won first place for the 2021 LUNE SPARK Short Story World Contest and is part of the book A Few Drops of Hope.
Song Spark Recovery Magic synopsis:
Magical music comes to the aid of a young blind immigrant struggling to wake her adopted city, in order to secure a spark of real recovery and build back better lives in the aftermath of a global pandemic.
Song Spark Recovery Magic
By Nico Roman Cordonier Gehring (12)
“Something important is missing…” mused Song, as she helped her mother carry their battered chairs and worn rugs up the cold concrete stairwells to their council flat. Since they first saw the grim, looming halls of the housing estate, she had felt an icy absence – like a gap opening in her shattered world. It was a whispered warning, spoken over and over in the background, too soft for conscious grasp, but ominous in its subliminal impact. The omission haunted her: their new building had no song!
Where they had lived in the West, before a terrible global coronavirus pandemic had ripped her grandmother away from her tiny family, also taking her mother’s low-paying janitorial job, life had been different.
Although she had learned not to mention it to strangers, to Song each building hummed with its community’s unique spirit, celebrating their shared ideas, dreams and lives. Each edifice, each neighbourhood sang its own special tune, woven from the shared history and harmony of its people and place. Sightless since birth, Song relied on textures, tastes, scents and especially sound – music – to make sense of her world. Her service dog, Mozart, a small husky granted to her family by a local charity, helped her to navigate when her mother was away. But she used to revel in the quiet music, entering a home for a morning playdate, or tiptoeing past and listening, on a peaceful evening, could learn the purpose of an office-building or the courageous mission of a hospital.
Here in the East, even as vaccines slowly reached each generation and the pandemic slowly wound down, things were strange. Her new building sounded heavy, chill and empty, the long hallways echoing with dust and neglect, the inhabitants disconnected and alien. Not even the sad, tattered sparrows on the grimy windowsills were singing.
Song could not see the towering, imposing glass structures far above her, nor the flashing neon lights that attracted others to the city, even in days devastated by the disease, with its millions of losses, the fear, distrust and economic collapse. She only felt the disconnect, and suffered.
Song tried to settle into their flat. Her mother had to leave very early each morning to labour in the chemical sewers of a factory that had re-opened, making personal protective equipment for hospitals, and Song was left alone with Mozart. The winter was oppressive. Song sensed deeply the hopelessness and grief of the grim city, polluted and silent. The scents of iridescent diesel oil spills wafted from the puddles on the roads and discarded rubbish rotting uncollected on the curbs. Slimy discarded masks, gloves and other plastics clogged the drains, making Song and Mozart slip if they went out. Already, the constant horns of traffic again blared and roared along the highways beside their grimy flat, melding with the constant background wail of ambulances.
Song sat on the faded linoleum next to the open window in their tiny kitchen, taking tiny shallow breaths of the cold, polluted city air. She was sad and angry. She wondered how her world, so full of joyful tunes, had somehow –in the midst of the global pandemic and the disastrous move– turned so silent. She wanted to change things, but she couldn’t imagine how.
Her one cheerful thought, which she held close to warm her like a glowing golden ember, was her special flute. Once her grandfather could visit, bringing the ancient instrument that he had reserved just for her, Song hoped the crystal notes would form and dance around her as they always did when she played in his tiny cabin along the white cliffs and turquoise heather moors of the West.
Finally, after nearly two weeks of painful pause, the day arrived! Masked and cautious, Song and her mother travelled through the cluttered, noisy but somehow dead streets of their pandemic-struck city to the train station. When Song’s grandfather stepped smiling from the carriage, his wrinkled arms outstretched, Sybil barely needed the pressure of her mother’s light hand on her back to fly towards him. His answering laughter, and the pure notes of greeting that she heard from the precious instrument he carried carefully, made all the waiting worthwhile. On a bark of welcome from Mozart, as he too heard the notes leaking from the battered but beloved black case, a bit of her former confidence returned.
With her flute, Song’s grim life in the dead, silent, cluttered city of the East improved. Cold, lonely halls and silent sadness still formed a cage around her tiny soul, but her music surrounded her, clear and pure, the notes cascading through her days. Unfortunately, the only teacher available in the city was much more expensive. As she set out with Mozart for her first lesson, she had a spark. Rather than burden her tiny family, she could contribute to the cost herself, by playing her flute!
Song’s first clandestine concert took place in the centre of her new city, at the intersection two major alleyways, next to an abandoned street market. Her trusted Mozart guided her through the crowds. Secretly she hoped that they all had been vaccinated because she felt people gathering, and some seemed rather close.
Song unpacked her instrument and started to play. The indigo notes of the ancient, slender silver instrument flowed like a crystal river through the grey, silent city streets, touching the lives of each person, and planting seeds of hope in the crushed hearts of the homes, buildings and neighbourhoods themselves. As Song shared her very soul, the city around her slowly stopped. Pedestrians, cars, buses froze to hear the lovely music. The notes formed a warm waterfall of beauty and light. And as the people of the soundless, soulless, songless city learned to listen, many for the first time in their lives, they became inspired to build back better.
In the crowd, a boy on a skateboard with gleaming raven-wing hair and purple high-tops stopped, astonished, and then quickly pulled out his mobile. His light fingers sped across the keys, and an app glowed with indigo energy as Song’s music engraved electronically. After the performance, Song crumpled in exhaustion on the stone stairs beneath the arches of a stone doorway. Then Mozart barked in greeting. The boy approached, with awed eyes, and asked her permission to post her performance online. Scarcely recognising herself, Song agreed.
The music went viral, travelling everywhere through the city, and transformation travelled with it. A sad, pointless prison for the poor broke the chains of solitude and started rapping its rhythm out from the ground. A polluted petrol station and a greedy fast-food restaurant realised their destiny, and lifted an upbeat, jazzy saxophone duet number. A rubbish tip heard her music, waking from its methane-laden haze and throbbing with deep, happy, decomposing bass notes. The cut-rate pawnshop awakened from its uncaring mist of mangled memories, to pluck a guitar string. With Song’s music came a spark, and with the spark, recovery.
Millions of views and new listeners later, the entire city began to slowly awaken, as if from hibernation. Song and her new friend, Raven, composed new melodies directly online, activating his music apps and her flute talent, and more and more people tuned in to listen, and to transform themselves.
A visiting playwright teaching a story to a group of children in a sad, underfunded schoolroom with a special indigo ink pen paused to listen, as Song’s notes played through the public address speakers, and smiled softly to himself, as the building began to hum the notes back, and recovered into a handsome library brimming with books. A travelling street artist spray-painting an endangered orca and her calves onto a tall shipping company wall with shimmering indigo paints laughed in delight, as the high-rise responded with a soaring soprano solo, and transformed itself into an ocean-wise sustainable aquaculture co-operative.
As Song’s music washed through the city, relentlessly recovering, more and more buildings changed. The clawed pawnshop became a public museum, open to all and housing a tiny delicious bistro and an antiques hall. The dank prison became a community centre with rehabilitation programmes and a legal aid clinic. The petrol station and a fast-food restaurant became an electric vehicle charging station, with renewable solar panels on the roof, and a farmers market in a green corner nearby. The busy highways and rushing traffic calmed, replaced by bike paths and electric trams.
As Song’s mother explained, leaning over the counter of her new job in a tiny global coffee shop that had opened in the revived arts, crafts and organic foods market: “The children have almost invented a whole new form of music… and it’s changing our city, for the better.” Unheard by the adults, the little shop itself began to giggle, as its own lilting jig awoke in response to the flute’s magical notes. Song herself heard the music of her own building awaken and fill the air around her with joy, and stepped confidently with Mozart out into the warm sunshine of their new jade and olive green rooftop garden. She smelled the lavender bushes as returning bees buzzed softly around her and her friend, felt the balconies of their green flats bursting with new fruit and flowers below, and smiled in delight as once-grim halls echoed with children’s laughter, and with the music of a real recovery.
I’m happy to announce that I’m a junior editor of an international online journal for and by youth.
Harmony was launched in the UN’s COP26 climate change events in Glasgow on November 6, 2021. This online journal was built on special links that the youth created during the global pandemic lockdowns. They hosted a series of short online tutorials with professors and heads of institutes from world-class universities to inspire young people that were left stranded by COVID-19 school closures.
Go to Harmony Online Journal here: https://harmonyyouthvoices.com/
Interview by Kings College School Cambridge (to read the full interview click here)
Why was it important for you to visit COP26?
Nico: We wanted to attend COP26 for several reasons; firstly, it was a great opportunity for us to learn much more about climate change and what we can do to play our part in combating it. It was also especially important for us to attend as the event was in Scotland which made it easy to get to but also because we wanted to represent. One of our other main objectives was to build connections within the community.
Thomas: We were very grateful to be invited to contribute to COP26 and represent young people. It was a great opportunity for us to both learn and share ideas. We were pleased that we were able to meet so many people from all over the globe and also speak with various organisations.
What did you do whilst you were there?
Nico: We arrived on Friday but Saturday was the main day of activities. In the morning we went to the “Green Zone” where we were able to check out lots of interesting climate focused experiments and witness the operations that different organisations are doing to help the climate cause. Some of the main highlights for me were seeing the ”eco-choir”, who have sung in different competitions, and WWF presentation (World Wide Fund for Nature) who spoke about the importance of marshes and wetlands eco systems.
The Green Zone was actually housed in a Science Museum so were able to see the COP26 events along with the normal exhibits which we enjoyed. We were also invited to be part of the launch of a youth-led journal called “Harmony”. The journal will include youth views on science, law and sustainability solutions. This comprised 5 University students, 8 young people, and several other youth campaigners online from across the world including Canada, Kenya, Taiwan, England and France.
Thomas: We really enjoyed listening to the eco-choir who spoke about what children can do to solve climate problems and this was really interesting and informative. We also saw some fascinating displays about polar regions melting and the effects that would have. We were able to go inside a cool jungle which was essentially a view of the future that nature had “taken back”. It was a really interactive and visually immersive experience. We were excited to launch the “Harmony” journal which will be a seasonal online publication with many different organisations contributing, such as WWF and various other youth-led organisations. We also met a Tik Tok influencer called Cam Whitehall, who campaigns a lot about climate and conservation and he was very interested to help with the journal which is great because he has many young followers.
What do you hope COP26 will achieve?
Nico: I was excited when they announced the reforestation commitment which aims to restore most or all forests by 2030. This was signed by several countries including Brazil and Australia. As a result, 85% of the world’s forests are going to be protected and reforested. I’m also keen to see what they’re going to do with the funds they’ve recently acquired in the area of reforestation to help deal with climate change.
Thomas: I hope they’ll be able to pledge to protect the world’s wetlands as this is very important in the journey to slowing climate change. The world’s woodlands, fens but also mangroves are vitally important both to nature and conservation so I am interested to see what commitments are made to these areas. I am also hoping they make progress on protecting the Arctic and that they agree pledges and funds to protect these regions.
What’s next for you?
Nico: I am looking forward to working towards the goals with the Harmony journal – I’m keen to start distributing the first copy, I would love for it to get a big following and grow a community. Next steps are also going to be continuing to work with the main youth organisations throughout the world to continue to create a community of people who understand and can help climate change.
Thomas: I’m also looking forward to launching the Harmony journal as a means to spread awareness – there is no time left to leave this to tomorrow – the world’s leaders need to start tackling the situation more urgently today. The more people know about climate change and the more they can educate themselves, the more we can all make a difference together.
We rallied outside Great St Mary’s at 5:30 pm on Friday, Sep 24.
Then on Sep 25, 2021, we were l at the Cambridge Climate Fair on Parker’s Piece.
For the last 18 months, the Covid-19 pandemic has overtaken all other issues of discussion. We made a stand with thousands of other youths across the world to remind everyone that the climate crisis has NOT gone away. It’s real, it’s dangerous and – as shown by the recent floods in
Germany and London – it is already upon us.
This November, world leaders fortunate enough to get the vaccine will gather in Glasgow, UK, to participate in the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26). They are supposed to be implementing constructive solutions to the climate crisis and be initiating real, meaningful action.
However, over a period of time longer than most of the lives of Eco Council members and Youth Strikers 4 Climate, they have obfuscated the issue with greenwashing and avoidance of accountability.
In such chaotic times, it is up to us, the activists, scientists, engineers, lawyers, ordinary individuals – and children to raise the alarm bells. We thus return to the streets to protest with youth across the world for a brighter future. And that is why we show our support this Saturday to the many other climate activists fighting for meaningful action to be taken.
We thank everyone, children and adults, who joined us on Friday and Saturday, but these actions are just the beginning. They are a prelude to the strike from school on Oct 22 and the COP26 actions in November. Get ready, Cambridge. Change is coming whether you like it or not.
We also made into the press, check this article by Cambridge Independent:
Climate fair, school strike and a walking activist – Cambridge looks to COP26 for change
In Cambridge, Cambridge School Eco Council and XR Youth Cambridge organised a protest – the first such public event this year – outside the Senate House on Friday evening, on the same day Greta Thunberg spoke at the Bundestag in Berlin. Hundreds of school strikes took place across Germany ahead of their election on Sunday in the week the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the world was “seemingly light years away from reaching our targets” on climate change.
“As the world slowly reawakens from a horrid pandemic, youth strikers across the world are rising up with actions to say #BuildBackBetter,” says the schools eco council, as speakers repeated their concerns at the prospect of having no water in Cambridge, and demands for “a Green New deal now!” on King’s Parade.
By Mike Scialom
Read the full article here.
Team Heron won the Local, Regional and National Rotary Young Environmentalist competition!!
The Winners of the local Intermediate Team and Junior Age Group competitions were presented with their trophies and certificates on 22 June by our President, David Ball (R) and Community & Youth Service Committee Chairman John Barrett (L)
Source: Rotary, 2021
Results of Cambridge Local Competition
INTERMEDIATE AGE GROUP (11-14)
Winner – Team Entry
Nico Cordonier Gehring, Thomas Langford, Orlaith Traynor-Bucknall, Morgan Hayes (King’s College School) – The Heron Team – Cambridge Climate Change Action Project
STOP-PRESS – The Heron Team have gone on to win the final, National stage of the competition in their age group!
To see the full article got by Rotary click here
Check out this interview by Cambridge 105 Radio as (we) the Heron Team from Kings College School won the local and district rounds of this year’s Rotary Young Environmentalist competition.
We won the Local, Regional and National Rotary Young Environmentalist competition and we celebrated!!!
Heron Team – King’s College School
Thomas, Nico, Orlaith & Morgan
Do you want to know more about our project? Go to my post: The Cambridge Climate Change Action Plan Project: Heron Habitat Helpers
WED 08 SEP 2021 | 9:00 EST | 14:00 BST
This note invites you to save the date for a very special online now. The registration is already open; please just click here to register at no cost.
The International Roundtable on Education, hosted jointly by the Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative, in partnership with the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL), and experts from the University of Cambridge, McGill University, and the University of Nairobi, among others, convenes teachers, child and youth leaders, mentors and experts on intergenerational equity, children’s rights and sustainable development for an interactive dialogue to raise awareness and speak up for education, children’s rights and the global Sustainable Development Goals.
This special online event celebrates the global launch of ten beautifully illustrated new children’s books.
The event features VoFG CI Child Authors and Ambassadors from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, the Middle East, Oceania and the Pacific Islands.
Further, honoured invited chairs and speakers include: Judge Prof. Marcel Szabo*, former Ombudsperson for the Rights of Future Generations and Chair of Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative, Adv. Neshan Gunasekera, CISDL Lead Counsel, Prof. Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger of the University of Cambridge and the University of Waterloo, Senior Director of the CISDL, all leaders in the VoFG CI International Commission; alongside keynote remarks from Ms. Roda Muse, Secretary-General of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, together with Ms. Isabelle LeVert-Chiasson, ASPnet Coordinator with Canadian Commission for UNESCO, Prof. David Boyd (UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Environment), and Isobel Abulhoul OBE(CEO and Trustee of the Emirates Literature Foundation & International Commission, VoFG),
The Voices of Future Generations new children’s books being celebrated with UNESCO, CISDL and partners on International Literacy Day 2021 include:
- The Sound of Silence by Ying-Xuan Lai (Asia) on climate change (Goal 13) and life on land (Goal 15).
- The White Dolphin by Zhuo Meng-Xin (Asia) on climate change (Goal 13) and life below water (Goal 14).
- The Small Sparrow Hero by Huang Yun-Hung (Asia) on climate change (Goal 13) and responsible consumption and production (Goal 12).
- Journey for Tomorrow by Andrea Wilson (North America) on clean energy (Goal 7), responsible consumption and production (Goal 12), and life below water (Goal 14).
- The Children Who Saved the Mangroves by Rehema Kibugi (Africa) on climate change (Goal 13) and life on land (Goal 15).
- Stanley and EPIC by Jasper Chin Moody (Oceania) on sustainable cities and communities (Goal 11) and consumption and production (Goal 12).
- Dream Catcher by Tien-Li Cheng (Asia) on responsible consumption and production (SDG12), climate change (SDG13) and life on land (Goal 15).
- Finding the Language by Adelyn Newman-Ting (Global Indigenous Child Author) on quality education (Goal 4) and life on land (Goal 15).
- The Girl Who Changed Everything by Freya Tikva (Europe) on sustainable cities and communities (Goal 11) and responsible consumption and production (SDG12).
- The Challenge of a Generation by Christina-Angelina Kassongo (Africa) on quality education (Goal 4), sustainable cities and communities (Goal 11), and peace and justice (16).
- Saoud and Chess by Saoud Ahmad Al-Kaabi (Middle East) on inequality (Goal 10) and peace and justice (16).
On Saturday April 24, 2021 Voices of Future Generations and the Cambridge School Eco-council rallied for a Green New Deal.
Check the Cambridge Independent for more info Movement Against Racism and Green New Deal campaigners take to Cambridge streets
KSC Eco-Mural & Vision for Green Recovery
BUILD BACK BETTER – THE MURAL
The IDEA
THE ARWORK PROCESS
My short story Script Climate Change Magic won the third place for the 2020 LUNE SPARK Short Story World Contest and is part of the book Through Their Lenses.
Script Climate Change Magic‘s synopsis:
Story’s plays change reality, and reveal potential futures. As the terrible impacts of climate change advance across his land, the young boy in the wheelchair discovers he is capable of great transformations, harnessing his unique magic as a playwright to inspire youth movements who can change their world. Finally, by writing his own soul into the most important drama he has ever dreamt, Story tries to save his Troupe and the children they shelter from the storms.
Get your own copy!
Award-Winning Short Stories by Tweens
“Yet another gem of a book.” ~Tim Ellen, Blogger
Through Their Lenses is a collection of twenty-nine award-winning short stories by tweens. These stories encompass a wide range of genres, inviting readers to explore a wealth of important themes passionately crafted by these young writers: from a girl going on a quest to release a curse bestowed on her by a witch to a guy trying to escape after being stranded in a different time.
I’ll be chairing Free Online Eco-Seminar Mini-Series for Students – Register Now!
Together with the Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative, the Cambridge Schools Eco-Council has been organising a mini-series of free 60 minute Online Eco-Seminars to raise awareness of key sustainability challenges and solutions, while schools have been forced online in many countries. Children, students, families and members of the public can register for free over Eventbrite and participate online over Zoom, 4:30-5:30pm (UK time) on 17 February and 24 February.
Each Online Eco-Seminars focus on a key sustainable development goal, such as Access to Fresh Water (SDG 6), Sustainable Consumption (SDG 12), Climate Action (SDG 13), Life Below Water (SDG 14) or Life on Land (SDG 15).
Eco-Seminar speakers include both student leaders and experts on the subject!
Eco-Seminar 1: Saving our Steams and Rivers through Sustainable Water Management – Wednesday, 17 February 2021
Focus: How can we better protect and sustainably manage our beautiful freshwater resources, preventing floods and depletion, and saving our streams and rivers?
Chairs: Nico Roman (Cambridge Schools Eco-Council Co-Chair, Voices of Future Generations Child Ambassador, Kings College School Eco-Society Co-leader) and Paloma Bargh (Cambridge Schools Eco-Council Deputy Chair and Eco-Activities Committee Co-Chair, Saint Johns College School Eco-Society Co-leader)
Speakers: Child author speaker: Rehema Kibugi (Gold Award Laureate, Voices of Future Generations (VoFG) Children’s Rights Initiative, Child Author for Africa) tbc
Ecocouncil speaker: Junayd Islam (Cambridge Schools Eco-Council former Co-Chair, key organizer of student climate strikes and city council livestreamed Eco-Council meetings).
Experts: Ian Halls (Leader, Cambridge Friends of the Earth) and Fabiana Piccoli Araújo Santos (LLM Candidate at the University of Cambridge and co-founder of Itacaré Water Caring Project Brazil)
Eco-Seminar 2: Promoting Sustainable Lifestyles through Preventing Plastic Waste – Wednesday, 24 February 2021
Focus: How can we better promote and practice more sustainable lifestyles at home and through our shopping habits, even during lockdown, preventing plastic waste and protecting our fragile rivers, oceans and ecology?
Chairs: Nico Roman (Cambridge Schools Eco-Council Co-Chair, Voices of Future Generations Child Ambassador, Kings College School Eco-Society Co-leader) and Ginny Denmead (Cambridge Schools Eco-Council Co-Chair and St Bedes College School Eco-Society Co-leader)
Speakers: Child author speaker: Freya Tikva (Gold Award Laureate, Voices of Future Generations (VoFG) Children’s Rights Initiative Child Author for Europe, Cambridge Schools Eco-Council Deputy Chair and Co-Chair of Eco-Activities Committee.
Ecocouncil speaker: Luana Fernandes Seixas (Cambridge Schools Eco-Council Communications Officer, Student Leader of Long Road Sixth Form Eco-Council, key organizer of student climate strikes and eco-seminars).
Experts: Emma Thomas (Co-founder and Director, Full Circle Zero Waste Retail, Ecologist) and Ben Thomas (Environment Manager, Cambridge Waitrose Grocery Store)
Over zoom, after a 15 mins for tech testing and interactions from 4:15pm to 4:30pm, student Eco-Councillors and UN Voices of Future Generations child authors / ambassadors, together with world-class experts, will provide a 20-minute introduction to a sustainability challenge, and discuss creative local and solutions. For a further 30 minutes, participants can ask questions and discuss potential solutions and ways to raise education and awareness interactively, followed by a 10-minute closing from the experts and youth speakers by 5:30pm.
Register here
Please note: Children and youth participate with permission under supervision of parents/guardians from their homes.
My award-winning short story Street Art Nature Magic forms part of Just One More, Stories that you can’t put down.
Just One More is a collection of 29 award-winning short stories by middle-grade children like me. The best short stories from the 2019 Lune Spark Young Writers’ Short Story Contest. These stories encompass a wide range of genres, inviting readers to explore a wealth of important themes passionately crafted by these young writers.
These are Stories that you can’t put down! Get your copy here.
About Lune Spark:
Lune Spark Books aims to encourage children to engage in creative writing. The publishing company works with parents and young writers to promote creative fiction writing and help identify talent. It runs annual short story competitions, conducts creative writing classes, and publishes short stories by young writers.
For more details, visit: http://lunespark.com/youngwriters/
Please help us to make our planet a better place by putting an end to waste!
Each year, consumers in the UK use an average of 227,000 miles of wrapping paper, with over 83km2 of this ending up in our bins. On top of this, two million turkeys, five million Christmas puddings, and 74 million mince pies are disposed of while still edible, causing almost 270,000 tons of food waste during this widely celebrated holiday. We cannot sustain this.
This year, we need to come together to tackle the huge amount of waste we produce at Christmas. Families can create new ways of being sustainable around the Christmas period. Because of the current global pandemic, we are unable to meet up in large groups, so we do not need to buy as much food and wrap as many presents as we usually do. And, if large households do not have guests staying, they do not need to heat rooms of the house that are left unused.
On Friday Dec 18, 2020, members of the Cambridge Schools Eco Council will be meet at iconic sites around Cambridge in socially distanced groups of six to sit-in with placards and signs. There were be no chants or speeches, only kids sitting down with placards to remind the world of the important climate crisis. We discouraged supporters from joining us as we wish everyone to be safe in these uncertain times. Instead, we would recommended striking from the safety of their own homes by sharing pictures with a Christmas message about climate change.
As this strange year draws to an end and we would like our community to know how proud we are of them. When faced with a pandemic we have done incredible things purely for the wellbeing of those around us. We have stayed in doors when we would have liked to have gone outside, managed to keep our hands clean and wear masks to do our bit in stopping the virus, and stayed in touch with our neighbours to make sure they’re OK. We have given money, time and energy so we can make it through together. We have treated this crisis like a crisis.
This is why it disheartens us that we are still failing to stand up to the climate crisis. While we welcome the UK government’s efforts, it is looking very unlikely that the Ten Point Plan will succeed in its aim to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The plan ignores the biodiversity crisis and relies too heavily on new technologies, which engineers and scientists warn are unlikely to save the planet. We know we can tackle a crisis, as we have so well demonstrated in past weeks, but only when communities and individuals come together and do their bit.
We strike to make our voices heard, to fight for the planet, and for the survival of humanity.
For more info check the following article: Cambridge school eco-strikers close out 2020 with plea to end waste
Hello everyone!
You can read my post below or click here: Climate action and protection of life on land – the voice of Nico Roman
Thank you, Voices of Future Generations Arabia, for this brilliant opportunity. In this blog, I would like to argue in favour of empowering children’s voices and quality education – SDG 4 & SDG 17, as I did in May during a symposium with over 1000 online participants.
My name is Nico, I am 11 and go to Kings College School in Cambridge. I am a UN Child Ambassador for the SDGs, and as part of this commitment I also edit an online blog – Nico’s Natural World – with over 9000 impressions, and hundreds of followers. Please come and visit it some time.
It is time that we all stand up for our children’s rights – as reflected in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), especially Articles 24 and 29 that promise us a healthy environment and education about nature, and also Articles 12 to 13 that guarantee us a voice in decisions that concern us.
Our future, and the futures of all species on Earth, concern us! They really do!
I might be only a small child, but I know that advancing the world’s SDGs, especially SDG 13 on Climate Action and SDG 15 to Protect Life on Land, makes the difference between a terrible global nightmare, and the future we want.
Even as our whole world is locked in frightening quarantines and curfews from the global COVID-19 pandemic, we can and must still speak out for our Earth, and for future generations of all species.
Climate change and biodiversity loss are real, dangerous and urgent.
As children, we are trying very hard to be heard, locally and globally, to stop the suffering and losses from getting even worse.
Even though we cannot vote, as children we already face the consequences of terrible climate change worldwide, including new viruses emerging, and old diseases returning, with impacts on our health and on the safely of everyone we love.
And we will face far, far worse in the future.
Currently, some decision-makers are doing the exact opposite,
backing up failing aviation and oil industries, which are causing the problem!
This is horribly unfair – it is a violation of climate justice!
The CRC promises us a healthy environment and this right means that willful destruction of natural habitats, without any regard for the plants and animals, nor for all future generations… just needs to stop.
We live in a climate emergency, and it will get worse if we can’t all work together, rather than re-starting all the harmful practices, and calling it recovery!
We also live in a biodiversity emergency, with thousands of species already lost, and many more at risk of going extinct forever—unless we all help to protect nature recovery when we plan economic recovery!
We must make sure our leaders tackle the climate and biodiversity crises with the same strength and unity they have shown us with the novel coronavirus pandemic, instead of ignoring it until everything is just too late!
If we want to make a difference, we must scale up our understanding, our education and our voices!
We need new guardian laws, institutions and networks.
The world after the COVID-19 pandemic needs to take children’s fears and interests much more seriously.
I am pleading for every single leader, including everyone reading online, to help us find new ways to stop the urgent threats of climate change and biodiversity loss, just as you promised in the SDGs.
Our rights are being directly infringed by current policies, laws and decisions – locally, nationally and internationally.
Even the smallest child CAN make a BIG difference, towards a more sustainable world for us all.
Voice of Nico Roman
Nico Roman (11), UN Child Ambassador for the SDGs, Voices of Future Generations Children’s Rights Initiative; Co-Chair, Cambridge Schools Eco-Council & YR6 Student, King’s College School (Cambridge)
Eco-Seminars in partnership with Cambridge Schools Eco-Council and the Voices of Future Generations Initiative
We organised free 60 minute Online Eco-Seminars to raise awareness of key sustainability challenges and solutions, while schools have been forced online in many countries. Children, students, families and members of the public free over Zoom from April 21 to June.
Each Online Eco-Seminar focused on a key sustainable development goal, such as Climate Action (SDG 13), Protecting and Restoring Life on Land (SDG 15) or Agriculture and Food Systems (SDG 2). Each Online Eco-Seminar included student Eco-Councillors and UN Voices of Future Generations child authors / ambassadors, together with world-class experts, provided a 25-minute introduction to a sustainability challenge, and discuss creative local and solutions.
We have recorded these eco-seminars (see below) in case you missed any of them or simply if you would like to watch them again.
ECO-SEMINAR 1: GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE, THE PARIS AGREEMENT AND LOCAL SOLUTIONS – APRIL 21, 2020
Expert: Professor Christina Voigt, Ph.D., LL.M-Env (University of Oslo international environmental law expert and professor, IUCN Climate Change Specialist Group Chair, IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law Member and UNFCCC Compliance Committee Member)
Child author speaker: Jona David, founding Eco-Councillor of the Cambridge Schools Eco-Council, award-winning UNESCO VoFG Child Author of The Cosmic Climate Invention and other books, and student at Winchester College, UK
Eco-council speaker: Virginia Denmead, Cambridge Schools Eco-Councillor, Deputy Chair and Secretary, leader of St Bedes Eco-Society and student at St Bedes School, UK.
ECO-SEMINAR 2: AGRICULTURE, FOOD SYSTEMS AND CLIMATE RESILIENCE – MAY 5, 2020
Child Author speaker: Rehema Kibugi (UN Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative Child Author, Kenya)
Eco-Council speaker: Magnus Bramwell (Cambridge School’s Eco-Council Councillor and Secretary UK)
Expert: Advocate Ayman Cherkaoui (International Jurist in Climate Change Law, Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact in Morocco, Lead Counsel for Climate Change at the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law)
Expert: Dr. Amy Munro-Faure (Coordinator at the Living Lab for Sustainability at the University of Cambridge)
ECO-SEMINAR 3: CLIMATE CHANGE, ENERGY POLICY AND SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES – MAY 19, 2020
Child author speaker: Jasper Chin-Moody (UN Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative Child Author, Australia)
Eco-Council speaker: Harry Auld (Cambridge School’s Eco-Council Councillor and Treasurer, UK).
Expert: Professor Laura Diaz Anadon (University of Cambridge Climate Change Policy Professor, University of Cambridge Peterhouse Bye-Fellow, C-EENG Fellow, Energy Policy Research Group Associate Researcher, Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs Research Associate, 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Lead Author).
Expert: MS Helene Kotter (Architect, Owner of Architecture Practice, Member of the Voice’s of Future Generations Children’s Book Series Leadership Council). In partnership with the Cambridge Schools Eco-Council.
ECO-SEMINAR 4: NATURE, BIODIVERSITY AND SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPES – JUNE 2, 2020
Child author speaker: Adelyn Newman-Ting (Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative Child Author).
Eco-Council speaker: Nico Roman (Cambridge School’s Eco-Council Co-Chair) and Freya Lundskær-Nielsen (Eco-Council Deputy Chair).
Experts: Ms. Hawa Sydique (Research and Communications Manager at the University of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute).
Tara Atleo (Environmental economics researcher and indigenous sustainable development professional from the Ahousaht First Nation in BC, Canada, PhD student University of Waterloo, Laureate Canada 150 Senate Medal).
Iain Webb (Cambridge City Greenways Project Officer).
ECO-SEMINAR 5: CONSUMERISM AND WASTE – JUNE 16, 2020
Child author speaker: Andrea Wilson (Gold Award Laureate, Voices of Future Generations (VoFG) Children’s Rights Initiative, Child Author for North America of Sarah’s Journey for Tomorrow, blog post author on the Sustainable Development Goals and Child Rights).
Eco-council speaker: Luana Fernandes (Cambridge Schools Eco-Council Communications Officer, Student of Parkside School, key organiser of student climate strikes and eco-seminars).
Expert: Dr. Markus Gehring (JSD, Dr iur, MA, LLM, Law and Land Economy Lecturer; Jean Monet Chair of European Law and Sustainable Development; Centre for International Sustainable Development Law Lead Counsel for Trade, Investment & Financial Law; Hughes Hall Law Director of Studies at the University of Cambridge).
Expert: Prof. Damilola S. Olawuyi, Professor of Energy and Environmental Law
Please note: Students participated with permission and under supervision of parents/guardians, from their homes.
In partnership with the Cambridge Schools Eco-Council and the Voices of Future Generations
Strike with us every month!
These strikes raise awareness and put pressure on the government to take action. Times are so desperate that we as children are having to leave school for people to listen and take action. Each strike has a different theme. Show your support by performing a speech, make a placard or in any other artistic way.
During quarantine we have been doing online strikes. For this we ask you to send in a photo for the collage to be posted on our social medias and here on the website. Speeches, songs and other artistic expressions are also welcomed. You can send any submissions to our email: cambschoolsecocouncil@gmail.com.
We hope you enjoy the strikes!
June 2020: Stop Air Pollution
May 2020: Rethinking Farming
April 2020: Help Animals!
March 2020: Waterways & save our River Cam
“The Wire & Ivy Cylindrical (WIC*) Eco-Composter”
*WIC means ‘home’ or ‘settlement’ in old English
Nico’s Narrative Report: Building an Eco-Composter for the Green Waste Emergency!
With the news that Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire district councils will not be collecting our green bins for a few weeks, I felt it a very good idea to build a green waste compost bin! I completed the project Step by Step.
Research: First, I researched the different designs and best location for a compost bin/heap, and investigated what can and what cannot be composted as green waste. I decided to make one that could compost layers of teabags, plant prunings and grass cuttings (green layers). According to The Eden Project, these are fast to break down and provide important nitrogen as well as moisture. I would also include things such as cardboard egg boxes, scrunched up paper and fallen leaves (brown layer). These are slower to rot but provide vital fibre and carbon and also allow important air pockets to form in the mixture. It was best to compost these green and brown garden wastes in the new ‘open’ composter, so my family could still use our other closed composters for food waste like fruit and veggie peelings. Otherwise it could attract mice and other animals, and make odours.
Design: Second, I made blueprint designs for a compost bin/heap for my garden. I eventually chose a cylinder made from wire and planks.I selected the most appropriate measurements: The planks are 54 cm long planks, to be driven 4cm into the ground, for a composter height of 50 cm. The length of chicken wire is 182cm, for a diameter of 58cm. This means my composter would have a volume of 158,525 cm3. For materials, I used old chicken wire that had been patching a fence, and two recycled planks of wood. I also used some withies of ivy which we recently cleared from a brick wall, to camouflage my composter and make it look more natural. (Recyle, Reuse, Reinvent!). I also made a list of tools needed, including the staple-puncher that I use to put up eco-council posters, a small hammer, saw and nails, and a spade for digging the holes. For safety equipment, I used gloves to guard against the wire and any splinters.
Design(I), Instructions for Use (II) and Materials List (III)
Construction: With help from my father (and amusement from my kitten), I built my composter. First, I gathered up the materials, including the wooden planks that were left over from a history project, and measured them carefully. I also gathered the tools we’d need, including the stapler, hammer, nails and small saw. For safely, we worked outdoors.
Second, I collected the other materials, including the leftover chicken wire from my tortoise table roof, that had been patching a hole in the fence. We did not use any new materials, except for the staples, because we wanted this composter to be very eco-friendly. Third, for safety it was my father who used the staple gun to punch the chicken wire to the planks properly. My kitten Alphabet was very interested in the chicken wire. Fourth, my father helped me to dig the holes in the soil, then we hammered the planks into the holes, so the composter stands upright. I tested it by inserting the first clippings of green waste. Finally, I used the ivy withies from a project last week to thin the ivy off the brick wall, to weave into the wire sides of my composter. They decorate and camouflage my composter so it blends into our green garden.
I greatly enjoyed making my composter because it required a bit of creative thinking about where to find materials that we could use, how to securely build the composter and where to place it in the garden. It helped that we had truly excellent weather all weekend so I was working in the sunshine for nearly two whole afternoons. I also had to distract my kitten, Alphabet, and keep her entertained so that she didn’t try to muddle everything up.I totally enjoyed the project of building a composter for green waste, because I felt that we were doing our bit to address a difficult situation with the green waste not being collected. I also enjoyed researching and creating the project idea, drawing the blueprints and planning diagrams, and being outdoors with my father and my cat to build it. I even rather enjoyed learning about ‘pi’ from my brother to calculate circumference and volume. My composter looks as if it belongs to the garden and blends into the scenery. It has very simple design and structure but is actually very sturdy!
To see the other winners click here: Winners of the Green Waste Emergency
START NOW AND SPREAD THE WORD
The Cambridge Eco-Challenge for the Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is organised by the Cambridge Schools Eco-Council, a local network of students from over 30 Cambridge schools who lead eco-clubs. The Eco-Challenge was created to inspire children who are at home under lockdown measures to stay active and enhance their local environment and sustainability, one small project at a time.
The Cambridge Eco-Challenge can be accessed on the eco-council committee’s website blog, where a challenge will be posted online every fortnight!
The first Eco-Challenge went live a few days ago, and will run until April 25th, 2020. The task asks children to think about green and garden waste. Since the green waste bins are no longer being collected due to the pandemic, the eco-challenge is for kids to build a green waste composter (big or small, for gardens, balconies, or even windowsills). Children take photos of their design, building process and completed project (with themselves in the photos if they wish) and write a short blog entry about their project, then send it by email at: cambschoolsecocouncil@gmail.com.
Local community leaders will judge the entries, and the most creative submissions will be awarded Eco-Challenge Gold, Silver and Bronze certificates!
Children of all ages are invited to participate in all the challenges the Eco-Council will post over the coming weeks. We can’t wait to see what kind of eco-creations you come up with!
Register now and spread the word
Cambridge Schools Eco-Council is organising a mini-series of free 60 minute Online Eco-Seminars to raise awareness of key sustainability challenges and solutions, while schools have been forced online in many countries. Children, students, families and members of the public can register for free over Eventbrite and participate online over Zoom, 4-5pm (UK time) each fortnight from Tuesday 21 April to Tuesday 16 June. Each Online Eco-Seminar focuses on a key sustainable development goal, such as Climate Action (SDG 13), Protecting and Restoring Life on Land (SDG 15) or Agriculture and Food Systems (SDG 2). Each Online Eco-Seminar includes student and expert speakers.
Over zoom, after a 15 mins for tech testing and interactions from 3:45pm to 4pm, student Eco-Councillors and UN Voices of Future Generations child authors / ambassadors, together with world-class experts, will provide a 25-minute introduction to a sustainability challenge, and discuss creative local and solutions. For a further 25 minutes, participants can ask questions and discuss potential solutions and ways to raise education and awareness interactively, followed by a 10-minute closing from the experts and youth speakers by 5pm.
Remember to register first!
Upcoming Seminars:
Eco-Seminar 2: Agriculture, Food Systems and Climate Resilience – Tuesday, May 5, 2020
- Child author speaker: Rehema, Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative
- Eco-Council speaker: Magnus, Cambridge Schools Eco-Council
- Experts: M Ayman Cherkaoui, CISDL and Dr Amy Munro-Faure, The Living Lab
Eco-Seminar: Climate Change, Energy Policy and Sustainable Communities – Tuesday, May 19, 2020
- Child author speaker: Jasper, Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative
- Eco-Council speaker: Harry, Cambridge Schools Eco-Council
- Experts: Prof Laura Dias Anadon, University of Cambridge and M Helene Kotter, Eco-Architecture
Eco-Seminar 4: Nature, Biodiversity and Ecosystems – Tuesday, June 2, 2020
- Child author speaker: Addy, Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative
- Eco-Council speaker: Nico, Cambridge Schools Eco-Council
- Experts: Dame Fiona Reynolds and Ms Hawa Sydique, University of Cambridge
Eco-Seminar 5: Consumerism and Waste – Tuesday, June 16, 2020
- Child author speaker: Andrea, Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative
- Eco-council speaker: Luana, Cambridge Schools Eco-Council
- Experts: Ms Naomi Klein, Journalist and Dr Markus Gehring, University of Cambridge
Past Eco- Seminars:
Eco-Seminar 1: Global Climate Change, the Paris Agreement and Local Solutions – Tuesday, April 21, 2020
- Child author speaker: Jona, Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative
- Eco-Council speaker: Virginia, Cambridge Schools Eco-Council
- Experts: Prof Cristina Voigt, University of Oslo and Cllr Rosy Moore, Cambridge City Council
Please note: Students participate with permission under supervision of parents/guardians from their homes.
Spring Eco-challenge: Task 1
(Deadline: April 25)
Cambridge Schools Eco-Council
This is the beginning of our eco-adventure; we are all in this together! Now please read on… we are trying to make this eco-challenge as interesting as possible, videos to follow…. (Maybe for week 2)
Topic: Green Waste EMERGENCY
With the news that Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire district councils will not be collecting our Green bins for a few weeks, we thought it a good idea to build a compost bin/heap, or another one if you already have one. Don’t worry if you don’t have a garden, just a small bin will do.
Objectives:
Research… The different designs and best location for a compost bin/heap. What can and what cannot be composted.
How to make a compost heap: 10 top tips
Design… Draw a suitable design for a compost bin/heap for your garden. Selecting the most appropriate measurements and most suitable materials (remembering: Recycle, Reuse, Reinvent). Make a tools list. Don’t forget to use safety equipment where appropriate.
Make… With help, if possible and where necessary, make your compost heap.
Evaluate… Think about key questions like: How easy it was to find designs? Did you use the best and most eco-friendly materials? Was your idea and design good? Does it look good? Does it work? How could you improve it? Did you enjoy the project? (Remember to offer a reason as to why or why not for each thing you say).
Good luck and enjoy the chance of being outside in the fresh air and sunshine!
We have raised our voices internationally to ask for climate action, and as we continue protesting online (for the time being). We are also doing it locally, ‘we’ the Cambridge Schools Eco-Council are also protesting to save the River Cam and reduce climate impacts on waterways.
Currently, the river Cam is at 77% less than its long-term average flow for the last year, according to the Environment Agency. This is primarily due to over-abstraction of water from the chalk hills for domestic use. Our tap water mostly comes from the eastern chalk aquifer and we don’t have another source of water. The Cam may seem like it is completely fine and healthy but it is far from it. This is an illusion of how canalised the river is.
“The illusion is perpetuated by putting water back into the headwaters of the streams in the summer to keep those streams running because they have taken so much water out of the chalk.”
Stephen Tomkins, Chair of Cam Valley Forum
“Our rivers and streams are really important – the Cam is the reason for our city, Cambridge. Climate change, together with poorly planned growth, could devastate our water ecosystems, costing us our present and our future. We are speaking out to defend our river.”
Nico Roman, Co-chair Eco-council
For more information go to:
Chalk Streams in Crisis: A call for drought action now
Youth strikers to protest ‘canalised’ Cam at Friday march, Cambridge Independent
Galleries: Schools eco council hears of Cam water emergency on day of action, Cambridge Independent
We have suspended the schools’ strike for climate action since March due to
fears that gathering large groups of people together could help to spread COVID19.
Alternatively we continued the strike online.
Thank you to everyone who has participated 🙂
To learn more please check out this article by Cambridge Independent
The river Cam has been flowing at only 33% of its long term average, according to the Environment Agency. Cambridgeshire’s source of water, the Chalk Hills are running out of water largely due to abstraction beyond what the River itself needs. We as Cambridge Youth Strikers 4 Climate are starting this petition demanding action be taken.
Cambridge’s tap water comes from the Eastern Chalk Aquifer, fed by the chalk streams and filtered naturally by the local chalk hills. We have no other source of water here. Hotter summers are possibly drying the chalk out more. So through climate change and unsustainable abstraction by water companies, with complacency from the Cambridgeshire Country Council and the Cambridge City Council, our Chalk Hills are losing their natural reservoir.
We call upon Cambridgeshire County Council, Cambridge City Council and water companies (Anglian Water, Cambridge Water and others) to suspend all developments on the Eastern Chalk Aquifer and hold immediate talks between themselves to find an alternative to damaging the chalk streams through over abstraction.
This is not just about preserving drinking water for our human population. The chalk streams are a beautiful natural phenomena, unique to our countryside; in fact 85% of the world’s Chalk streams are found in England. This makes it all the more heartbreaking to see chalk rivers like the River Cam deteriorate under our management.
If you’re a Cambridge citizen, you may not realise how bad river flow is due to how canalised the Cam is. Controlled tightly by locks, damns and weirs the river appears a lot higher than it actually is. But what can still be seen is how poor the water quality is. As Stephen Tomkins (Chairman of the Cam Valley Forum) says, the River Cam has become “a big pond, basically,”.
This is absolutely shameful. In one of the richest and most scientifically advanced cities in the world our renowned river has become “a big pond”. Our aquatic life, from mayflies to trout to otters, are living and dying in “a big pond”. We lecture nations across the world on their mistreatment of their environments and we let our own rivers degrade to nothing but “a big pond”.
Enough is enough, we need the Councils and Water companies to stop playing the defensive and show real leadership over this water crisis. Our well-being’s at stake, our population’s at stake, our rivers’ at stake, our ecosystem’s at stake. No more development until you find a solution!
Save the River Cam! Stop development on Eastern Chalk Aquifer!
The Big Debate was an evening of quickfire presentations from local groups and lively debate about the future of Greater Cambridge.
Presentation by Luana, Nico and Harry representatives of the Cambridge Schools’ Eco Council at the Cambridge Corn Exchange
Luana, Harry and I, are very excited to have spoken as Youth Strikers in the ‘First Conversation’ consultation on the new Greater Cambridge Local Plan, other local groups also presented and debated their ideas.
As representatives of the Cambridge Eco Council at the Great Debate, we got the voice of the Youth and Climate heard!
About the Greater Cambridge Local Plan
To know more visit Greater Cambridge Local Plan
On Friday 14th February 2020 Cambridge Youth left their schools and took to the streets to send love to those in Australia affected by the horrific fires and demand the adults and governments of the world do something about the crisis we face.
We dedicated our Valentine’s Day protest to Australian schoolchildren. The effects of climate change are more prominent than ever, and so many people are being affected first-hand.
We are here in support of all the school children, wildlife and everyone whose homes and lives are being lost by the ferocious fires and floods in Australia, and around the world. We feel it is terribly unjust to continue burning fossil fuels and carry on harming our future. As children, and as the first generation to be hit so hard by climate change, we need to look out for each other.
The Australian bushfires have ignited not just a sense of horror across generations, but have also added a new sense of urgency.
People talk about climate change as if it’s a thing way off in future, but the wildfires we’ve seen raging in Australia in recent months bring it fully to the present day. How can we still think that climate change is in the future? Estimates say that the number of animals killed totalled half a billion. If they were humans that would be the same as losing seven per cent of the world’s population.
We are sending you the Cambridge Schools Eco-Council’s open letter to schoolchildren around the world, especially in Australia, in hopes that you could pass it along. As you know, as part of the global strike, Cambridge children are marching this Friday, meeting at 9:30 at Shire Hall, to raise awareness and (on Valentine’s day) to show we care about the terrible impacts of climate change on children and wildlife who are already losing their homes and their lives, especially in Australia. Fires and floods are raging, and so are we!We’ll be carrying home-made art symbols of torches, smoke and fires, and also blue floodwaters, with us when we march, and over 30 children from different Cambridgeshire schools will be running through the march, wearing masks to speak for the koalas, kangaroos, wombats, wallabies and other unique, vulnerable and voiceless Australian animals who have been dying by the thousands in the bush fires due to climate change. Tomorrow we are also sending our Open Letter to the world’s schoolchildren who are also losing their homes, especially in Australia, as a plea to decision-makers everywhere to listen to the science and act now to stop this madness.
Thank you, Nico Roman (11, Kings College School, Cambridge), Co-Chair, Cambridge Schools Eco-Council
Cambridge Schools Eco-Council – Empowering pupils to protect our planet! cambschoolsecocouncil@gmail.com
Cambridge Schools Eco-Council | CambSchoolsEcoCouncil@gmail.com
OPEN LETTER TO SCHOOL CHILDREN
14 February 2020
Dear Schoolchildren, especially in Australia
We are writing in support of all the school children, wildlife and everyone whose homes and lives are being lost by the ferocious fires and floods in Australia, and around the world. We feel it is terribly unjust to continue burning fossil fuels and carry on harming our future. As children, and as the first generation to be hit so hard by climate change, we need to look out for each other.
Right now, we can only imagine what it must be like to live with the fear that your own home may burn. We have been devastated by all the news and tragic losses to habitats and wildlife, and we are thinking of you every day and know that the same could so easily happen to us.
As pupils from over 30 local schools and voices of over 3000 local citizens in Cambridge, UK, together with you and other friends around the world who have marched together in the global climate days of action, we write in solidarity today.
We are desperately worried as our planet continues to heat up, and we carry on facing a worsening fate of extreme weather conditions. We are terrified that we are reaching the highest record level of CO2 in our atmosphere for roughly a million years. It is the responsibility of us all not only to reduce our carbon footprints urgently and immediately, but to become carbon neutral and then negative as soon as possible.
Our whole world is at stake. As Greta Thunberg from Sweden has said: “We do need hope, but the one thing that we need more than hope is action. Once we start to act, hope is everywhere.” We may be geographically distant, but as kids terrified by the mess that bad decisions have got us all into, we stand right by your side.
Yours sincerely,
Please could you pass this letter on to schoolchildren and members of the local press that you might know in Australia? A Cambridge news story is here, if they would like to know more:
Valentine’s Day youth strike to send love to Australian schoolchildren
Great news!! My story Street Art Nature Magic won the 2019 Lune Spark Story contest.
Street-Art Nature Magic by Nico Roman
Abstract: In this urban myth, a secretive young street artist activates his own creativity, magnificent murals and a touch of magic, inspiring an entire generation through an epic struggle to save his city and the world’s most vulnerable, threatened living creatures from destruction.
Judges Commentary: This piece of writing blew me away… The story is raw and authentic in its storytelling. One can see fantastic descriptions of imagery throughout the story. The author has a great command not only over the language, but also over vocabulary. This story reads like a lyrical poem and has been successful in delivering the message the author wanted to deliver. The story shows that the author has a wonderful sense of philosophical things. This piece of writing, according to me, will certainly resonate with the readers. There is a writing talent who will go much ahead in his writing career.
Read the full story below 🙂
Street Art Nature Magic by Nico Roman Cordonier-Gehring[1]
In the first rays of dawn, a secret street artist peeled away from the wall as his shimmering sprays whispered the last sapphire, emerald and scarlet streaks across the blackened industrial slabs. His new endangered species mural was finally finished!
On the sooty cinderblocks of the deserted factory, Shimmer had painted a lush green bamboo grove with an anxious family of velvety Giant Pandas, their ivory and ebony faces gazing out of the mural with concern. In the foreground, the dusty cinnamon coats and clasped coppery paws of two distant relatives, Red Pandas, sheltered in a candyfloss cloud of a cherry blossom tree. And in the distance, the emerald bamboo shoots of their habitat splintered away, as the ominous claws of new roads and railways crisscrossed their horizon.
The artist slipped quietly away across the shadowed slate rooftops, his ragged jacket, indigo bandana, dark jeans and battered high-tops fading into September’s city skyline. Shimmer’s smile glowed softly. His hopes were high that his message would be heard. People would understand and help to halt the destruction. Shimmer’s purpose was simple – to activate art against the Conglomerate Inc. The industrial oil, biofuel and plastics corporation had built itself a twenty-story steel rat’s nest as a global headquarters in his city. Conglomerate Inc’s strategy was to control the nastiest projects in the cheapest, most desperate places in the world. They paid governments to look away while profits piled up, then disappeared, leaving behind degraded ecosystems, poisoned communities and changing climates for others to clean up or simply, hopelessly endure.
Shimmer was frustrated. He had vowed to wage a one-boy crusade. His art was to be a voice for the most vulnerable creatures – animals, insects and plants who were losing their lives while Conglomerate Inc’s terrible toxic spills, angry asphalt scars and plastic processing plants advanced. But in the end, maybe he was just one sad kid, alone with his spray cans in the night, trying for a better world. And unfortunately, he seemed to have no real chance of winning.
By October the city was buzzing with rumours. Through local schools, parks and markets, people murmured: “he’s like a pixie, skipping across our rooftops to leave sparkling, colourful messages.” Kids took photos of the murals which went viral across Instagram and Twitter, getting over a million hits. But in the halls of power, debates tasted like bitter deceit and vengeance. “This creep will vandalize our city and annoy property owners – we must stop him!” growled the industry council. “He is just a petty rebel – and he is laughing at us!” bellowed the corrupt Mayor and his cronies.
In November, the authorities played their next, catastrophic card. Shimmer was declared a danger to the city, a terrorist. Anyone who could identify him was offered a thousand pounds reward and a golden medal. But they could not find him. Ironically, as the authorities hunted Shimmer, the city grew ever more famous for its magnificent, magical, multi-hued murals.
In December, on the side of an abandoned, bankrupt Toys-R-Us store, Shimmer streaked an elegant sage, butterscotch and aquamarine Leatherback Sea Turtle being strangled by garish crimson plastic clown masks, while rainbows of delicate Dragonfish, lacey forests of kelp, convoluted corals and silky Tiger Tail Seahorses danced across a turquoise ocean floor.
Covering an annoying billboard advertising glittery nail varnish, Shimmer sprayed a congress of ginger Orangutans swinging away in terror from the slashing roar of a steel chainsaw, the oily coils of diesel smoke curling above charred rainforest soils.
“He’s a leopard – going anywhere he wants each night!” grumbled the Chief of Police. Posters reading ‘Wanted – Dead or Alive!’ were plastered on every smoke-stained lamp-post. They hung from chain-link fences. But all through January and February, Shimmer would fade into the mists at dawn, slinking silently away alone. Every time they increased the reward or instituted a new citywide search, he would just paint more furiously, until he was finishing a new mural every other night.
No-one knew where his art would strike next.
On the dank brick of the Tesco’s across from a blighted petrol station, against a backdrop of radiant stars and cobalt-stained aurora borealis, a silent alabaster Polar Bear and her two small cubs gazed sadly over the city, reflected in a spreading stain of oil that cloaked the icy aquamarine Arctic sea.
There were over ten million Instagram followers by March, and street merchandise was starting to appear – T-shirts, mugs and tea towels with Shimmer’s images. The authorities were baffled, and Conglomerate Inc increased their security, installing angry alarm bells and searchlights that pierced the city sky at night, further annoying the residents.
One April night, Shimmer nearly met with disaster. He was crouched on the Guildhall fire escape, painting the last iridescent glimmers into a metallic Azure Hawker Dragonfly’s wings, hovering over a calm willow-ringed wetland pond next to an open, bleeding sewer. Dark vans came cruising by, then screamed to a screeching halt and a patrol clambered out, surrounding him and forcing him into a side-alley. Two grim, iron-grey men with pasty, angry faces came out of the smog in dark, expensive coats – it was the Mayor and the CEO of Conglomerate Inc, so close he could see their twisted grins as they arrived, television cameras tracking their triumphant strides.
As the boy backed further into the dead end, a rope-ladder suddenly slung down beside him. Shimmer scrambled for his life, his battered satchel swinging wildly as he shot straight up, then slipped across the shingles, sliding down the next dark drainpipe and away.
For all of May, armored trucks crowded the streets, searching for the artist. It angered the local people even more, but after his narrow escape, Shimmer was afraid he’d have to give up.
Then help came from an unexpected direction. The city’s youth, thousands of kids, took to the streets for Shimmer. They clambered the rooftops and alleyways every night, balancing on brick walls and dancing parkour over chimneys, wearing bandanas of all colours, carrying battered satchels, sporting paints of all kinds and ragged jackets. As the undercover struggle wore on, alarms began to peal every hour in different wards, triggered by his admirers, and Shimmer would slip into the shadows as yet another ‘kid artist’ placed hands above their head and turned smiling into the powerful police torch beams, only to be proven innocent later.
Still, by June, Shimmer was exhausted, worn down to the bone from the pressure of his craft. His risky strategy was becoming more dangerous. It was time for his last hope.
He dug deep into an old chest in his quiet attic room. Nestled in newspaper fragments was a legacy box of special paints from long ago. He dusted them off, and carefully dripped a few precious drops of each shimmering liquid into his special lucky set of spray cans. Then he pulled on his indigo bandana and ragged jacket, slipping off into the night.
Shimmer’s most important new mural was destined for the wall of Conglomerate Inc itself, looming high above the city centre. He needed every bit of his stealth and skill to bypass the cameras and guards, shimmying like a charcoal leopard up the elevator shaft.
In his final message, Shimmer’s city itself, in luminous sprays, formed a chain of friends and allies. The children were standing tall on foundations of schools, libraries, urban gardens and galleries, all glowing with life, their hands raised up. In their palms were protected the most vulnerable creatures of the world. The animals marched proudly onwards, circled by a mosaic of beautiful birdlike figures.
Once he had sprayed the contours, Shimmer reached for his special spray-cans.
Into the gleaming ivory arcs of the lost Elephant and Black Rhinoceros tusks, he added a spritz of Desperation, then swirled in two splashes of Strength and Survival. Into the accusing eyes of the advancing Gorillas, he mixed jets of Resistance and Hope. Across the placards of protesting youth and the petitions of supporting citizens, he blended shades of Inspiration and Solidarity. Slashing the curving howls of the CEO and Mayor, their faces fully revealed as their frozen forms tumbled endlessly from penthouse heights, he dripped Justice and Bitter Defeat.
And into the quiet, shadowy figure of one lone street-art crusader, armed only with his spray-cans, Shimmer painted Victory.
By July, the world had changed. A new city government had been elected, with a Mayor who vowed to cleanse the town of corruption and protect nature. The CEO and senior executives of Conglomerate Inc were indicted after a dawn raid of their global headquarters and the firm went bankrupt. The Mayor and all the politicians that had been paid off were investigated and imprisoned. A Street Arts Council was established to celebrate Shimmer’s creations, and the city experienced an eco-tourism boom as people travelled from all over to visit the magnificent, marvelous and extravagant murals.
Shimmer himself, of course, was never
found. Every magic has its price and every ghost his moment. But he is
watching. Somewhere in the world, if a new depredations begin, a ragged figure
with indigo bandana might peel away from a nearby mural, tucking his paints
into a battered satchel, to begin again as the spirit of his generation.
[1] Special thanks to all my family, my godparents and my English professor Grandmother for all their advice, ideas for word choices and images, and help with the tricky spellings over nearly 3 months of work, and 10 re-writes. Especially thanks to my brother for helping to make a really long list of great creative words for different colours. I think I used nearly all of them.
Report II
We had an excellent last 2 days of the debates and the conference!
During the Secondary Debates day, we had field trips. As it was foggy, I went to the Royal BC Museum with the debaters from Australia, Serbia and the Philippines where there was an amazing exhibit on indigenous languages, and a totally brilliant one on the ancient Mayans! I wish you could see it… (At least you could see it virtually here Royal BC Musem Maya: The Jaguar Rises). The First Nations displays were totally brilliant, maybe next year at King College School our History Trip could be to Canada.
In the evening, we went to a Marina on the Salish Sea, there was a piano by the water that was free for anyone to play, and it was all painted. I gave a small piano concert from my GR2 songs, and the Australian debaters played too, the Goodwill Ambassador for First Nations Child Author, a bestselling children’s book writer who is from the Cree and Salish Nations was meeting with us about the awards ceremony, so she came too.
Thursday was the last big day of the international schools debates, it was an international children’s conference chaired by an indigenous leader from the Songhees Nation, Dr Patrick Kelly. Her Honor the Lieutenant Governor was speaking and giving awards, and Dr David Suzuki, a famous conservationist, broadcaster and scientist gave the keynote.
I got up SUPER-early (not a problem, jet-lag of 9hrs) to write my Ambassador’s speech (see below or click here).
The TSL Ambassadors Award winners received Lt Governor’s Medals in front of everyone from the primary and secondary debates, and all the guests and speakers, which was totally amazing!!
We had a dialogue with a panel of international experts that included a young First Nations Leader and environmental economist (Tara Dawn Atleo, daughter of the Ahousaht Hereditary Chief and National Chief of Canada), a land conservation scientist (Dr Stephen Cornish), and a famous forest conservation expert (Dr Vicky Husband, founder of The Sierra Club). As primary debates Ambassador, I gave my speech about our discussions, focusing on all the ideas we had for things that we could do if government and citizens worked together to adopt new policies based on science to protect life on land, and being hopeful. I was asked by the experts about the upcoming global climate strike on 20-27 Sept, and I shared our plans in Cambridge UK to have evening candlelit vigils and to get all the community involved.
One of the last special events was the awards for the new first-ever First Nations Child Author in the UNESCO Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative. There was a tie for silver award between Sydnee who is from the Grand Rapids Cree Nation, and Bella who is Nisga’a Nation. Addy, who is Coast Salish, won, and her story is amazing. Jona gave the keynote speech to welcome them, chaired by the Goodwill Ambassador lady author. We had a special workshop under a totem pole in the gardens afterwards, with the new indigenous UNESCO child author and the child ambassadors and they were very, very happy to be part of the global network of children writing and speaking out for the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
All in all, it’s been an amazing 2019 TSL International Schools Debates and Children’s Conference on Sustainability this year, even though we missed having more people on our team. Next year the theme is partnerships (SDG 17) and it will be Oxford so hopefully there will be a very good delegation. I’m bringing both my medals from the debates and as Ambassador, home to King’s College School, and hope you will all be able to feel very happy about our School’s success.
PS – It turns out that my Grandad has a special medal like mine, awarded by the last Lt Governor for his lifetime service to culture and heritage protection in BC. It’s like a knighthood, which is both historical and wonderful. We took a picture together with our matching medals.
By Jona Cordonier Gehring (Winchester College) and Nico Cordonier Gehring (King’s College School)
TheCOP26 UN Climate Change Conferencewhich washosted by the UK in partnership with Italy, took place from 31 October to 12 November 2021 in Glasgow. This is the 26th Conference of the Partiesto theUN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),where ‘Parties’ means thecountries that haveagreed to the UNFCCC, nearly all of which have also ratified the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change. For nearly thirty years,theUNhas been bringing togetherrepresentatives fromalmost every country on earth– and many other organisations too -for these global climate summits in order to coordinate their efforts to take action on climate change, implementing the commitments and obligations that they have agreed to respect.In this time, the COPs ofthe UNFCCCdeveloped from a small, specialist eventwith a few diplomats and scientists from different countries, to a meetingofhighestpriority and global importancewith many heads of state, serious delegations…
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Nico's Natural World 