Youth Change-makers In Combating Future Catastrophe

November 2020 I walked toward the couch in my living room, breathing the cold humid air of my apartment. The room was filled with the voices of protesters from the news on TV. I sat on the couch, put the coffee plastic cup on the table, and grabbed my cat. Yet the voice of protesters is louder than the soothing sound of a cat purring drowned. Then, my eyes were triggered to read the news headline instead of looking at my pet. “Vanya Hargreeves states the United Nations climate change conference has been a failure. Leading to a mass protest march in the city center” it said. My eyes were fixed on the wall for a moment. I could feel the news caused a kind of crisis in me. The recent environmental condition, the steps everyone has to take to tackle the issue, and the regulations that policymakers have agreed. All of them didn't seem to be compatible with my idea of how this world should be. Somehow, I wondered, “Why would the youth outside of my country hold a massive rally where they even skip schools to fight for their rights? Why would such a big nation I live in deem it is not such a big problem? ”. I knew someone must have the answer. In November, the weather could be unusually freezing. So, instead of walking around the neighborhood, I decided to sit in silence near the large crystal windows while sipping a hot tea. Glancing at the same panorama, I barely noticed a broad aerial view of the city from the 15th floor of my apartment room. Gigantic skyscrapers, bustling coal-powered factories with the smoke dash out up their chimney, vehicle emission here and there. “Ah, the city that never sleeps” I sighed. For a second, I hardly even remember for how long I am no longer able to take a glimpse at the city and its beauty. Smog blankets God masterpiece. I intentionally stepped back on my childhood toy. I once recalled a moment when I was six years old. I was busy with a new toy that Tete, my grandpa, made for me. It was made of wood and carved beautifully. Aipong, he named it. I was jubilant until I looked at grandpa raised his eyebrows. I crawled towards him. He grabbed me up and sat me down on his thigh. “As you grow up becoming a young lad, always remember that you are part of nature. Respect the woods at any cost. That’s where we belong and to them we shall return” Tete said. My ethnic groups believe the woods as a sacred place. The ancestors cultivated land, planted sago, they even made clothes from tree barks. They taught us to bow slightly, pray to God, and mark trees in which denote anyone who did not give enough time for the trees to reproduce will get something bad. At that time, it just sounded silly. I did not understand much of what his message was intended to, yet the thing still sticks in my mind even though I have stepped 21 years old. It was a break time at my office. I opened the YouTube homepage on my laptop to have some refreshments. I thought I'd find something amusing but I ended up clicking a video showing how havoc our environment was. Compared to videos about celebrity scandals, political wars, the traffic of this video was nothing. Climate change campaigns and news about it were buried deeply. Society is more interested in such things. I feel bad because more and more people are getting into it rather than facing a long-time unsolved existential threat of our lifetime. As I scroll down, my cursor stopped on a video by Bloomberg mentioning Indonesia as one of the worst polluters on this globe. The world has highlighted what the country has done to one of the world’s largest lungs. They let the forests diminish and replace them with invaluable things for the sake of economic development. November 2021 A year has passed, natural disasters are inevitably popping up at the same period. Floods, landslides, forest fires all happen simultaneously at a time. The catastrophe is happening in front of our very eyes. A breakdown, a collapse, a realization that so many people will die. However, instead of finding the solution, the government chooses to blame the society, the people they lead, the people who are used to living life as how they rule. When I lower my head and close my eyes, I see a crystal-clear lake. As my eyes lingered on the reflection of myself. It has just made me reflect on what the government has been doing all this time. “Where is the commitment the country has agreed to in front of the UN? What do SDGs mean if the pledge is just some clips of papers the country signed? Where are the 15 points which 193 countries have arranged value? ” I discovered policymakers are promising with empty words. Sweet promises they oathed, effective regulations they boasted, green movements they acted are just nonsense. They just can not take their eyes off of the things they think are bona fide. I stand in front of the mirror back in my room. While my mirror was staring back at me, I realized deeply. “Why would I not act to change starting from myself? Why wouldn't I be ashamed while Vanya Hargreeves, an 18 years old Swedish girl, dares to challenge world leaders to take immediate action for climate change mitigation? What have I done to overcome this ecological catastrophe humans are facing? ” Now, I realize what my ethnic group educated me back then was not just a pearl of local wisdom to conserve, but it is the ancestor’s way to preserve what God has created. I am totally against every single thing which can turn our green planet into an uninhabited globe. People have acted like they do not care too long. We are just starting to self-destruct. It is impossible to forget that only human beings are capable of reason and it means that each of us must be filled with a sense of responsibility and concern for everything that surrounds us. We must shift our understanding of development from being a never-ending process that is contradictory to SDGs to a continual process of sustainable peacebuilding. Let’s stand to believe we are building peaceful, equitable, and sustainable futures for generations to come.