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Press Release 066/2007

Press release 066/2007 (PDF / 75 KB)

Don’t just stand around looking on!

Is it cool to protect the climate? – Youth and experts discuss

Roughly 100 pupils in Dessau met together with their teachers at the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) in Dessau-Roßlau on 10 October 2007 to discuss their attitude to climate protection and whether or not it’s cool to live and act with a sense of environmental awareness.  They exchanged ideas and experiences with environmental activists, social scientists, and experts on sustainable development.

The point of departure for the two-hour talk is in part traceable to the results of a study carried done by Shell in 2006, according to which youth attitudes to civic activities are typical of the pragmatic spirit of their generation.  “It is not (any longer) ideological concepts or possible social utopia that shape lives.  Activities which are personally gratifying, far removed from grand ideas or plans to launch a new youth movement, are far more important.”

Dr. Günther Bachmann, Head of the German Council for Sustainable Development, sees the experience of the Council gained in youth projects corroborated by the study results, which indicate that whereas youth is open to the topic of sustainability only very few take up any action in environment projects.  Higher priority is accorded to respect and consideration in intact family relationships and social circles.

When asked how to raise youth awareness of environmental issues, Claudia Emmermann of the Institute for Environmental and Sustainability Communication of the University of Lüneburg answered, “These issues have to be presented in a way that children and adolescents can make an easy connection to their own lives.  In addition, they have to be offered a real possibility of participating if they are to get serious about finding a solution to problems.”

Environmental activists from Greenpeace, BUND (German branch of Friends of the Earth), Robin Wood, the German Association for Nature Conservation (NABU), Deutsche Sportjugend, the youth publication Spiesser, as well as participants of the voluntary educational year in environmental protection (Freiwilliges Ökologisches Jahr) reported on their projects, activities and campaigns, and shed light on their own reasons for protecting the environment.  Anna Brugger of the youth chapter of Greenpeace in Hamburg knows why environmental protection not only makes sense, but is also fun.  She says, “I became active because I think it is important that we young people don’t just look on passively, but rather take it in our own hands to do something for our own future and that of the Earth.  Besides it’s fun being together with so many others who stand up for the same things as I do.”

UBA President Prof. Dr. Andreas Troge adds, “As with the unusual “This this” cooperative project by the artist Tino Sehgal and Dessau schools, the Federal Environment Agency is striking out on new paths to win over youths for the ecological cause.  It is events like these that are supposed to plant the seed of interest among this target group and to support their commitment to protecting the environment.“

More information is available on the Internet at: http://www.umweltbundesamt.de/
http://kunstundumwelt.umweltbundesamt.de/de/ 

Dessau, 10 October 2007