"I don't care."

'I don't care'. Quite possibly the easiest phrase to say; its a cop out that automatically dismisses one's responsibilities from a task. As for me? Well, I'm sick of hearing it.

I started this movement from sheer annoyance. I was reading article after article on political leaders sitting back and laughing at the thermostat as temperatures increased. Laughing at how simple life was; pay the dirty coal and oil companies = millions in our back pocket; ‘who cares about the people right? We’ll be gone when the real problem begins- good luck generation Y.’ And you know what the best part about it is- NOBODY CARES! Why? Its either too complex to understand or people have 1 if not all of the following 3 beliefs:

1. ‘Its not my problem’

2. ‘Someone else will fix it’

3. ‘My life is busy enough, why would I worry about something else?’

Well just a heads up society- it is your problem. Do you see anyone trying to fix it? Sure we have some amazing environmental activism organisations who are pushing for change, but are they really getting anywhere? Why doesn't anyone LISTEN?! Because people are uneducated. People are unaware and oblivious to the severity of the situation that man kind will inevitably face. And teenagers fall under this category more so than adults. You don't hear teenagers discussing global warming or climate change, or politics or animal exploitation. Instead- you hear about the Kardashians, Instagram and what happened on the latest episode of The Walking Dead. Personally, I’m so done with this attitude. I’m over sitting through small minded conversations, I’m over listening to people tell me the only thing I can do as a teenager is ‘save water, turn off that light, recycle your plastic’. Nope. Here’s what I have to say.

The most taken for granted aspect of life is the foundation of life itself; our planet. Planet Earth and the natural resources that it bears inspires human kind through its natural wonders and assists us in our scientific feats, but is exploited on a tremendous scale. Man has attached value to every object, including the very land that we stand on. There is value attached to the water in our streams, the fruit that grows on our trees, the animals that graze in our paddocks. There is value attached to everything and society is only now, waking up to the associated consequences. For example, due to the economic value we have attached to water we have marginalised the countries with limited access; due to restricted funding, unstable governments and lack of advanced technology, as third world or ‘poorer’ countries. Society is now facing the truth of this reality; that the worth and ownership attached to our natural resources has divided our people. Energy is causing wars; the fight for oil and coal to ‘boost our economy’ has turned civilisation against each other when in fact, coal is unnecessary as man has discovered renewable energy. Water scarcity is having detrimental impacts on cotton farmers as their crops are unable to grow without intensive water treatment, even though water effective and sustainable alternatives of clothing materials exist. The agricultural industry is the second largest contributor to green house gas emissions and are tremendous water and land consumers yet meat is still advertised as ‘a necessity to a healthy diet’ when humans have no inherent biological or nutritional need for animal products. The system is broken. Society has divided its people through attaching worth and unrealistic standards to natural resources and in turn, has separated people into classes; fuelling inequality, exploitation and infringement of basic human rights and abuse of our planet. Our government continues to blatantly disregard the obvious signs transposed through the people of society, as well as ignoring the urgent cries of our planet. Without a balance between people and planet; without educating and raising awareness of our individual impacts on our Earth and gaining respect for its natural resources, we have no chance in creating a stable future for our people.

FED is an upcoming, teen driven environmental movement of Future Environment Defenders who are fed up with this society. We are enraged by the ignorance in the approach towards environmental issues on our governments behalf and infuriated by the education system who fails to teach us, the youth, the importance of our planet. Not once over my 11 and a half years of education have I taken a class which has specifically outlined the the ways in which renewable energy, for example, is cost effective despite popular belief, and is actually being applied successfully all over the world. Nor was I taught that simply eating meat contributes to global warming, or that major food and clothing corporations exploit their workers and deplete our environment behind closed doors. I have however been taught how to analyse a piece of poetry and label the cardiovascular system. How are our youth, the future leaders of this world, deprived of such fundamental knowledge? How can we be expected to save the planet if we are not equipped with the foundation necessary to conquer nature’s challenges? Its as if, as scientific research gains momentum at faster rates than ever our government is lagging further and further behind; jeopardising the current generation of teenagers’ futures. FED is here to change that. Our goal is to educate our youth on energy, water and sustainable practices through the promotion of renewable energy sources and organisations, drawing attention to the current water scarcity situation, and popularising sustainable practices; from alternative agricultural processes to utilising renewable resources within Australia. Without money or university degrees teenagers also have a ‘worth’ attached to them- a worth that labels us as ‘powerless’ and ‘irrelevant’. We are here to testify exactly that. We believe that knowledge is power; not money or labels, but education and awareness. As long as we are passionate and dedicated to planet Earth and the future of our people, we will do our part in instigating our core values and spreading the FED message; that education + awareness = change.

#Motivation #Environment