Earth Day 2022 - USAGM
Metadata
- Earth Day 2022 - USAGM
- April 14, 2022
- Content Type Package
- Language English
- Transcript/Script ((PLAYBOOK SLUG: Earth Day 2022 (TV/R) HEADLINE: Earth Day Angst: Young People Cope with Sense of Urgency, Hopelessness about Climate Change TEASER: Worry about the environment, dubbed 'eco-anxiety,' affects nearly half of young people worldwide, according to a recent survey PUBLISHED: Thursday, 04/14/2022 at 7:48 am BYLINE: Julie Taboh CONTRIBUTOR: DATELINE: Washington VIDEOGRAPHER: Adam Greenbaum PRODUCER: Julie Taboh, Adam Greenbaum SCRIPT EDITORS: Michelle Quinn, Sharon Shahid VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA original, Skype, Reuters PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO _X_ TRT: 3:10 VID APPROVED BY: Reifenrath TYPE: TVPKG EDITOR: [Please note that Earth Day is April 22] ((INTRO)) [[Climate change will accelerate at an unprecedented pace if governments don’t act soon, according to a recent report by the United Nations. For many people, such news can spur conflicting emotions. Hopelessness that it’s all too late? A sense of urgency to do something? VOA’s Julie Taboh spoke with a few young people about their concerns for the fate of the planet.]] ((NATS – Picking up trash and pulling weeds)) ((NARRATOR)) These young students are picking up litter and removing garlic mustard in a wooded park in Washington, D.C. Removing invasive species helps native plants flourish ... … and the students say they feel like they’re contributing in a small way to a healthier planet. ((Radio track: High School student Grayson Bullard)) ((Grayson Bullard, High School Student)) “I want other people, even generations from now, to be able to have the same experiences I've gotten to have in Rock Creek.” ((NARRATOR)) A recent report by a United Nations’ panel predicts that the planet is heading toward environmental catastrophe if governments don’t take immediate drastic action to curtail climate change. The bracing headlines about Earth’s future are contributing to what some experts call “eco-anxiety,” or “climate change distress,” found especially among the young. Some feel there is little they can do. Others feel spurred to action. ((Radio track: High School student Amelia Lawlor ((LAW-LER)))) ((Amelia Lawlor, High School Student)) “I think I, like a lot of people in my generation, we're really afraid right now, and it's really easy to feel helpless.” ((NARRATOR)) But Amelia counters that helpless feeling by volunteering regularly at the park. ((Amelia Lawlor, High School Student)) “I chose to do this because it felt like something that I could do that was tangible, that was a way of actually helping the environment, of helping my community.” ((NARRATOR)) Nearly half of young people between the ages of 16 and 25 say anxiety about climate change negatively affects their daily lives, according to a recent global survey in the medical journal The Lancet. ((Radio track: Kahlil ((Ka-LIL)) Kettering is global projects director at The Nature Conservancy.)) ((Kahlil Kettering, The Nature Conservancy)) “We're seeing the impacts of drought, the impacts of extreme heat in cities, the impacts on agriculture and food shortages. But what I'm finding is that more and more people, especially young people, have the temerity to say, ‘There's solutions we know that we can do to reduce some of the impacts of climate change, and to help us adapt. And we can't do nothing.’” ((NARRATOR)) A common message by the experts is to take small actions in your own life to reduce your carbon footprint. ((Radio track: Regardt ((REHa-KHART)) Ferreira ((Fa-RAH-rah)), is an associate professor and director of the Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy at Tulane University in New Orleans. He spoke with VOA via Skype.)) ((Regardt Ferreira, Tulane University Professor)) ((SKYPE)) “You can do something as simple as meatless Mondays. Switch to a plant-based diet. If you can walk somewhere, then walk. Reduce, recycle, and reuse is a concept that's really coming about.” ((NARRATOR)) Becoming politically active is another way young people can address their eco-anxiety, like Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg ((TOON-berry)). ((NATS -- Greta Thunberg: “We need to focus every inch of our being on climate change.”)) ((Regardt Ferreira, Tulane University Professor)) ((SKYPE)) “For youth to see someone like Greta having an impact that she's having, and people actually listening to her and politicians listening to her, really does bring about hope.” ((NATS – Cathcart: “We’re going to grab our trash bags and we're going to walk around the edge of the park to pick up litter.”)) ((NARRATOR)) Lindsey Cathcart of the Rock Creek Conservancy who leads the group, says meeting with others to do community cleanups like this one helps the local environment but is beneficial to the overall well-being of the students, as well. ((Lindsey Cathcart, Rock Creek Conservancy)) “So, there are certainly these big picture issues that young people can't turn a switch and fix. // So, doing this work has a very quick, tangible impact that affects the emotional and environmental health of the students and the overall ecosystem.” ((NATS -- Cathcart throws bag of invasive plants onto trash pile)) ((Julie Taboh, VOA News, Washington))
- NewsML Media Topics Arts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
- Network VOA
- Location (dateline) Washington
- Byline Julie Taboh
- Brand / Language Service Voice of America - English