Episode 6 - Gloucestershire Youth Climate Group's What Can I Do? WCID Festival

On Sunday, the 1st of September, the Youth Climate Group held a festival in the centre of Gloucester called What Can I Do? WCID for short.  

For this episode of the Green Pledge Podcast we asked young people at the festival about their  feelings about the climate and ecological crisis, what they themselves do to address it, what they see as barriers to young people. What they'd like to say about the crisis to people in power now, and to people 50 years in the future.

Important records to collect for the archive.

The Gloucestershire Youth Climate Group is for 16-25 year olds who live, work or study in the county who want to get involved in taking part in climate action trips/activities in nature, leading community projects and being Youth Voice advocates who attend decision making meeting spaces. You can get involved in as little or as much as you like with the group based on what suits you. Get in touch with Polly for a chat via email: polly@cscic.org or call/text: 07984464906 You can also follow on tiktok @ glosyouthclimate

Creative Sustainability facilitates Gloucestershire Youth Climate Group, alongside a range of other youth and community projects. They are a values led organisation that place community at the centre of their work to build a more inclusive and sustainable future. You can find them on social media on Instagram and Facebook

They’ve been working together with Strike A Light on the WCID? Event. Strike a Light is a Gloucester based arts charity who create events that people never imagined would or could happen in their city. They tell people’s stories through performance and create brilliant participation opportunities for young people. You can find them on social media on Tiktok, Instagram and Facebook

Transcript

00;00;07;18 

Theo

Welcome to the Green Pledge podcast from Gloucestershire Archives. Meet people from across our area committed to protecting and respecting nature and the planet. We'll be sharing stories from the past and the present and imagining what our future could be. In this episode, we'll be talking to young people from the Gloucestershire Youth Climate Group.

Jussara

in my head, I'm like screaming and the houses burning and there's a cyclone going on, and, people are breaking everything. But on the outside, I'm actually just like a happy Labrador, By staying positive and staying active and actually showing people, look, I've been doing this thing, I've been doing that thing that's way better than just being angry at people.

00;00;50;22 

Morgan

the main thing when it comes to especially like government officials, a lot of them seem to have this saying that the young people don't care But the thing is, it's just like young people do care. They care a lot. It's just they're not often presented like the right opportunities. So like, have their voice heard or to make a difference. And a lot of people just believe that they can't

00;01;09;22 

Sam

people my age or younger, when they get involved in any sort of activism, it's seen as kind of like angsty teen rebellion. But really, we just want to make the world for our generation and the generations to come much more, liveable and just a better place to be.

00;01;30;23 

Theo

On Sunday, the 1st of September, the Youth Climate Group held a festival in the centre of Gloucester called what can I do? Wicked for sure. My name is Theo Adams, and for this episode I worked alongside Christina from the Green Pledge Project to record the views of young people at the festival.  We wanted to know their feelings about the climate and ecological crisis, what they themselves do to address it, what they see as barriers to young people. What they'd like to say about the crisis to people in power now, and to people 50 years in the future.

Important records to collect for the archive.

00;02;14;

Eliza

my name is Eliza. I'm a member of the Gloucestershire Youth Climate Group. And I've been helping plan it and organise it. And I'm just here to support with the day and engage with people.

Christina 

What are your actual feelings about the climate crisis?

Eliza

it can be easy to feel quite overwhelmed and anxious about it, but I am quite positive and optimistic. There's so many people doing so many great things in different spaces. And if you look at the kind of big picture statistics, there has been a lot of progress. There's good climate news coming out every day. So I think, you know, we have the tools we need. We just need to keep driving it forward and keep making that change.

Christina 

So you personally, what are you doing right now, in terms of the climate crisis?

00;02;55;18 

Eliza

So I'd say the main thing is my work. So I currently work for an energy advice agency. And especially in the affordable warmth, so things like retrofit, helping administer grants and things like that. So that's a big part of what I'm doing right now.

Christina 

What you want are local and national government to know about the climate crisis and youth action.

Eliza

I think they need to know that it's urgent. It is a crisis and it is happening right now. It needs to be treated like an emergency. I think Greta Thunberg quote of like, people need to act like the house is on fire because it is. And I think they need to know that this is something young people are both worried about and taking action on. This massive resource of people that are interested in innovating and acting. So, you know, utilise it and get stuff done basically. A lot of the spaces, either by design or just kind of by how they're used, and the people that go can it can seem quite prohibitive to young people if as a lot of older people or people with, more kind of professional experience or authority, that can seem quite daunting to people.

00;04;00;16 

Eliza

I think sometimes we just aren't listened to. We're often some of the, like, less well-off people, so we don't have the money to invest in things. We don't necessarily have the opportunities to do things like invest in a career that's sustainable or use our money to make sustainable choices. So I think it can sometimes feel like we're quite disempowered.

Christina 

What do you want people 50 years from now who are learning about this time of climate crisis and action to know about.

Eliza

I want them to know that we are trying we are looking at doing stuff. I think there's great optimism in the fact that pretty much all the different problems involved in the climate crisis have solutions. It's just about investing. They're getting it done. So yeah, I want them to know that we did care. We weren't all bystanders and we were fighting for our planet.

00;04;50;22 

Theo

The day was packed with over 50 young people coming together to share ideas and experiences. There were three panel discussions, one with questions for local MPs and councillors, an online catch up with international youth climate campaigners and finally a panel with young local activists. There was also craft workshops, chill zones and pizza. I felt honoured to be asked to open the day with some of my spoken word poetry

00;05;25;10 

Theo (performance) 

If only I could keep a feeling in my pocket. If only I could freeze a mood and feel it on demand. Because there's moments, however fleeting. When power surges through me. Moments when I feel like I could change the world.

00;05;45;18 

Polly

My name's Polly. I am the facilitator of Gloucestershire Youth Climate Group. I've had the really lovely job, alongside Jess, supporting a group of amazing young people to to pull together this day. They've planned all of the different workshops and, events and panels as part of the day. So all really that led by young people? For a group of young people today. A really key thing about today is inspiring, those ways in which young people can go out and get involved in stuff. bringing them together to share their experiences and to, to highlight the different opportunities is, is a really important part of that.

00;06;27;

Christina

Tell me a little bit more about the actual youth climate group,

Polly

joining up is really simple. Basically, just just get in contact with me for a chat. People can email me. There's some different ways that young people can get involved. So we do have some young leaders, who we meet with monthly and they really kind of steer the direction of everything that happens. And going to, county council committee meetings and things like that and representing that youth voice. And yeah, also kind of working on projects and outreach about climate action. And we, we go out and we do action days as well and get out into nature. Then we do stuff like today, which is, you know, a big, big push to get lots of different people in a room say, yeah, we've got about 50 young people in the room today.

00;07;17;12 

Sam

My name is Sam. And, I’m here as a workshop lead, running an uppcycling workshop, primarily looking up clothing and upcycling textiles, waste. I work as an artist, and I try to be sustainable where I can so buy materials, second-Hand. and just trying to be conscious of what I'm using, where I'm getting it from.

Christina 

What are your feelings about the climate crisis

Sam

I think that we need to be doing more, not just like I mean, obviously on a government level, but just being able to, you know, what we can do in our everyday lives, just like even those small things, like using a reusable cup can have such an impact. But a lot of people just don't know where to start. I think for me, especially coming out of the pandemic, it's just finding those groups and those people that are like minded and want and feel the same way you do. And also, you know where to start with getting involved.

Christina 

Yeah. What do you want people 50 years from now who are learning about this time and about the climate crisis. What do you want them to know about what was what we were doing, what you were doing?

Sam

want them to know that we are passionate and that we care about not just our generation, but future generations. So hopefully they can see that. is something that we will need to do is just make the world better for the future,

Christina 

Yeah. Brilliant. Thank you.

00;08;41;16 

Theo

how we address the climate and ecological crisis was talked about throughout the day. The huge impact of fast fashion was a recurring theme, and it's probably worth an episode of its own. The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions. Textile production contributes more to climate change than international aviation and shipping combined. Around 300,000 tonnes of textile waste ends up in household black bins every year, sent to landfill or incinerators. As an artist, I'm committed to upcycling materials and it was good to meet Jussara and Tia, two artists who've worked to tackle the shocking impact of the clothing industry.

00;09;19;28 - 

Jussara

My name is Jussara Nazaren. I would say just existing as myself is climate, Is youth climate action. Because it's the only thing that goes through my brain all the times, and that's just how I live my life. But, just to kind of like, put that into perspective. I was born on an eco tourism island where nature comes first and then, just grew up in Lisbon, Portugal, which again, is kind of really eco focussed just been living in UK for like ten years. And that's kind of been culture shock for me. So I guess I'm trying to bring a little bit of back home into my life, into here. So some of the things I try to do, is like upcycling events and clothes swaps. I started doing that around 2020 with a group of friends that we met up online and decided to give clothes to homeless people, and then that turned from clothing to bedding to shower products, to helping them find work and just having a chat, to then being able to organise monthly events did it green graphic design and I really hated the focus on plastic used. So most of my design practice is how I can reuse materials around me and how to adapt to a more like circular economic model. So how do I use things and not have it just go into the waste afterwards? How do I keep living a life where the things I'm using can have a new life?

00;10;44;07 

I used to work at Topshop, It was really good in the sense of I got to learn loads of skills. I got to learn about the industry, but I also got to learn about how to not run a business and how to just, yeah, not let the mass consumeristic wheel take over my life. That is the best way to describe it. So I started to create a map of where each item came from. So just literally get a map, read the labels of your clothes and get some sticky dots and stick where your items come from. And then you get to realise what is your foot print in this world in terms of fashion. Topshop was very much a dilemma because I needed to pay for my bills and I was good at my job, but also I hated every single second of being in that place. And everything it stood for. You can make your own clothes. So I think that's the best form of activism really.

00;11;37;04 

Theo

What do you want people 50 years from now who are learning about this time of climate crisis and action to know.

Jussara

there's some people out there who were literally giving their entire livelihoods to make stuff happen. There is people who are creating organisations, mobilising communities and actually genuinely bringing about positive community change. It's if yeah, we able to bring people with the science and the knowledge and the heart to the front of how we lead our world, I think we'll be able to make some positive change.

00;12;09;28 - 00;12;13;03

Tia

My name is Tia Callum, aka Miss Figure Eight. So I actually produce the events. I produce an event called Revive Couture, which I was the creative director for, We had loads of individuals coming in, not really knowing much about fashion. Well, the sustainability behind fashion. And so what we were doing was getting lots of different clothes from charity shops and showing that you can actually start and look fierce in charity shop clothes, just reinforcing that understanding the charity shop culture isn't, you know, bad or, you know, tacky or whatever, you can find an amazing fur coat, you can find some cool leggings, whatever, and style it and look great. And it'd be good for the environment.

00;12;49;25 

Theo

What do you want our local and national governments to know about the climate crisis and youth action?

Tia

I think what's important is that everyone needs to be doing their research and really clued in on what's happening,

Theo

What are the barriers to you as a young person and a person of colour.

Tia

I think there's stigmas already with black people and how you know marches and, activism is held. There is definitely a box that we're put in. However, like myself, I don't see myself in those boxes. I think people will try and put you in boxes and, you know, we all have limitations, but you got to push past them. I would never have been a creative director today if I had just allowed labels to put me and keep me there. And, you know, it's coming out doing the work, meeting the people you need to meet, talking to people first and finding out what they know, who they know and how they can even support you or get you involved in other things that align with your goals. I would say. stick to your guns, trust your intuition and be you. You know, be authentic because that is what's going to save the world.

00;13;56;28

Theo

How do we save the world? This is a really good question, and one which was asked at the session with local politicians. Alex McIntyre, Gloucester's new Labour MP. Cameron Thomas, Liberal Democrat MP for Tewkesbury, doctor Ross Savage, Lib Dem MP for South Cotswolds, And Councillor Chloe Turner who is the chair of the environment scrutiny committee meeting at Gloucestershire County Council.

00;14;24;08 

Bobby

My name is Bobby Johnstone. My background comes more from the political side of things. with the event that we've got going on today, I'm here hosting a panel with elected representatives, as a way to give young people a chance to talk to their elected representatives, to ask them questions.

(recording of panel) Please join me in giving a round of applause to our guests? My first question is going to be, could you talk us through what led you to politics and what keeps you going in that world

00;14;50;

Alex McIntyre

my name is Alex, I'm the newly elected MP for, Gloucester. Sadly, I think I'm just aged out of being a young person now because I'm 31. Why did I  go into politics? I mean, I grew up in, a working-class house in Yorkshire. Yeah. My parents came from real poverty. My dad left school at 16. Went to work in the printers, an apprentice. And my mum did have an opportunity at university, but at that turned it down. Said the likes of those don't go to university. But they were determined that their kids would have opportunities growing up, and that that coincided with a Labour government in the 90s and the noughties were actually opportunity did start to flow for young people like myself. I went to a state school where the kids actually went off to university afterwards, and I was the first in my family to go to university, and I was lucky enough to become a lawyer, something which, if you ask my primary school teachers, they thought I'd be involved in the law, but not necessarily on that side of the courtroom. And, the reason I got into politics, quite simply because I looked at families like mine here in our city in Gloucester kids like me, I get those same opportunities anymore. Things became incredibly difficult. Families like mine were struggling to put food on the table and heat their homes, and I just didn't think that was right. And I think we've had an age of politics and politicians who, have gone to other and gone to Oxbridge and telling everyone how tough life is without actually ever actually experiencing how tough life can actually be. Now the reason why I spend so much time now away from my little boy, is ten months old, is because one thing's a Labour promise to do is we're going to have at breakfast clubs, at primary schools There are thousands of children in Gloucester right now who go to school without breakfast. If I do one thing in five years and that's feed those thousands of children breakfast every day, that is worth fighting for. That is change that is worth fighting for.

00;16;47;28 

Cameron Thomas 

Hi, everybody. I'm Cameron Thomas, and I'm the member of Parliament for Tewkesbury. Why did I get into politics. I'm also neurodivergent. I also have ADHD, and I think that associated with that is, is a sense of justice. I felt that the education system, to a significant extent, was not fit for me to, to cater to my, to my needs. And I always wondered why was I not able to study the same way that most of my, my peers were able to study. And I never went to university either? To that end. And that's how I ended up in the Air Force, where I really did enjoy 23 years. But because of that sense of justice and right and wrong, I often looked at the way the country was being run and in fact, for that matter, the the way the world was being run and felt that this should be done differently. So that was one of my motivations.

Moving into Tewksbury, getting to know people, campaigning. It was clear that people in Tewksbury were just devoid of any hope. And as this great, momentous election was upon, as Tewksbury just felt like there was nothing that can be done. They really did feel they were going to be stuck with the same member of Parliament they'd had for 27 years, and in fact, they'd had conservatives in Tewksbury since 1885. I didn't want to let those people down. You know, they're my friends and neighbours and my family for that matter. I had to give everything I could to give these people back their hope. And, incredibly and beyond the expectations of just about everyone outside our team, we did it. And it was, It's such an incredible honour. Incredible privilege. Thank you.

00;18;29;17 

Chloe Turner

I'm Chloe, just a humble councillor. I feel like an imposter up here. But I love being a councillor. I, how I got into politics, I, I it was quite a long journey for me. I was really interested as a child in nature and the environment. Somewhere along the line, though, I got into a kind of conveyor belt of energy levels. University came out, became a chartered accountant. Before I really realised what was happening. I'd been in the City of London for ten years doing something I really didn't care about at all. And it wasn't until I had kids and had a couple of years off, a bit of time to reflect that. I realised that somehow everything I cared about had no place in my career at the time. So I took a little first step back into a job doing some project management for anti plastics. Campaign group started doing a lot of close reading about nature, started meeting the kind of people that really thought the same way as me. And an opportunity came up to run for county councillor somehow, it came through and, so I've been a councillor since 2021. I absolutely love it.

00;19;49;29 - 

Dr Roz Savage

Chloe, I didn't know you were a corporate refugee. Yeah. Me too. I was a management consultant for 11 years. And then I realised that, that really wasn't what I wanted to be doing for the rest of my life. I wanted to do something that felt more purposeful. I was lucky enough to go travelling around Peru for three months. And it was there that I started my environmental awakening. I was up in the Andes, outside Cusco and local people were telling me that the glaciers are getting smaller and smaller year on year. so this piqued my curiosity. And when I got back home, I started really doing my research and found out much more. And not just about climate change, but about all of the other things that we are doing to all our precious earth. And I was just on fire with this. It seemed literally the most important issue on the face of the planet, and I desperately wanted to do something to raise awareness of the fact we need to be better stewards of the earth. But I didn't know what to do. And that's until this insane idea took hold of me. I knew how to row. I mean, really, how hard could it be to row across an ocean? So the idea was that I was going to do these crazy adventures, which ended up taking me seven years, rowing across oceans and using my, my blogs and social media, which was starting to be a thing around that time, and talks and books to get my environmental message across. I spent a lot of time thinking about why are we not succeeding in getting on track for a more sustainable future? And, I was asking this question of myself, what can I do to take what I've learned from 20 years of environmental campaigning and take this to the next level?

00;21;40;19  And so within less than two years, here I am as the Lib Dem MP for the South Cotswolds, which is an enormous honour and a huge responsibility, as And of course environmental issues will always be central to my my purpose. But actually those connect with so many other issues. I think we need political reform. I think we need economic reform. I think we need to reduce inequality because when people are struggling just to survive, they don't have the bandwidth to be thinking about the bigger questions.

00;22;19;27 

Bobby

I'm feeling hopeful you can look at a lot of the stuff that's going on around us in the world,

 and most of it is good. there seems to be a lot of people now coming up into, positions of power, positions of influence, who actually want to make a difference and actually want to improve the world for everyone. I actually stood to be a councillor back in May in Cheltenham in the Saint Paul's ward. It was quite scary to knock on people's doors. because I think if you want to try to make a difference to the world, you've got to get out there and do something. You can't just sit back and be like, oh, why are these people not doing this? You've got to actually, if you can, you've got to be proactive.

00;22;50;18 

Rachael

I'm Rachel, I'm part of the Gloucestershire Youth Climate Group  and I'm chairing the youth panel later this afternoon on, What can I do next?

Christina 

And what are your feelings about the climate and ecological crisis?

Rachael

It's scary. It's really scary. The the extent of it and the catastrophe that we're heading for. We're already partially in Animals are going extinct. Obviously. Already.

 Some communities around the world are already seeing the effects of climate change in terms of rising sea level. if we let this go on without taking, like, some big action we could have had, could have just totally uninhabitable parts of the world. Gloucestershire's well known for flooding, like particularly in some areas. And the amount of extreme weather events and flooding events that we've had in last years that they are increasing and that is due to climate change. And I think it's just getting people to make that link between what this happens in your local area and it will continue to happen and continue to be worse unless we're making change on the global scale.

Christina 

What do you see as the barriers for young people where climate change is concerned and environmental

Rachel

Mainly the young people maybe don't feel like they have a voice or, taken seriously on big stages. Feeling like they're not represented in, in government positions of power. They feel like they're not represented in that. It's older people that seem to fill those roles. So I think the barrier to them is knowing how to access those forums to make their voices heard and to make that change. Without being intimidated by the people that are in those positions.

00;24;41;15 

Christina 

What is your own journey here?

Rachael

So I think it's being part of a group, knowing that there's other like minded young people in this group, with some great facilitators. help us talk to other local community groups. And making those connections in like, local government as well, and sort of I just think there's so much we could do. And then it's just about embedding sustainability in every sector. It's moving to green energy, putting public transport infrastructure in place. All these things that have a positive climate impact also have positive community. Improvements for, for health, poverty. We’re feeding back on, like, the county council's action plan. We're always looking at getting opinions from young people on what they think the council should be doing. So big one we talk to you about is like transport. Obviously the council want more people to use public transport. So we're then going to the youth, like what do they need to do to make it accessible for you. 

Affordable for you. Right. It's what would help. And also, do you think they're doing enough? What else would you like to see happen?

00;26;05;26 

The biggest issue of our time? Personally, I think, it's going to affect us, the younger generation, the most we're going to see the impacts. And we want local and central government to make this their, like number one priority, to put it at the heart of all their decisions. So that we're building a sustainable future that's, well, so that we have a future, Yeah. I don't want us to get to 50 years and for the youth of that generation to turn back around and say, why didn't you do more? Like, look at the state of the world.

I want them to have a better future and a sustainable future and look back and know that we helped give them that.

00;26;57;18 

Lydia

I am Lydia.

Theo

Hi, Lydia. What are your feelings about the climate and ecological crisis?

Lydia

it's definitely quite scary how the planet has changed I think things like war has an effect as well is ruining our planet as well. I volunteer at the Canal and River trust, it's things like clearing and clearing out, clearing out the rubbish, from the water, making it. It's making sure it's clean. It's also, it's getting rid of any getting getting rid of any debris, it's also making sure, that we take into account for any dead fish. We've rescued a few seagulls as well.

Theo

what positive solutions would you like to see?

Lydia

I would like to see, where maybe the bigger organisations, Sort of like caring a bit more because they do make a lot of money and so and, and at least and at least if they can. And I would like to see over I like the at least 50% of these companies using things like electric cars and things, and they do it as well, and also for the future, I would also like to hope that we can maybe be a bit more careful about our meat production and that we can and also obviously and how we grow things use pesticides as well. and also I would like to see a more, a more natural world of living

00;28;25;06 

Morgan

I'm Morgan. Right now I'm mostly volunteering for Creative Sustainabilty. Most of what I do is like youth support. We have, like a lot of projects going on with that. We've had stuff recently helping young people access advice for, like, green careers and stuff like that, We have a lot of opportunities where young people are able to basically like, voice their opinions with counsellors and stuff like that before I guess my feelings is just we all need to be doing whatever we can. The state we're kind of in right now, it's almost like it's too little, too late. So I guess it's just like everyone just needs to have their voice heard. Every single opinion matters. We all have a voice. That's one of the most powerful things we have, and we just need to make sure we use it, I guess. it. 

00;29;05;

Theo 

There are some brilliant organisations working together with young people. One of the workshops of the festival was run by RYSE Radical Youth Space for Educators who are based in Stroud.

workshop

Does anyone want to shout out something like for youth and Action for youth that they,

Theo

I caught up with the two workshop leaders Uma and Roma to talk more about their work in activism.

00;29;28;04 

Roma

My name is Roma Robinson. I'm 20 years old, and I. use she / her pronouns.

Theo

So brilliant. Thank you. What are you doing right now? Big or small, as part of youth climate action?

Roma

So I'm organising a youth assembly in Stroud. So to learn how to meet our own needs and organise ourselves using grassroots governance and democracy. had our first assembly just over a month ago on the 28th of July, where, like, we had, like, 30 young people from around Stroud, come to discuss the question of what what needs urgently need to change in Stroud. So we've been doing education sessions, off the back of the assembly to train up organisers. We've had 1 or 2 socials, And last year, I was part of a team that took a squat in Stroud to run a political summer school. It was called the sister summer school. And it was, like, absolutely incredible having that, like, permanent space that we like that we ran like a month of, like three events a day. It was like one of the most mental periods of my life. I was like, so proud of it because

00;30;29;27  I feel like one of the journeys I've been on in climate action is going from doing, like, school strike stuff when I was like 15, to like, now doing actually not very much things that are directly related to the climate. There are a lot more about like overall like, justice kind of change rather than like specifically climate related stuff.

Theo

What do you want local and national government to know about the climate crisis and youth action?

Roma

we have to make changes that change that are like, very across reaching and change how we relate to each other because it's not just a like climate and ecological crisis. It's also like a crisis of like empire, actually. And so our governments have for the last like 500 years, like profited off the exploitation and the like most horrendous violence and genocide in the global South. As well as removing us here from our lands and privatising all the land and, and closing it. the only change that I feel is going to truly get to the bottom of the problems that we're facing is going to be people at the grassroots working together, relearning ways of being that were taken from us by by those in power and refusing to like, legitimise those power structures. It's why stuff like grassroots democracy feels so important to me, is because those power structures can't be legitimised because they're killing us all. I think it's an ?Ocan word, in Ghana in West Africa called ubunto, which means the like it's I mean, I'm probably gonna completely bastardise this, but what I know of it is that it's like, I am able to be fully me and fully a human being when you're able to be fully a human being. And it's only through knowing and loving and being together with each other that we are both fully human beings and no one's security can be built on someone else's exploitation or violence. And I think that that is such a key thing for us to realise. And I actually think that it's really radically changing how our movements are approaching things. I think it's excellent.

00;32;29;12 - That's a weakness that spreads out into like social leftist climate movements, is that we're really, really atomised, and it's really hard to see someone else's perspective without feeling that it invalidates your own. And it's one of the things that I feel about, like assembly processes that are so important is that, like, you get someone in a room and you can ask them, like, what are the key important things for you? And then you can say, and that matters to me too. And then you've got like immediately something in common that means that you can build from there.

00;32;58;02  

Theo

What do you want people 50 years from now who are learning about this time of climate crisis and action to know?

Roma

the, like, pessimistic part of me wants them to know that even if it didn't work out, there were people that were really trying like that is the legacy that they will inherit. we're organising now, right? And we are inheriting this incredibly beautiful and rich legacy of social change from the last, like, forever, because people have always been fighting for justice. But then we have like specific like ancestors and movements that we're inheriting from. And I hope that in 50 years we have done a good enough job of pulling those people forward and cementing our own. like mark on history, that they are able to move forward again, I don't have to just take on the like, the ancestry that says that, like, it's inevitable that we are going to exploit the earth and everyone on it because I'm like, well, no, that's not ancestry. Because my ancestry cares deeply and will fight for, justice. And I just have to like, channel that and stand in that power.

00;33;58;14 

Uma

My name is Uma

Theo

What are your feelings about the climate and ecological crisis and other areas which intersect with this?

Uma

my main feeling right now is that it's not doing enough about international reparations. We cannot help ourselves until we have helped everyone else, and we can't help everyone else until we've helped ourselves. And it's like that interlinking hasn't been recognised. The reparations that are due haven't been recognised. I work a lot in Pan-Africanism, so, a lot of that is like, so much of the environmental change that needs to happen needs to be in repair in these communities

what I would like to see as change is a complete, complete reparatory justice for all of the Global South, Right now I'm organising a youth led movement called Mutiny in Stroud.

 and a lot of it is based on climate stuff, but we usually do a lot of our direction towards, like, what comes out of, youth led assembly. And when people make their decisions on what it is they want to change. We come together, we organise as a community, and we get it done. I've set up a non-white group for young people of colour to come to and talk about healing the disrepair in our community and get into organising.

Theo

What do you want our local and national government to know about the climate crisis and youth action?

Uma

I feel like there is a lot of very dismissive of the movement as a whole, especially in terms of young people, those like no campaigns for young people, there's no support, there's no youth advocacy in Parliament or in local and national government. So I think having that support in terms of like monetary funding for groups like this and in terms of like actually allowing change to be possible, which to be fair, is a very big systemic change that needs to happen. But they can do it and they should.

Theo

What do you want people to know 50 years from now? Her learning about this time of climate crisis and action to not.

Uma

I would like them to know that the youth movement is powerful, that this is where the heart is at and the organising together as a community is really where change happens and where things can happen. And I really hope that by that time things have happened and that young people understand that change is possible and change is possible with organising with each other. I would like for there to be, intergenerational work by that time, because I'll be older and I want to still be able to work with young people and for there to be a, a culture of care between people who are doing this kind of work. Loads of youth movements around the world and in the global south are like taking over their towns, making change happen it's like there's so much to learn from, from other people and I can feel like we're in a bit of a bubble, especially here in this district, was just like, there is so much more. And, especially at this time, I really hope that internationalism is like just ingrained into the movement. Everything is within our power to change. There is nothing that is out of limits. Everything that has thought to have been nearly impossible has been done. And we're here now. And,

00;36;52;21  like, take yourself seriously. A lot of people let you know more than you think. And it's learning is actually fun. If you're not in school. Learning is fun. And you can learn things and you can do things. And when you have someone with you just like, you know, just take yourself seriously in the work that you're doing seriously, because that's how you can find the power and self to move forward. No one else is taking it seriously. If we can't do it, then it's not going to happen.

Theo

Yeah. Thank you so much. I'm

00;37;18;17 

Theo

Creative Sustainability facilitates Gloucestershire Youth Climate Group alongside a range of other youth and community projects. There are values led organisation that place community at the centre of their work to build a more inclusive and sustainable future. You can find them on social media, on Instagram and Facebook. They've been working together with Strike a Light on the WCID event.

Strike A Light is a Gloucester based arts charity who create events that people never imagined would or could happen in their city. They tell people's stories through performance and create brilliant participation opportunities for young people. You can find them on social media, on TikTok, Instagram, DM and Facebook.

The whole day's been rich with important conversation and feels like a positive step towards making real change. And one thing is clear. We need change.

I'd like to thank everyone from the Youth Climate Group and from the WCIDFestival for talking to us.

In my interview with Jussara, I asked her what change you would like to see. And as you hear, she's full of great ideas.

Theo

Jussara, what positive solutions would you like to see? What is within our power to change?

Jussara

Can we please have more trees, like people should know how to grow their own food. Access to allotments, access to land and access to community land where people can grow things collectively. You know, there's no point trying to give all these food vouchers if you're not going to teach a man how to fish or how to plant,

Like, I would really like to see the downfall of Sheen, H&M, Primark and all these big international like, you know, ocean killers. And I would like to see the downfall of oil products being the first choice for designers. I would like to see a change in our economic systems to a more sustainable circular economic model. And I would like to see some change in our politics powers and the diversity in our political sphere as well. And I would like to see more women in positions of governing. Sorry, I'm actually just this is my wish list. Yeah. I would like to see more women in positions of governing because like, if you can run a household, raise a bunch of children, have a job, and still have your own life, what else can't you do? You know, it's just kind of surreal that would not just trusting the world to women. Anyway, I would like more people in volunteering roles and charity sectors to actually, like, be paid, you know, and I would like to see more change in executive levels of management. I think a lot of the industries want to change, but we need the people in executive and money management world to want to change the industries, because they're the ones with the money to make that happen.

I would like to see different, ways in which we can produce and run energy because it kind of makes no sense as well that like this, all this, if the planet is heating up, can we, like, store it? And also, I would like to see us use data heat as a way to create more warm spaces in the winter.

Also, we need different form of education just all together like this. Far too many kids leaving education that could have had a wonderful experience but didn't have the right people with mental health training, didn't have the right people to deal with anxiety, and like the things that young people are facing right now is not the same issues that people 50 years ago were facing.

I've actually written a little manifesto with all these ideas and I could actually elaborate more. I might try and get into the archives with stuff like fully completed it, but if I finish my manifesto, you should read it.

00;41;05;28 

Theo

I would love to read it. Thank you so much, Jussara,

00;41;12;01 

Christina 

An enormous thank you to everyone involved in making this podcast, and for sharing their stories and thoughts with us and a big thank you to Theo as well for all his hard work.

The Green Pledge project at Gloucestershire Archives has been made possible by the Heritage Lottery Fund. We're committed to being part of the conversation about climate change and biodiversity loss. The archive also has pledged to reduce its ecological footprint. through using less resources, reducing waste, and in our Heritage Hub garden by encouraging wildlife and growing food for local people. If listening to this podcast has inspired you to make changes in your life, you can also make a pledge through our partners at the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. You can find out more by visiting our website, which you'll find in the programme notes. Please sign up. Get updates and news hear about the next podcast. And do please share these podcasts with others.

And do join me for the next episode, which is with George Peterken, who is a specialist woodland ecologist and also set up the Parish Grasslands Project, which aims to raise interest in the grasslands in the Wye Valley.

Thank you for listening.