2008 Woodie Awards
Bridging generation, technology gaps, confronting climate change
By: Madeline Kovacs
Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: Opinion
Once again we are at that pivotal moment in our nation's history when people under 30 years of age have the opportunity to fashion our nation's next steps. Thomas Friedman's "Generation Q" will rise to confront climate change; we must.
But that is not all that college students will do. To borrow the vocabulary of Eban Goodstein, college students today will rewire the world with clean energy technology, create tens of millions of jobs in manufacturing and green industry, and establish a new political economy based on the principles of ecology.
This may sound like a daunting task, but students are already doing it now. While they are still in school learning the skills to contribute to society as it stands, youth are literally building a movement that is changing the political and economic conversation.
Students are the backbone of think tanks that are making policy recommendations to influence the core agenda of the next president, and they are turning out in record numbers to cast their ballots. As they refill reusable mugs and bike to class, they are also building power conference by conference, email by email, and blog by blog.
But the time frame for turning youthful momentum into a full pendulum swing on climate action is surprisingly narrow: youth climate leaders project that we have 22 months, from Super Tuesday until a year after the presidential inauguration, to convince those already in power to take youth seriously.
In order to accomplish such broad policy shifts rapidly, youth must turn to those experts we have left in the proverbial dust: our parents.
All of us remember conversations with our parents: "No, mom, that's email. You can get a letter online!" But the internet represents something more than our parents' slow uptake on technological tools: the majority of legislators in office presently are over 50 years of age, and many of them have expressed a desire to become more internet-savvy in order to know what youth are thinking.
But that is not all that college students will do. To borrow the vocabulary of Eban Goodstein, college students today will rewire the world with clean energy technology, create tens of millions of jobs in manufacturing and green industry, and establish a new political economy based on the principles of ecology.
This may sound like a daunting task, but students are already doing it now. While they are still in school learning the skills to contribute to society as it stands, youth are literally building a movement that is changing the political and economic conversation.
Students are the backbone of think tanks that are making policy recommendations to influence the core agenda of the next president, and they are turning out in record numbers to cast their ballots. As they refill reusable mugs and bike to class, they are also building power conference by conference, email by email, and blog by blog.
But the time frame for turning youthful momentum into a full pendulum swing on climate action is surprisingly narrow: youth climate leaders project that we have 22 months, from Super Tuesday until a year after the presidential inauguration, to convince those already in power to take youth seriously.
In order to accomplish such broad policy shifts rapidly, youth must turn to those experts we have left in the proverbial dust: our parents.
All of us remember conversations with our parents: "No, mom, that's email. You can get a letter online!" But the internet represents something more than our parents' slow uptake on technological tools: the majority of legislators in office presently are over 50 years of age, and many of them have expressed a desire to become more internet-savvy in order to know what youth are thinking.
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