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Published Aug 12, 2023<\/span> \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Last updated 3\u00a0hours ago<\/span> \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 2 minute read<\/span> <\/p>\n
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A significant portion of today’s young people, 62 per cent, feel an obligation to take action on climate change.<\/span> Photo by iStock<\/span> \/Getty Images<\/span> <\/p>\nArticle content<\/h2>\n
The afternoon sun was warmly welcomed Saturday in Edmonton, a delightful day for children to be engaged and enjoying the abundance of outdoor activities the atmospheric pressure allows.<\/p>\n
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You know the wonderful images, don\u2019t you? Playing at nearby playground, or running through sprinkler, or a bike ride, a walk in the park of the rugged Forrest, or water-skiing, or boating, or tubbing or catching sun rays on your favourite beach.<\/p>\n
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Without raining on any of those visual delights, a spinning question, much like a softball in the weekend\u2019s countless softball tournaments, must be asked, urgently and on target.<\/p>\n
How fast is the clock ticking before our precious planet suffers enough damage \u2014 neglect, too, although we are slow to admit such a collective colossal oversight \u2014 that life on earth will be impossible?<\/p>\n
The good folks at the United Nations never miss a beat.<\/p>\n
They declared Saturday as International Youth Day. Its theme \u2014 Green Skills for Youth: Towards a Sustainable World \u2014 will undauntedly gather some much needed attention.<\/p>\n
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Just look to Statistics Canada. A 2019 survey points to 62 per cent of young people in Canada feel an obligation to address, and take action on, climate change.<\/p>\n
If we put the survey findings under the microscope we see a large majority of Canadians aged between 18 and 34 would, in fact, put their money where their mouths are by contributing an extra $100 a month to fund climate-change initiatives.<\/p>\n
That, dear reader, is golden.<\/p>\n
But with such a, hopefully, potential game-changer movement, comes another challenge we must not only tightly embrace, buy act upon with seriousness and responsibility.<\/p>\n
Every generation of youth is presented with challenges reflecting the current status of society.<\/p>\n
The generation previous to me, for example, had the horrors which, for those engaged in the theatre of war, turn into everlasting, daunting, eerie ghosts.<\/p>\n
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Perhaps, it was post traumatic syndrome disorder before its earliest diagnosis.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s interesting. Young Canadian men and women were called to duty: the same demographic of folks which today have a concern for climate change.<\/p>\n
We must ensure those young people \u2014 tomorrow\u2019s leaders \u2014 are prepared mentally to take on this most gigantic noble task.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s society fails our young people in so many ways.<\/p>\n
Family Service Canada gives some jarring information on issues facing young people from a 2020 report put together by UNICEF.<\/p>\n
Thirty-two per cent of Canadian kids aged 11 to 15 experience weekly headaches, insomnia and stomach troubles, symptoms of stress.<\/p>\n
In most other wealthy nations 14 per cent of the same age don\u2019t feel supported by their families. In Canada: 26 per cent.<\/p>\n
Bullying. It continues to sharply rise, with 20 per cent of Canadian kids saying, yes, they have been bullied.<\/p>\n
And the most telling of all, the rate of 100,000 of Canadians aged 15 to 19 dying from suicide is 9.0.<\/p>\n
For those of us in supportive roles \u2014 from baseball coach to behavioural psychologist \u2014 the challenge rings with reverent importance.<\/p>\n
The people who are charged with saving the planet first must be saved themselves.<\/p>\n
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