Amplifying the youth voice for the ocean

Why are we so keen to work with youth?

The story goes back to the year of 2019…

When the Global Climate Strike started in Berlin, the energy in the streets was unusually strong. It was an extraordinary and uplifting atmosphere, motivating through what felt like much more than a protest. With thousands of kids in the streets, their creative signs, the powerful music acts and speeches on stage, and their friends and family joining this colourful crowd, it felt more like the start of a revolution to us. This made us realise just how outstanding the energy and enthusiasm of young adults is, and why we should be supporting it more urgently.

What was happening here? Our society has been aiming in the wrong direction, subsiding the present with fruits of the future for a long time. It wasn’t surprising these young humans decided it was time to stand up to get loud. Founded by Greta Thunberg, Fridays for Future truly started a movement and inspired us. It gave us not only hope with regards to mitigating the climate crisis, but also influenced our beliefs profoundly: it is the voice of children that plays a crucial role in saving the planet and the ocean. We started to understand that the next generation deserves the commando and that adults should listen to their ideas for shaping their own future, taking bold action and speaking up (and eventually, creating their own social value system).

We are amidst the sixth big mass extinction, this time a human-made one! The system needs to change asap – a feeling as clear as never before – and it was the humans who will experience this crisis in their lifetimes who started speaking up.

‘shout out loud’ – a role playing-game on plastic pollution at the UN Ocean Conference in nice, France

Five years later, in a public park in the center of Nice, France, at the UN Ocean Conference. 20 young students from the Lycée international de Valbonne are standing in a circle, in three groups, representing: nature / ocean, industry / manufacturers and politics / governments. In a public-facing role-playing game, we are discussing the problem of plastic pollution. The task for the group is to find a common ground and a joint solution while representing different positionings.

“How about introducing a plastic tax, and moving investments in the finance sector to sustainable alternatives?”. With this question the discussion is starting. The microphone is given from student to student, the group is exchanging opinions. We are in the middle of the discussion, moderating, and what is apparent is the very respectful and professional approach the students choose to debate.

As a tool of empowerment, the portraits from another group of kids contributed to the role-playing game. What we find remarkable is that, within just a few minutes of a debate, all parties were in agreement – subsidies for destructive materials will be replaced by investments into truly sustainable solutions. If the growth decreases slightly but the planet is recovering, it is a trend that is absolutely acceptable. “If I am healthy, all of you humans will also be healthy” – with a last word from the ocean group, the talk is coming to a close.

put the kids in command

What would happen to our society and the planet if these children took the lead? Humanity has not reached the goal it has set for itself to “significantly reduce marine pollution” by 2025 (SDG 14.1). In fact, plastic pollution has increased massively. An estimate of 12-15 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year, which is expected to triple by 2024. Clearly, adults have failed. Is it time for youth to take over?

After this event, we feel energized, and are having an insight: children and young adults are not as “conditioned” as adults and their value system is still flexible and intuitive. Including them in decision processes is a crucial opportunity for adults. Their voices should be listened to much more! It is the next generation who should have a say, also as they will carry the greatest burden of today’s action or inaction. They should be given a chance to steer our society. As a positive side effect, the adult world would be able to heal themselves and the planet faster, as children help them find their own inner child in their hearts again.

On a side note, the portraits the children were holding had evolved from a children’s ocean photography workshop Ocean. Now! held nine months beforehand, on the island of Fehmarn, in the Baltic Sea in Germany. The portraits, showing the handwritten messages from children to adult decision-makers, served as a visual backdrop in the discussion exercise, and symbolically created a link between the voices of children in Germany and France.

Ocean. Now! is expanding both the portrait series “shout out loud” as well as the role-playing games. We welcome any partnership inquiries in this endeavor.

We thank our partners on the ground, the city of Nice for its cooperation and the Lycée international de Valbonne, and particularly the teacher Claire Bernard for teaming up on this event, and our friend and partner Julia Ochs for the outstanding photography on the ground, as well as Valérie de Baecque for liaising with the local media for us.

If you’d like to support our efforts to reduce plastic pollution in the ocean, you can support our current campaign by signing our petition or donating to our conservation efforts. Together, we can make waves of change.