Salesian Youth for Climate Action – Rebecca Petz

By Don Bosco Green Alliance

January 30, 2020

I am not the best example of climate protection. Large supermarkets are simply cheaper than the health food store – and to sleep ten minutes longer, tempts me to get my coffee at the kiosk. Nevertheless, my own weaknesses are no reason to remain silent.

Climate change is not a conspiracy theory, but reality. Our world has scarce resources and our greed for more is fully exploiting them. For example, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia have been discussing the Nile dam for some time. A solution is not yet in sight. How can we also agree on who earns the most from water, which is already scarce anyway?

In research, connections are drawn here between scarcity of resources and increasing conflict potential. When young people take to the streets in the “Fridays for Future” demonstrations, they don’t just want to annoy car drivers, they want to create a world worth living in that is as peaceful as possible. According to human rights, every human being has the right to live in dignity. This promise can only be kept if the outside conditions are right. To support climate protection is therefore a struggle for justice – and human rights education without sustainability as a topic unthinkable.

Rebecca Petz, 24, is from Magdeburg, Germany and engaged with the Don Bosco Green Alliance since April 2019.

This Article was first published in Don Bosco Magazin Germany in January 2020: https://www.donbosco-magazin.de