Saturday 29 September 2007

Students from around the world believe climate change is a more urgent threat than international terrorism

Climate change, with its potential impacts on people and the environment, is a bigger and more urgent threat than international terrorism, according to the young people who came from all over the world to attend this year’s International Student Summit in London. Despite the high profile threats from terrorism that have been making headlines across the world in the past twelve months, nearly two thirds (64%) of students feared climate change more than terrorism – an increase from 59% in 2006.

The summit, co-hosted by the Natural History Museum and the British Council, brought together around 250 students from both the UK and countries as widespread as China, Brazil, Portugal, Singapore and Oman to tackle the issue of how to make our cities greener and create a sustainable future. Climate change is a global issue that concerns young people all over the world. Despite the high profile threats from terrorism that have been making headlines over the past twelve months, nearly two thirds (64 per cent) of students feared climate change more than terrorism – an increase from 59 per cent in 2006.

The opinions of these students demonstrate climate change is the first truly global threat; affecting the lives of everybody, and particularly the next generation. Young people know this and want to take actions now.

Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London said, ‘Reaching a young audience is so important because older people are more often in denial. We don’t need new technology. We have what we need. We simply need the political will and we can reduce our carbon footprint by 80-90%! If we want to have a world that is not a blazing inferno for a children then we must behave responsibly. If we make the right decisions we can halt this problem once and for all.’

The popular message from the students was, ‘it is our problem and we have to deal with it now. It is all down to us.’’

Both the Portugese students, Joana da Silva and Antonio Grilo made valuable contribution to the Summit and made many new friends from all around the world. Not only that, but their inspiration from the Summit led them to enter a competition set up by the British Council which won them both first and third prize. See their winning entries at: http://www.britishcouncil.org/science-projects-and-events-greening-cities-winning-entry.htm

We were pleasantly surprised to find that the young students also had hidden talents. Antonio entertained everyone each day with his wonderful piano playing.


Renuka Parmar

Project Manager, British Council