Called the Climate Leadership Corps, a somewhat leftist and militant-sounding group, right?
On the environmental activism front Greenpeace has long lead the way with their heroic displays, their sometimes baffling but interesting protests adding to their long list of gripes with companies and
individuals, and humanity’s ever-expanding list of crimes against Mother Nature.
Words like fracking and coal power bring this group’s members to tears.
Ag, a simple Google search will provide you with valuable information that clearly shows our earth has a hacking cough. It is sick. It is dying.
Yet, even the sometimes violent retorts from mega consumer-driven companies Greenpeace opposes,
the word ‘peace’ is right there in the name.
They come off as fluffy at the end of the day, with me going, “Oh, cute, look at the activists” – a corps should be a violent bunch then.
To my dismay, they are not.
The corps is a 2014 programme bringing climate training to Africa, and for this, Generation Earth joins forces with Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project.
The Climate Reality Leadership Corps Africa Training, which will take place from 12 to 14 March in swanky Sandton, follows on the heels of similar training around the globe.
The Africa training aims to arm trainees with all the information – not guns and ammo – they need to be the best climate messengers in their communities.
Various experts will address best practices in communicating the major impacts of climate change specific to Africa, the cost of these impacts, and the potential for growing the African market by adopting sustainable initiatives and alternative energy solutions.
Climate Reality leaders are supposedly the future of the climate change movement, and this training will equip trainees to discuss unique challenges of the climate crisis pertaining to Africa.
The training will bring a special focus to the issues that make the African continent particularly vulnerable to the high cost of carbon pollution.
Generation Earth, a youth-focused environmental organisation which works to create a green network with the youth, for the youth, by the youth was founded in 2011 by Ella Bella and Catherine Constantinides.
The two were selected last year to represent South Africa at the Global Climate Reality Leadership Corps training in Istanbul.
It was at this training that a commitment was made by both parties to work together to mobilise African environmental activists and bring them together at the Africa-focused climate change training.
Generation Earth’s head office has worked closely with their various youth councils both in South Africa and across the continent to ensure that a competent and dynamic youth contingent will be among the 1 000 trainees in Johannesburg this month.
Their vision was to cultivate green leaders for the next generation by changing the mind-set of the youth to create leaders for the future who are eco-conscious and aware of how their consumer habits and lifestyles impact on the environment. And Generation Earth has done spectacular work before.
Ella Bella and Catherine Constinandes are also the driving force behind South Africa’s Miss Earth pageant.
Having worked with them, their passion is sometimes infectious, and it is no wonder that they are spearheading this campaign.
The speakers at the conference include some of Africa’s leading climate
change activists:
- Wanjira Maathai, Green Belt Movement activist and project leader at the Wangari Maathai Institute
- South African-born executive director of Greenpeace International, Kumi Naidoo
- Johan van den Berg, CEO of the South Africa Wind Energy Association
- Ikal Angelei and Jonathan Deal, Goldman Environmental Prize recipients
- Evans Wadongo, executive director and chairman of Sustainable Development for all, based in Kenya.
International speakers include Maggie L. Fox, President and CEO of The Climate Reality Project and Climate Reality project founder, Nobel laureate and former American vice president, Al Gore.
Gore has been a driving force behind changing perceptions on how climate change affects the world. I’d go so far as calling him an icon. He’s been a Time magazine runner-up for person of the year, which already sells him as somebody we need to listen to.
But he has his critics. Often painted as a false prophet, with a ‘secret’ lavish life where he splurges on private jets and homes using electricity. How dare he?
Yet, he is coming here. This likely means that it is time for us to listen.
Johannesburg was built on dedication. It is one of the world’s few landlocked cities that actually thrives. In the early days when cities were built and skyscrapers were sprouting, it made sense to have them close to oceans and goliath rivers.
Our forefathers, on the other hand, knew the mining industry would lead to a development boom, and the City of Gold was born – with no actual resources such as water to sustain its population. Modernisation ensured the rivers changed their course and provided the city with its needs.
We have the good life here in Johannesburg.
Err, no, actually it is a pot of trouble boiling over.
Are you affected by the ever-increasing floods around the city? Do you sit in longer traffic jams when it rains? Do you sweat more in the summer from the scorching sun, smearing your make-up, and leaving you sweat-drenched when you dare sleep under a duvet?
Damn, aren’t you annoyed by the flip-flop climate? Cold, then hot, then really hot, then freezing all in a week?
That sunburn and hours of frustrations can be blamed on climate change. It does affect you, and it affects our city.
That is why it is important to take note of Catherine and Ella Bella. And this is where I give credit to activists… they might have us going “cute” sometimes, but have you actually considered their reasoning? How what they’re fighting for is not medium-end solutions, but sustainability. Really doing something that will ensure humanity survives. That we actually get to stay on this
earth.
When I consider that, I am amazed that they have not yet picked up guns and formed underground commandos – because hell, I really want to stay here.
