YOUTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
The environment is simply defined as our surroundings including both living and non-living things. Environmental sustainability is a broad topic that includes the acts of protecting, conserving, preserving, and managing the environment. The world keeps an eagle eye on the environment as it is the only habitat that helps in sustaining the life of living organisms including human beings. Environmental sustainability means the utilization of environmental resources without compromising the ability of future generations to acquire their basic needs (WCED, 1987). Environmental sustainability is to be undertaken by the youth to provide an environment with high suitability for production purposes by considering the existing tradeoffs between service provision and environmental management which will help to lower the operating costs of production of goods and services to the people (Chumbula & Massawe, 2018). Environmental problems such as global warming, greenhouse effect due to increased greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, and climate change increase the global concern while local and national environmental problems such as poor waste disposal are less concerned. Protecting the environment starts with activities such as pollution control, good waste management, and afforestation of arid and semi-arid areas.
The youth that comprises young people of different nations who are energetic can play a great role in sustaining the environment for future generations. Young people constitute a large part of the world’s population and young people will have to live longer with consequences of current environmental decisions than their elders. Future generations will also be affected by the decisions and the extent to which they have addressed concerns such as the depletion of resources, biodiversity loss, and long-lived radioactive wastes. The youth have a greater part to play an active role in improving, protecting, preserving, conserving, and managing the environment. the youth in parts can implement this through a change in their lifestyle and how it affects the environment by making their homes and schools and organizations more environmental friendly through avoiding significant environmental damage that is to occur in the environments such as homesteads, school and the areas around their organizations. The environmentally friendly methods that can be utilized by the youth include recycling of different materials as well as protecting resources such as water and forests against human interference. Also, the process of sustaining the environment that involves the youth does not only create a direct impact on changing youth behaviors and attitudes towards the environment but also influences the behaviors of people around them such as the parents, relatives, and other family members. The youth play an active role in protecting and
improving the environment to make it sustainable. Through the following youth play important roles;
Application of the green tips knowledge at home, schools, universities, and different working environments. The application of green tips knowledge can help in attaining green cities which little or no environmental damage. Discarding computers, electrical appliances, and rechargeable batteries can seriously damage the environment. youth play in implementing the green tips such as recycling programs for used computers and electrical appliances whereby the youth can take part in the collection of wastes from different points within the cities. There are also many collection points for the recycling of rechargeable batteries. The youth being aware of these waste collection points cannot simply dump the wastes carelessly. The following are the main green tips that are used by the youth to conserve the environment:
Greening homesteads and households; the practices are done by the youth to attain a green environment at homes include: closing the running tap water when out of use, using dishwater when all the dishes are full. Reusing the water for other activities if possible and being cautious in the use of water is an important act for water resource management. Turning off lights for serving energy resources as much as possible is also a way to go green. During the daytime, youth play a part by opening the windows and screens to let the sunlight provide light and warmth to the house to maintain proper use of energy resources.
Greening by recycling and reusing: youths collect recyclable wastes such as plastic bottles, paper materials, damaged furniture, and glass bottles. Also, youths play part in reusing some materials which could be damped leading to wastes into the environment. For example, youth in different cities such as Dar es Salaam and Mwanza in Tanzania has led the program of collecting and assembling used plastic bottles to make other new bottles through recycling and cab use again for packaging. The main policy termed TAKA NI DILI has been the slogan of the youth in making sure that the cities in Tanzania become clean and attractive. Also, Recycling paper, glass, and metals are done by the youth by making use of the local trash pickup service, and instead of simply throwing older items, the youths use their creativity to innovate new items of great potential
Provision of education to the society: the youth raise the awareness of people in the society through providing them with education on environmental protection and conservation in their developmental activities. For the education about prevention of pollution, avoiding deforestation. Engagement of youth in environmental cleanliness in cooperation with local society shows great
environmental care. Besides, raising the awareness of people in the society the youth provide advice to the workers undertaking different economic activities to avoid unnecessary pollution such as careless disposal of solid wastes. Moreover, preparation of seminars and conferences can also be used to raise people’s awareness this is done through undertaking different courses that aid at raising the awareness of the youth for further environmental protection and conservation. For example, the youth in most of the universities in Tanzania including the Sokoine university of agriculture, Ardhi University, and Muhimbili University provide different environmental courses such as environmental sciences and management, environmental economics, and environmental health for the main aim of imparting environmental knowledge to the youth. This increases the sense of caring of which the youth undertake the course have more and utilize their knowledge effectively in avoiding environmental damage.
Planting trees to conserve the environment. trees act as a source of food, oxygen, purify the air, and can help to prevent climate change. Civilized youth take part in discouraging clearing up of natural vegetation aiming at maintaining natural reserves of water resources and imbalance on the atmosphere caused by the high concentration of gases specifically the greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane that could increase as a result of the clearing of natural vegetation. Despite condemning the clearing of vegetation the youth play role in planting vegetation specifically trees in different parts of the world. For example, the youth in Tanzania ranging from secondary schools to university level plant trees regularly in the areas surrounding school environment and university campuses to support the forest policy 1998 which aims at restoring deforested areas and conserving the areas which still have vegetation cover. Also, in the part of Dodoma individuals including the youth have played part in the campaigns such as KIJANISHA DODOMA and KISIKI HAI to motivate the society to plant trees to restore the vegetation cover in barren environments.
Sustainable agricultural: agriculture is the practice of growing crops and livestock keeping. The use of technology in mechanization and the use of improved varieties in agriculture has accelerated huge agricultural productivity in agricultural practices but with little environmental impact. Sustainable agricultural practices include the crop rotation method which is termed as soil conservation practice (Hobbs et al., 2008). Agriculture being the back of most countries such as Tanzania has to shift from using hand hoes to local breeds which have low productivity. The youth have attained enough knowledge and use sustainable agriculture and play a part as machine
operators in agriculture but also veterinary doctors and applied agricultural extension officers. For example, there are many youth veterinary doctors and many agricultural extension officers who directly apply their knowledge to their domestic animals but also advise people on sustainable agricultural practices that have no impact on the environment.
Formation of different environmental organizations and clubs such Malihai, Environmental Watch of Tanzania (EWAT) and I Believe in Green (IBIG). Youth in different parts of the world including Tanzania organize, formulate and participate in different organizations that aim at protecting, conserving, and cleaning the environment. these organizations work hand in hand with society to make sure the environmental policies are implemented for the betterment of the present and the future generations. For example, the Mihai organization which is run by the youth at the secondary school level helps to make environmental cleanliness around the schools and maintain the school environment through the planting of flowers and grasses. Also, the Environmental watch of Tanzania (EWAT) makes regular cleanliness at the Mindu dam in Morogoro but regular cleanliness of the campus environment of the Sokoine University of Agriculture.
Volunteering in participation in environmental cleanup activities. The participation of the youth in ensuring a sustainable environment starts at their homes. A child learns the first lesson of cleanliness, water and power consumption, gardening, and other issues from home. It is the responsibility of the parents/family to inculcate good habits in children’s and teach them cleanliness and wise use of natural resources such as electricity, water, and other resources according to need to reduce wastage to enable them to become more responsible for the protection of the environment and natural resources.
Social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Quora, and Twitter emphasize environmental conservation and management. The youth are the main users of different social networks all over the world. The youth through social networks helps to make environmental campaigns and advocacy all over the world. This is because by the use of the internet the world is made a village. For example, youth making environmental posters on WhatsApp can be disseminated to many people in different parts. Also, there are international environmental meetings which are run through zoom or google meetings, the youth being one of the environmental stakeholders participate in the meetings and contribute their ideas and opinions on how to protect and maintain a sustainable environment for humankind.
Innovation of environmental projects: innovations are the discoveries that help to solve a problem or make work easier. Innovations in environmental issues play an important role in the proper management of the environment and wise allocation of environmental resources to avoid scarcity of potential environmental resources such as water, forest products, and services that the ecosystem can provide to the community. Youth in Tanzania have been promoting different innovations projects which attain economic goals but also maintain the welfare of the environment. For example, projects such as KATANI Gas project and pyrolysis of waste to energy from Dar es salaam Dumpsite in Tanzania involve the youth. Also, the young people have been employed to work in innovative projects for economic purposes but also managing the environment in the process of running the projects.
Conducting research and restoration projects: research is the systematic approach of seeking knowledge about a specific topic of interest. Youth conduct research on the issue concerning the environment to generate knowledge on different environment phenomena. The knowledge obtained from research activities can be used in the formulation of potential policies, programs, and plans on how to properly handle the environment. for example, to identify the potential endangered biodiversity and ecological endangered zones, various individuals including the youth have conducted research. Also, youth conduct restoration activities of the potential environment damaged due to human activities. These areas being restored include the coastal areas, estuarine environments, and deserted environments. For example, the restoration of the coastal areas involves the youth obtaining the data of polluted coastal areas through the use of technology such as remote sensing and geographical information software such as QGIS and ArcGIS.
Youths are the major suppliers of labor both technical and unskilled labor for the development of the country. Not only that but also the youths are to be the front liners in the fighting against environmental degradation for the welfare of the present and future generations. The economies of different countries in the world have abruptly grown as the youth worked harder and smarter by using their knowledge and manpower to run different economic activities considering the environmental impacts. The youth can make a change in the future of society with their wellbeing and courageous behavior to maintain a sustainable environment. However, it sounds, unfortunately, finding most of the youth today is part of behaviors that destroys their potential manpower in issues of less importance towards their economic growth and that of their
nations. The youth should be protected and given appropriate knowledge for their prosperity and that of their environment.
REFERENCES;
Chumbula, J. J., & Massawe, F. A. (2018). The role of local institutions in the creation of an enabling environment for water project sustainability in Iringa District, Tanzania. 1–10. https://doi.org/10.2478/environ-2018-0023
Hobbs, P. R., Sayre, K., & Gupta, R. (2008). The role of conservation agriculture in sustainable agriculture. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 363(1491), 543–555. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2007.2169
World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), 1987. Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development. Oxford University Press, Oxford
