NJPN Conference: Why are we buying into this flawed idea of 'success' ?

Anna Marshall image ICN/JS

Sixth former Anna Marshall was one of three young people who addressed the NJPN conference in Swanwick on Sunday. She said: Everyone agrees that education is a vital element of the response to the climate crisis. I thought that it might be useful to give you an insight into how I feel I have been educated on the climate emergency.

Firstly, I think it is important for you to know that my generation knows about the climate crisis. Many people assume that those young people who don't attempt to respond to the climate crisis don't know about the climate emergency. That's blatantly not true. We know and understand the climate crisis perhaps better than older generations because we've grown up with the science, with being told about it, being worried about it and being taught what we can do to help. The climate crisis is on the news and we do speak about it at school.

So what is it that could possibly be lacking from our education that can stop my generation engaging with the climate emergency? There is obviously something crucial. In my experience, it is the detachment of the education we receive from real life. I am taught that single use plastic is bad in class, that when it finally breaks down after hundreds of years, it leaks damaging chemicals into the surroundings. The next minute, I am in the dining room and all my friends are buying plastic packaged food. Maybe it's the only option if I want a glass of water to buy a plastic bottle. I am told mass-produced meat is bad for the environment, and yet it is served day-in and day-out. I'm told that I shouldn't buy things I don't need or won't use, and yet every day the 'real world' advertises a new type of phone or gadget that's slightly different to the last. It is as if what we are taught in the classroom about climate change doesn't actually matter. It's not relevant in real life.

There is no holistic education. There is only so much anyone can be taught in the classroom. There is neither a sustained message for change to help the environment, nor a consistent message.

I suppose it is the same reason why so many adults dismiss climate change - it is easier to do what everyone else does, and it feels safe. The example we are set is one that doesn't change. Why should we have to be the ones to change? Why shouldn't we trust the adults? Surely they know more than us about the world. People my age and younger are simply not the solution - we can't vote, we can't work like an adult, we don't have the same amount of independence. We are reliant on adults.

In school, it's harder to work for the environment than not. There's always the underlying fear for schools that climate activism is party-political, which of course it is not. There's also the opposition from big companies such as school food caterers, which have been taking advantage of the lack of funding in state schools. They consistently put profit above the environment. Is this what it is to be successful? Why is this allowed in an educational setting? They have just as much impact as anything a teacher can say in a classroom about climate change. Environmental messaging is just nowhere to be seen.

I think perhaps the best thing about my generation is that we're not actually afraid of change. We want to do things. We're open to new ideas. This is what causes the frustration. We need the help, but for most people, support for environmental action is not there in school, or at least not visibly there. Schools can't be expected to change things, or be relied on as the only place of environmental education. That has never been the case. Everyone knows education extends beyond the classroom.

There are a lot of strong emotions about climate change for young people. We feel scared. We feel anxious. We feel hopeless. We feel frustrated. And we do feel angry. Equally, as much as we are taught to care, we are encouraged to dismiss the climate crisis. There are more important things, such as exams, getting a job and achieving that magical thing - success. If anything, the current education system teaches us to be selfish and short-sighted. There is something systemically wrong. The world prioritises money and power, although people disguise it behind the term 'success'. We've built a politic of quick-fixes and complacency. This is the example young people are set, and this is an impossible way to deal with the climate emergency.

I think a cause of this lies in what we value, and how we measure progress. Right at the roots of our unfounded complacency is the economic myth that we are constantly getting better. I'm talking about GDP, Gross Domestic Product. This is an example of the 'real world' ignoring the climate crisis. It's not even a matter of misusing the system. GDP was designed to do this. We're constantly being told that the more money we have, the better we are doing. How, then, is our environment being destroyed and yet our GDP is still increasing? We're growing in a way that I believe has nothing to do with real progress. Apparently, we can be successful even as we destroy the planet.

At Pentecost, the Bishops of England and Wales wrote a letter to all young people in Catholic schools. Unfortunately, I don't think it was heard by all young people in Catholic schools. I'd like to read part of it to demonstrate the call to climate activism that I believe has the power to change hearts if only it is a sustained and consistent message, in 'real life' for young people.

"There must be a new global understanding of our world, where nations recognise our common responsibility for the dignity of all people and their rights to sustainable livelihoods and freedoms."

This seems more like the success I want to aim for. The perception of success otherwise sold to us is deeply flawed.

My question to you, to the Church in general, and the Bishops specifically who wrote this letter, is why are we still buying into this flawed idea of success? My challenge for COP 26 is to change the world's idea of what success is.