We are constantly being reminded of the inevitable future that now faces us and our future generations due to global warming which is the driving force behind climate change. And as Pacific Islanders it is an issue that we cannot brush away lightly because we are at the threshold of sea-level rising.
Many have taken up the cause to create awareness and to try and figure out a way to prepare us and our future generations for the coming changes. A few youths who met up at the Pacific Youth Festival decided they wanted to help.
They created a group called the Pasifika Climate Change Group. Kirsty Albion of Project Survival an Australian Youth Climate Coalition conducted a workshop on climate change during the PYF where many young Pacific students sat in anticipation, grabbing information they could use for future reference.
These youths then endeavored to form this group for the betterment of their individual communities where they were to return to.
"I am very happy to say this group is filled with a lot of youths who are passionate about trying to help the environment and to educate the community as to the importance of a healthy natural surrounding," said member, Josephine Nasova, a Tourism and Management student at the University of the South Pacific. "We all rely on the environment. Can you think of an activity you would conduct without having to involve the environment, everything we have around us, comes from the environment. We must push to educate the community around us on the importance of a healthy natural surrounding, not only for ourselves but also for the future generation," said USP Marine lecturer, Joeli Veitayaki. This is exactly what the PCCG are aiming to achieve.
"We are trying to working with major non-governmental organisations here in Suva, like IUCN and Econeasian so that we can further our knowledge on environmental changes and what we can do to help ourselves so in turn we will be able to help those who are not aware. We are helping to further awareness," said Nasova.
There are about 34 members in Suva and more in the Western Division. Islanders who also attended the Pacific Youth Festival have returned to their home islands with the aim of also creating awareness in network with others around the region.
The group will be holding their first activity during the Hibiscus Festival where they will be conducting a clean-up campaign. "We also intend to go out to schools and have special classes. It is always good to start with the younger children because they are our future and it is essential to educate them especially with this pressing issue of environmental degradation and climate change," said Nasova.
"As Pasifika Youth, we call upon our leaders to move us in unison towards a cleaner, greener, sustainable future for all.
"We, the youth and elders of the Pacific region, are witnessing the rise of waters around our island homelands. Shifting climate and weather patterns are destroying our natural heritage - destabilising reef ecosystems, salinitising fresh water aquifers, and causing mounting disequilibrium in all natural biomes. The youth of the Pacific are asking: If not you, then who? "If not now, then when? If not our Pacific islands, then where?"