6TH ANNUAL YOUTH ASSEMBLY AT THE UNITED NATIONS

6TH ANNUAL YOUTH ASSEMBLY AT THE UNITED NATIONS

DATE: August 5-7, 2009

(June 5, 2009 Deadline for Registration)

Encouraging you to participate!
The youth involved are truly inspirational.

http://www.faf.org/unyouthassembly/ya_home.htm

http://www.faf.org/unyouthassembly/testimonials.htm

San Francisco's Generation Y

AAU "Clean & Green SF Community" Team!




“The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children." (Mollsion, 1990)

The youth have an enormous impact in the present and future state of the planet. UNESCO states that “The lifestyles of the youth influence commerce and media - and shape the process of production, marketing, and consumption patterns of goods and services.” As future workers, entrepreneurs, parents, political leaders, and policy makers, it is integral to create an environment that will influence their future decisions and actions to benefit the generation after them. In 2007, United States ranked 1st as a global warming polluter, compared to other large nations. The youth drive the market in media, fashion, and entertainment, but there is a lack in influence in integral and critical issues that is responsible for their future – the disastrous effects of global warming.

Generation Y includes anyone that was born after 1981. San Francisco’s population profile states that 1/4 of the San Francisco residents are below 30, and considered as part of Generation Y. The young generation ais acknowledging that climate change initiatives must be taken but, there is a lack of participation. "My generation's biggest icons aren't politicians and Nobel Peace Prize Laureates — they're rappers and rock stars," said Luke Ramersad, a junior at Lowell High School, San Francisco, Calif. In the United States, there has yet to be a single bill passed by Congress to cut global warming pollution. Yet, is it common to see a young San Francisco resident lobbying for stronger climate change policies?”

With 80% of the world’s CO2 coming from cities, it is evident that the youth’s actions and lifestyle are responsible for the mitigation of climate change. The U.S. Census Bureau and the National Geographic Society’s Green Guide states that San Francisco is the second greenest city in the US, after Portland. San Francisco is one of the cities that have leaders that support the environment. Mayor Gavin Newsom, is aiming for 75 % waste diversion by 2010 and have Zero-waste by 2020. Most importantly, Mayor Newsom believes in integrating environmental awareness in the education system. “I’d like to see comprehensive curriculum in our schools as it relates to environmental stewardship. I’d like this city to be the example for the rest of the country,” says Newsom at an interview with Ecocity World Summit. Agenda 21, the sustainable development blueprint for the 21st Century, recognized in Chapter 36 that education, public awareness, and training are critical for sustainable development, and that participation and involvement of young people, alongside other eight major groups, are essential in its implementation .

Jared Blumenfeld, Director of the San Francisco Department of the Environment, thinks that the biggest sustainability challenge is sustaining people’s attention, “It’s difficult because we’re competing for people’s attention. So, keeping it relevant and interesting and cool and impactful is the constant challenge,” he says. How can San Francisco engage the youth in tGlobal Warming & Climate Change and use their power to create positive change?

In the upcoming months, Obama’s greatest challenge is to find a careful balance stimulating the economy and investing in the long-term future of the environment, said Raj, the professor of economics for Univeresity of California, Berkeley. Sustainable development is defined by Britannica as “an approach to economic planning that attempts to foster economic growth while preserving the quality of the environment for future generations.” Development begins with the community and it is only sustainable if it is supported by members of these communities. It is not only about 10% of the population reducing their carbon footprint, it is people working collectively together in the community to contribute in enhancing the environment. The San Francisco community should propose a budget plan that provides the youth with an opportunity to acknowledge and support sustainable development. The youth imposing and practicing sustainable development will benefit future generations to come.

If Global Warming and mitigating Climate Change had the attention of Generation Y, they will affect their parents, the media and help the economy move forward in a direction that will benefit not only their generation, but the generation after them. Al Gore, while accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, said at the end of his speech, “Make no mistake, the next generation will ask us one of two questions. Either they will ask: “What were you thinking; why didn’t you act?” Or they will ask instead: “How did you find the moral courage to rise and successfully resolve a crisis that so many said was impossible to solve?” The Generation Y has an opportunity to become that generation, and we can start in San Francisco, the city mentioned by Newsom “We’re about civil rights and equal rights, you better believe it.”



Work Cited:
“Global Warming by the Numbers. Chilling statistics to think about.” Environmental Defense Fund. 24 Febuary 2009.
Corcoran, Peter; Blaze, Peter. “Young People, Education, and Sustainable Development. Exploring Principles, Perspectives, and Praxis Editors. 2 February 2009. < www.fgcu.edu/CESE/Files/Kitabu_Concept_Statement.pdf>

“San Francisco Visionaries.” Ecocity World Summit. 6 February 2008.

Barabak, Mark. “San Francisco’s Mayor Gavin Newsom launches exploratory bid for governor.” LA Times. 2 July 2008. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/02/local/me-newsom2
“San Francsico: Population Profile.” City Data. 21 February 2009. < http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-West/San-Francisco-Population-Profile.html >

Vaccaro, Amie. “Interview with Jared Blumenfeld, Director, San Francisco Department of the Environment.’October 17th, 2008

“Sustainable Development.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 25 Feb. 2009. < http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/765435/environmental-law/224618/Sustainable-development#ref=ref750231>

Leach, Adam. “Global recession - keeping business at the heart of sustainable development.”19 November 2008. http://www.iblf.org/resources/ebulletin/November08.htm

Azadeh, Anzari. “Energy, economy create balancing act for Obama.” CNN. 30 January 2009.

Richard Register's "Ecocities: Building Cities in Balance with Nature"

"Ecocities: Building Cities in Balance with Nature" by Richard Register

AS WE BUILD SO SHALL WE LIVE Chapter

Richard Register has been an environmental activist for a long time—being ecologically aware is his nature. Upon reading the first chapter, “As we build, so shall we live,” already I am beginning to feel compassion towards the environmental acitivists, like him, during the phase in which he calls “The Second Urbanization of America.” During the third millennium, as the introduction of more highways, parking spaces, bridges, car infrastructures catapulted and destroying our civilization – there were people like Richard Register, who were trying to refrain from a self-destructing environment. They realized how integral it was to live in “ecocities” that complemented nature, and not go against it. While the US government and large corporations were ignoring our environment, there were visionaries who were trying to preserve our future, and they were ignored. I feel for their fight. (Cheesy much?)

People that I’ve spoken to about the book mention that the book can be a little bit dry. I too found myself almost lost in the midst of a paragraph. Register has ideas and thoughts with a magnitude of substance that should be applied in our urban planning and become a guide for re-developing our civilization. Relaying those ideas however, should also be able to apply to connecting to humans, as we are the ones who will be benefiting from his vision.


Questions:
1. What is the difference between a “constructed-marsh waste system ”(p.28) and Living Machines?


Highlights:

"Redesigning and Building Whole Cities on Ecological Principles"

“Building a nonviolent city that respects other life forms and celebrates human creativity and diversity is consistent with solving those problems.”

“The edifice edifies”

“Children in today’s typical-car dominated cities learn that cars are valued so highly that it is worth risking human life and enduring high costs and serious pollution to make way for them. They also learn that people don’t care much for public life or nature. “

“At the European Eco-Logical Architecture Congress in Stockholm and Helsinki in Aug. 1992, there was discussion on designing ‘ecological building.’ These buildings features renewable energy systems, built-in recycling, non-toxic building materials, interior greenhous planting and rooftop gardens.”

“If Ecology is not about the individual organism in its community of other living thins, what is it about? If ecological buildings are not about their relationship to other structures, public open spaces, and the life of the whole community, what are they about?... ‘The parking lot. That’s where you go to connect with it.”


“I concluded that it was time to re-unify the dis-integrated city and bring the eco- and social- strains back together again in a New Synthesis Architecture. In this philosophy, the building is primarily conceived as a part of, not apart from, the rest of the larger built community, and positively related to the community of natural environments and life forms.”



Planning West Oakland, CA with eco-visionaries & Richard Register (to my left), author of "Ecocities: Building Cities in Balance with Nature"at the West Coast Green Design Charette, Environment

With Urban Re:Visionaries

WITH URBAN RE:VISIONARIES

"There was a time for visionaries. To Think, To Plan, To Dream-- but is there time to dream these days? It's time to Revise, Redo, React, to turn visionary ideas into action. Its time for revisionaries."

Link:
http://www.revision-dallas.com/


Van Jones at the SF Green Festival

It was honor to meet Van Jones. He signed his book on "The Green Collar Economy," that I got for my dad and wrote, "Your daughter loves you." After many-a-book-signings his charisma is 'au naturel'. Van Jones activates the green movement towards those who need it the most. The core of urban communities whose lives have been affected by environmental degradation and social injustice. Founder of "Green for All" and the new appointee to the White House Council on environmental quality.


http://www.greenforall.org/
http://vanjones.net/




Ecocity World Summit

Architects & Teachers of Green Design of Academy of Art University & UC Berkeley. Eric Corey Freed, Micheal Sammet, Craig Henritzy at the Ecocity World Summit in San Francisco.

Link:
http://www.greenbuildinglawupdate.com/2009/03/articles/freed-design-winner-will-build-actual-city-block/