Shaelyn:
“I can’t just worry about going to school and getting a job and having a family when there’s this looming crisis down the road. I’m scared that a lot of things are going to change in everybody’s life. What will the weather look like? What will playing outside look like?
“Also, when you’re young, everybody thinks you shouldn’t have much of a say because you don’t have all the experience or rank that older people have. But our generation wants to have that respect for our ideas and we’re in a position now where we’re ready to step into those leadership roles.”
Barbara:
“First I need to identify my generation within the seven stages of life, a foundational Potawatomi teaching. I am transitioning between the stage of wisdom and the stage of being an Elder.
“My concerns extend beyond human beings and include the impacts of climate change on our ways of being and knowing. I don’t see that my concerns are specific to a generation. As the changes impact our lands and water, there are significant negative impacts on our food systems and our medicines which in turn impact our cultural practices and ceremony. Our non-human relatives and their habitats are threatened, and their abilities to adapt and survive are restricted by current land and water use as well as contamination. This, of course, impacts our reciprocal relationships. These relationships are the core of our ways of being and knowing.”
Sophia:
“What scares me the most about climate change is the chance of death. I’m scared of the people I love, my friends, and family getting hurt.
“I think that adults, their brains think everywhere. They’re thinking about money. Kids think straight. We know we know we need to act on this. What the older generation needs to learn is that our generation wants to grow up in a livable future. We just want to have a life.”
Cathy:
“What worries me most is the thought of handing over my children a world that is not livable. It was 2007 when the AR4 IPCC Report came out and when I heard the report, what I heard was, ‘If we keep doing what we’re doing, the planet is going to become very difficult to live on.’ My daughters’ lives flashed before my eyes. As a mom, I worry immensely.”
On why an intergenerational approach – informed by Indigenous knowledge and practices – is critical for addressing the climate crisis…