Times have changed since we first learned about environmental rights. Environmental rights awareness has increased. People are talking about it and we hear about it in the news, but during this time, the environmental situation has become more dire. Most people in Canada have been touched by some kind of environmental disaster in recent years. It only makes sense why so many young people feel overwhelmed and powerless or have lost hope. Like many of my peers, I suffer from eco-anxiety. Every day I worry about pollution, plastics, species loss, the climate crisis, flooding, wildfires, our air, our water and more.
Working toward a healthier and more sustainable future gives me hope. Having the Canadian government consider taking the historic step of adding environmental rights to Canadian law for the first time gives me hope too. It is important to us that the next generation of Canadians grows up in a country where the rights to clean water, clean air and healthy food are protected by Canadian law, and where the Canadian Environmental Protection Act has been modernized.
Finally, the world is ruled by adults, but it will be the youth who inherit the consequences of the decisions made here. We sit here before you, asking you to take steps for a safer and healthier future.
Thank you for listening.