This week, people across the globe are organizing events around sustainability, green living and climate change to mark the annual celebration of Earth Day. Often leading the charge is young people, who one faculty expert at the George Washington University says fully understand the peril that today’s planet confronts, and the urgency of action needed to address the climate crisis.
Frank Sesno is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and creator of Planet Forward, a user-driven web and television project that highlights innovations in sustainability. He hosts and facilitates the Planet Forward Salon Series focusing on topics such as energy policy, green jobs and food production.
Sesno can speak to the surge of interest and engagement from younger generations to confront and address the climate crisis. He can also discuss youth climate activism trends and the ingenuity, drive, and energy students demonstrate in raising awareness of and finding solutions to some of the planet’s most pressing climate issues.
“I think today’s young people have grown up with this narrative of climate change, a very fundamentally different thing than other generations have grown up. Other generations certainly have grown up with planetary peril, whether it’s war or mere pollution,” Sesno says.
“But today’s young people have been confronted with where they’ve grown up, in their own homes. Whether it’s wildfires or extreme heat or extreme weather, rising sea levels, drought – they’ve lived it. They’ve felt it, many of them. They’ve experienced it and so they bring that personal experience together with their studies, together with their generational awareness, together with their connectivity because of social media, with a passion for this planet I think that is unique.”
WATCH: Find more insight from Prof. Sesno here.
If you would like to speak with Prof. Sesno or GW students who are involved with Planet Forward, please contact GW Media Relations Specialist Cate Douglass at cdouglass@gwu.edu
