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Inspirational Activist Stories from Here and Abroad
A Youth Perspective on Sustainable Development & Family Planning
By Laura Stein
 In spring of 2006, I became involved with Temple's student environmental organization, Students for Environmental Action (SEA). Two weeks after attending my first club meeting I traveled to Yale University for the 4th Annual Northeast Climate Conference. It was there that I was introduced to the world of environmental activism. The more I learned about environmental issues like deforestation, the global water crisis and global warming, the more I realized that change needed to be made on Temple's campus.
At the time that I joined SEA, the club was focused on creating a community garden and improving the campus recycling system, and while both efforts were commendable, I decided that the club needed to do bigger things. I began working closely with members of the Sierra Student Coalition, and in Fall 2006, Students for Environmental Action officially joined the Campus Climate Challenge and began working on an effective CO2 emissions reduction campaign at Temple.
While much of the campaign involves working with administrators to make changes in policy regarding sustainability, another very important aspect of the Climate Challenge is education. Students and faculty need to be informed of the environmental issues that the world is faced with today. Living in the United States as part of a culture that is more removed from the earth than millions of others all over the world, it is very easy, even as environmental activists, to forget that people are already suffering due to lack of natural resources. The more information that people know about environmental issues and how they personally are affected, the more willing they are to get involved.
As one of many environmental awareness events, SEA hosted a Sex and the Environment workshop in November of 2006. The Sex and the Environment workshop really opened up my eyes and the eyes of my fellow club members by making the connection between sexual health and reproductive rights and environmental protection. The workshop explained how population growth, coupled with the rate at which we consume and degrade natural resources, jeopardizes the health of the global environment and threatens the availability of clean air and water for generations to come. In particular, one of the greatest problems that can be foreseen, as being a result of rapid population growth, would be increased consumption of fossil fuels that contribute to global warming. Although the United States makes up only about 5 percent of the world's population, we create approximately 25 percent of the pollution that causes global warming. As developing countries' contribution to global emissions grows, population growth rates become significant factors in magnifying the impacts of global warming.
Learning about population growth made me realize even more the need for sustainability in every aspect of development, and the event inspired me and other club members to reach out to other student organizations. This year the group plans to co-host a "Global Environmental Event" that will discuss how every culture is affected by its environment, and conversely how people must practice sustainability within their cultures in order to preserve resources for our future. In addition to the Global Environment Event, I am currently working with faculty to form a Temple Sustainability Committee that will hopefully include administrators, and act as an advisory team to work towards making Temple University more environmentally friendly.
There are tons of ways for young people to get involved with the fight for a healthier and more sustainable future, whether it be working to get universities and/or local and state governments to purchase clean and renewable energy, or educating people about the connections between population growth, sexual health and reproductive rights, and responsible consumption. In order to ensure that everyone has the basic rights of access to family planning, as well as clean air and water, we all need to work together and empower women and youth in all parts of the world.
An International Perspective on Sustainable Development & Family Planning
 In February, the Sierra Club's Global Population and Environment Program invited Adriana Varillas, an international reproductive health and rights advocate from Cancún, in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico, to participate in a week-long "Sex and Environment" tour throughout the state of Ohio. Collaborating with Sierra Student Coalition's Ohio Coordinator, Ty Dawson, Adriana discussed the reproductive health and environmental challenges facing Quintana Roo, and why it is critical for young people to recognize the intersections among poverty, global health, reproductive health and environmental protection, and take a stand to make a difference!
Adriana was born in Mexico City, and in her early twenties she moved to Cancún to work as a journalist specializing in conservation. There amidst the world's second largest coral reef, incredible biodiversity and white sandy beaches, she learned that the infamous city has two faces. One is internationally renowned for its wild nightlife and extravagant hotels, where North American youth flock to relax and enjoy themselves. But the other is known solely to the workers and families who support Cancún's tourist industry, who live at the outskirts of the city in impoverished conditions.
Several years ago on International Children's Day, Adriana interviewed Michelle, a five year-old child, living in one of Cancun's poorer communities, to find out what games she played for fun on this special day. Adriana discovered that not only did Michelle's toys came from the garbage, but that her greatest joy in life is playing in seńotes-or deep pools in the ground filled with water, that connect to the ocean via subterranean rivers.
Because Michelle and many others living in Cancún play, wash and bathe in seńotes, water contamination creates serious problems for public health. What is more, hotel owners have been cutting down mangrove trees to make more beaches during the past forty years of the city's development. As a result, the coast's natural protective buffering and filtering system is disappearing. Meanwhile. Cancún's poorly planned cities coupled with a growing unmet need for family planning services, are exacerbating environmental problems like water pollution and coral reef damage.
Today, Cancún is seeing its most pressing environmental dilemmas to date — declining biodiversity, rising sea temperatures, and more intense hurricanes, such as Wilma in 2004. After Wilma destroyed many buildings and coastal zones in Cancún, the Mexican government spent millions of dollars to repair the damage. Yet in the end, the beaches' natural beauty was lost, and legislators realized that it would have been much less costly to prevent the damage by investing in social services like education and family planning, than to correct the damage.
Adriana realizes that all of these environmental factors are interconnected with the most pressing issue we all face today: global warming. She knows that if citizens, business-owners and governments don't act now to plan their families and communities in a sustainable way, it may be too late to take action after the damage is done.
Through her experiences, Adriana has learned how small, misinformed actions can have huge, global consequences, and that by educating others about the connections among reproductive health, sustainable development, and environmental degradation, one truly can make a difference. To take action for the environment and for young children like Michelle, Adriana was among the first cohort of Mexican youth to be selected to participate in a Youth Leadership in Sexual and Reproductive Health Program, called GOJoven in 2004. Implemented by International Health Programs (IHP) of the Public Health Institute (PHI), GOJoven works to foster the next generation of leaders in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Quintana Roo, Mexico.
Through intensive training and leadership development, youth leaders like Adriana teach teens the importance of responsible decision-making with regard to their sexual and reproductive health, to protect their own lives, and the environment.
Adriana is currently working as a journalist for two major newspapers in Cancún, mostly covering critical environmental issues. She has won several awards for her articles which persuaded business owners and decision-makers to change their unsustainable practices. Through her work in Mexico and through her partnership with Sierra Club's Global Population and Environment Program, Adriana is speaking out as a leader for progressive change in Mesoamerica and the world.
To find out more about Sierra Club's partnership with International Health Programs, contact Cassie Gardener.
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