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Jakarta Post

Take an extra mile to save the planet

Climate change is not any one country’s problem; it is the responsibility of every single life on earth

Tivea Koam (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sun, August 21, 2011

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Take an extra mile to save the planet

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limate change is not any one country’s problem; it is the responsibility of every single life on earth. This is not a claim, but a fact that has inspired youth action in environmental protection.

One 22-year-old, Yangki Imade Suara, with a love for the environment and concern about the impact of climate change on people’s lives around the world — especially those in developing countries — aims to contribute as much as he can to making the world a better place for younger generations.

“We only have one planet. That’s our responsibility: to make sure that the next generation can survive on the planet, so we should do the right thing and save our planet,” said Yangki, a BA-graduated student from Padjadjaran University, who specialized in Environmental Economics.

Yangki said that he got his inspiration for the environment from his father.

“One day, my father told me that it was harder for him to be a farmer,” Yangki said. “I asked him: ‘Why’, and he told me that climate change had reduced the productivity of paddy, tobacco and chili, which ultimately forced my father to change jobs and become a carpenter.”

Getting to know about the impact of climate change, Yangki strives to involve himself in a variety of environmental activities and conferences to learn more about the environment, in the hope that he would be able to help raise awareness and knowledge among people to help combat climate change.

In 2008, with colleagues from the School of Economics, Padjadjaran University, he established Kandank Ilmu, a project providing course material for economics students online. Later, this project was voted the best project in Danamon’s Youth Leaders Award 2009 because of its impact, and the fact that by being online, it saved paper. Having now graduated, Yangki continues to act as an advisor to the project and provides training to the project’s board members on occasion.

In his efforts to go abroad to expand his environmental knowledge, Yangki has been to several countries, including the United States, India, Denmark, Germany and Sweden, where he attended environmental summer schools, workshops, and conferences. One such was the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) held by the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) in Copenhagen, Denmark, as a member of the Global South Youth Delegation, under the auspices of the TakingITGlobal Organization in 2009.

“I met young people from around the world. I was surprised when I saw a 15-year-old girl from Denmark attending the event,” he said. “I asked myself what I was doing when I was her age. It was so inspiring to attend the event and meet those people.”

With the experiences and knowledge he got from those international events and his studies, Yangki has often been invited to talk and give presentations about his work on the environment, both locally and internationally. In August 2010, he was also invited to present his degree thesis on: “The Impact of Climate Change on Export Growth” in the 2nd Global Young Greens (GYG) Congress in Berlin, Germany.

In May 2010, Yangki was selected as one of the Forest Friends Indonesia by the World Wide Fund (WWF) Indonesia, together with other five other young people from Indonesia and Germany, who have been raising their own funds to plant 63,780 trees in Tesso Nilo National Park this year.
Yangki Imade Suara - Courtesy Tivea Koam

Recently, Yangki became an advisor and columnist for IndoEnviro Voice, an environmental youth movement. Here,
he offers consultations and advice, as well as writes article which are published on the movement’s website. Moreover, he is a member of the local organizing committee for the 2nd Congress of the East Asian Association of Environmental and Resource Economics (EAAERE), which is due to take place in February 2012.

He said that although climate change is not the top priority for the Indonesian government, he still wants to see more Indonesian youth aware of climate change, become enthusiastic about it, and get involved in protecting the environment around the world.

Yangki uses himself as an example: He helps the environment by not using plastic bag whenever and wherever possible; instead, taking his green, reusable, environmentally-friendly bag with him. He said “when we buy something in Indonesia, we get around two to three plastic bags, so what will happen when plastic takes about 200 years to decompose?”

“One person can do something good, and we together will make a big change.”

The writer is a Cambodian undergraduate student majoring Media Management at Royal University of Phnom Penh. He is now on an internship at The Jakarta Post.

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