5 Minute GAP - What is power to young people?
In advance of this year's Transform Our World Youth Summit, Toni talks to youth ambassador Jon about what power means to him, and what power looks like in the world.
"We Share Freely". The change we want to see in the world is bigger than we are. So, we're sharing our knowledge, resources and ideas to help more people and organisations take steps forward towards our vision of a green and thriving planet, where everyone can enjoy happy and healthy lives within the Earth's limits.
As part of this, we've launched our "5 Minute GAP" series, a collection of five minute conversations that will share how we work and what we're working on. We'll talk about what we're trying to achieve and why, how we function as an organisation, and the thinking behind our plans and strategy.
We'll be regularly sharing these conversations, which will feature different members of our team and trustee board, as well as external experts.
We hope you enjoy listening in to our chats, getting to know our team and finding out what makes us who we are.
If you prefer to read rather than watch, the transcription is here:
Toni: So, Jon, what do you think having power in today's world means to you?
Jon: So in the world, there are two different sorts of power, hard power and soft power, hard power is where you're in charge of a company or a group of people. Like, for example, you are the leader of a country or a leader of a company. As with soft power, it's all done through influence. So if you think about Greta Thunberg, she's all done through soft power because she started from scratch. And look what she's done now.
Toni: Yeah, interesting. Especially with Greta being a young person. Kind of show us like it doesn't matter how young you are. There's some power that we all hold.
Jon: Yeah, that's very true. Because with with soft power, with influence. Like social media is a very good way to show your influence.
Toni: Yeah, and again also with social media and how popular it's become. Everyone is using it. So it's also a really good avenue for people to use again also to try and implement and use their power. Are there any other only other examples you think, like off the top of your head, of people using power, their own power.
Jon: So...some examples of hard power include Elon Musk, because of course we all know that he owns Tesla and SpaceX because he's in charge of a company.
Toni: That's true. Yeah. You’ve got these people who are like in these very influential positions in huge companies, that wield some sort of power and that does affect like how the rest of society sort of runs as well. Yeah, yeah. It's interesting. And like, Do you see that as well in and people who have soft power as well? You know how you're saying like Greta Thunberg.
Jon: Yeah. Because it takes a while. It takes a lot to get that sort of power because if you start from little power it could take it...gradually builds up over time, until you got loads of power.
Toni: Mm hmm. And if by, like, maybe you're looking at it from, like, a smaller... well, not a small perspective, but a sort of , how would I say it, like from a bottom up, from the individual to like a community. I feel like there's also that sense of power that you can hold then as a young person,
as an individual. So for you as a young person, how do you think that you have power in school, at home? I mean, just in general, your community?
Jon: So the way I can get some power is because I am part of the school's eco team and then we are a group of people who are highly followed by members of staff within the school. And then we are then the eco teacher and my school makes assemblies about what we could do to become more greener.
Toni: Interesting. And have you seen that have an influence over, you know, how your school runs?
Jon: Yeah, because we grow like our own vegetables and fruits, because we've got a whole orchard of apples and we've got an eco garden. We’re currently building a nature trail within the school as well.
Toni: I like that. I like the nature trail idea and just I feel like it's such a nice incentive as well to get people outside. I feel like most people, you know, enjoy being in the nature and we want to have like a good effect on your mental health as well. Have you seen other students like commenting and, you know, having a positive, positive effect on like what you do within your eco club and sort of inspire them as well.
Jon: There's always some new people joining the Eco Club. So they've obviously found out what we're doing and they've, and that’s intrigued them to join in with it.
Toni: And how did you sort of how did you recognize that that... you know, joining the Eco Club for you was something where you could make a difference?
Jon: Yeah, to start with, it was about me doing some clubs with my friends. And then and then as I attended more and more, I enjoyed it an awful lot. And then and then with that you could get into all sorts of different careers that are really very, really, really beneficial in the future. Like to minimise the impacts of climate change, for example.
Toni: And yeah, that sounds interesting. like sort of exploring the idea of like green careers and green jobs for your future. And do you see that as a way to sort of challenge the order that's currently in the world to help change the world for the better?
Jon: Yeah, because at the moment, with all the CO2 emissions are going into the air, we need to like cut down on on the amount of fossil fuels.
Toni: That's true. I think there’s also a lot of a lot more awareness around green jobs. I think you're really lucky that you started to explore that quite young.
But yeah, green jobs is definitely a way to, you know, start tackling the issue of like CO2 emissions, greenhouse gas emissions. And do you think there's other ways as well that power can be used to challenge the order of the world?
Jon: Yeah, because if we educate more and more people about it, that they will know about it and then they can make an impact in the future.