Dialogue@ZJU：ZJUer voices for SDGs (Episode I)

[Editor’s Note: Our world is facing many global challenges, from poverty to hunger, from climate change to energy crisis, from inequality to digital gap. How can we tackle these urgent problems? What role should young generation play? In this three-episode dialogue, ZJU students voice their own thoughts on Sustainable Development Goals. LIN Weiwei (English, ’23) called on young people to rebuild faith and rewrite the stories of denial to the ones of motivation at the China-Europe-America Youth Program. She is confident that with joint efforts of all of us there will be a future where children can enjoy the stars.]

Quotes from the presentation:

- As youth, we can lead new social atmosphere. We can flip distance to social. We can make climate feel personal and urgent, and we can do that by spreading social norms on the Internet and at home. We can see, for instance, this from the planting tree program Ant Forest. It has become a viral interactive game between youths, and we are already seeing the peer-to-peer power when more young people are creating their carbon accounts.

- To conquer anxiety, we can transform doom to creation. Rather than backfiring frames such as disaster, we can reframe climate as being really about creating a new lifestyle like quit buying fast fashion brands or embracing opportunities like solar jobs.

- And most importantly, to rewrite the stories of denial to stories of motivation through documentaries, videos and technological innovations, using the passion we specially owned as youths. Under the background of we-media, every thought has a chance to impact. As youths, we need improve our media literacy to conquer unnecessary information burden.

Video credit: China-Europe-America Youth Program; LIN Weiwei