Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

The Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly pres­i­dent Den­nis Fran­cis is en­cour­ag­ing the na­tion’s youth to take an ac­tive role in shap­ing the fu­ture.

Fran­cis made the com­ment yes­ter­day while ad­dress­ing stu­dents of his al­ma mater, Wood­brook Sec­ondary School.

Fran­cis un­der­scored the UN’s com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing youth de­vel­op­ment through ini­tia­tives and pro­grammes. His call to ac­tion comes amid grow­ing con­cerns about glob­al is­sues in­clud­ing cli­mate change and food se­cu­ri­ty.

“Get in­volved in ar­eas re­lat­ed to the work of the UN be­cause it isn’t that the UN is out there and we are here. The things we dis­cuss and agree­ments we make at the UN will im­pact your dai­ly life like cli­mate change, like sea lev­el rise, like the fact that we are los­ing plant and an­i­mal species in the world at an alarm­ing rate,” he said.

Fran­cis not­ed that ur­gent at­ten­tion must be placed on pre­serv­ing lo­cal flo­ra and fau­na. He warned of the con­se­quences if the fu­ture gen­er­a­tion turned a blind eye to the loom­ing threats caused by changes to the en­vi­ron­ment.

“When we were chil­dren, this place was filled with but­ter­flies, you’d see them in swarms of mi­gra­tion and I don’t know the last time I saw a but­ter­fly in Trinidad. We are los­ing species and we are los­ing species large­ly be­cause of hu­man be­hav­iour, cli­mate change is a cre­ative cri­sis,” he added.

Fran­cis al­so not­ed the threats of ris­ing sea lev­els on Caribbean is­lands.

“In the Pa­cif­ic re­gion, for in­stance, many small is­lands like Trinidad and To­ba­go have en­tered in­to agree­ments with oth­er coun­tries, with Aus­tralia, to take their pop­u­la­tion in the event their land should dis­ap­pear be­neath sea,” he ex­plained.

Fran­cis urged the youth to en­gage with their com­mu­ni­ties and pur­sue goals that would help pro­mote the coun­try’s re­silience.