Many young people today don’t even know about nature-based solutions. It’s not that we don’t care. It’s that we often feel left out.
Hello, I’m Max. I’m 15 years old and I’ve been doing work experience at Oppla for the past week. During this time I’ve been thinking about how adults can communicate more effectively with young people about the environment. Before this week I didn’t really know what nature-based solutions were, and that made me realise that lots of other young people probably don’t either.
I believe adults don’t always understand how to involve younger people in protecting and understanding the environment. One way to change that is to make it relevant and convincing. Give examples of how nature-based solutions can help in our own communities. Make climate and environmental projects sound interesting and achievable. Use less scientific language so younger people can understand it more easily and feel involved.
Sometimes climate change can feel like something that happens somewhere else, so it seems like a distant problem. Showing local examples makes it much easier to understand. For example, if an area is at risk of flooding, explain how planting trees or restoring wetlands can help reduce it. If there is less wildlife, explain how creating wildflower areas can help bring insects and birds back. When we can see how nature-based solutions improve places we know, they become much more real.
A lot of my friends don’t read much nowadays. They spend more time watching YouTube, scrolling through TikTok or playing sports. That doesn’t mean we don’t care about the environment, it just means information has to reach us in different ways.
I enjoyed reading The Nature Of Cities NbS comics during my placement because I like comics anyway, and they're excellent. But I think some people my age would probably find them less interesting because they prefer something more interactive. Schools could be a good place to introduce resources like these, especially if they were combined with digital comics, animations, quizzes or other activities.
What adults need to understand is that you don’t need to act "cool" to convince young people to help. Most of us can tell when someone is trying too hard, and it often has the opposite effect (we call this being “cringe”!). Young people would rather adults speak honestly and normally without forcing it. Be respectful, explain the issues clearly and help us understand both the problems and the solutions.
Most importantly, make us feel involved. Make us feel useful. Give us solutions and show us how we can help instead of only talking about problems or making us feel blamed. We need to feel like we have a part to play in our future.
I know I learn better and pay more attention when I feel involved. If adults help young people understand nature-based solutions in a simpler way, more of us will want to help our communities. Just one small action can have a much bigger positive effect than people realise.
Before this week, I wasn’t very interested in nature-based solutions. Like lots of people my age, I’m mostly focused on school, homework, exams and hobbies. Spending time with the team at Oppla showed me that there are people working every day on trying to help the environment. That made the subject much more real and interesting to me.
From my own experience, I think getting young people interested in nature-based solutions can take time, but it is worth it. Most young people want to help, they just don’t always have the awareness or opportunities to get involved.
We don’t need more lectures. We need practical ideas, opportunities to take part and people who explain things in a way we can understand. If we’re given the right knowledge and motivation, we won’t just care about the environment. We’ll protect it.