Is Sri Lanka ready for a climate strike movement?

By Piyumani Ranasinghe and Maleesha Gunawardana

Ignorance is no longer bliss when it comes to combating climate change. The strong winds and heavy downpours encountered across the globe lately are just the tip of a rather fast-melting iceberg. 

The Global Climate Risk Index 2019 ranks Sri Lanka as the second most affected country by extreme weather events that caused 600,000 displacements in the past two decades and 200 fatalities since 2003. Regardless of the evident urgency for action, the Pearl of the Indian Ocean is yet to address the crisis at hand. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report states that extreme sea-level events that used to occur once a century, would occur annually by 2050. If ‘business as usual’ persists, despite holding no responsibility whatsoever for climate crisis, its brunt is inevitable for generations to come. 

Inspired by the 15-year-old Greta Thunberg, majority of the 7.6 million counterparts of the global climate strike movement are child-led. By disrupting the system with school strikes, children are rightfully demanding a safer planet. 

Going beyond the weekly strikes, 16 child petitioners together with Greta, have presented a landmark official complaint to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child demanding immediate reform. 

Their advocacy endeavours have extended to influencing older generations, hence gaining more leverage over policy makers as the workforce has also joined hands on the streets with climate concerns every Friday. Against this global backdrop it is interesting to note that Sri Lanka visibly lacks consistent and widespread child-led initiatives with regards to halting climate change. Particularly, as a developing island Sri Lanka lacks the funds for mitigation efforts such as sea walls. 

Whilst it may still not be too late to turn the tide, building the will to initiate action depends almost entirely on intergenerational commitments towards fostering young Sri Lankan climate leaders. 

Mismatch between education and autonomy

One of the key reasons underlying the lack of such intergenerational commitment is the inherent mismatch between the education and autonomy in Sri Lanka both at a macro (education policy) as well as a micro level (family and individual). 

The question at a macro level is whether we recognise school children below the age of 18 as agents of change or decision makers in their own right. This concerns the wider debate of including school children as participant stakeholders in policy cycles. 

In the recent times, especially pertaining to the current election and politics surrounding it, new media has created various platforms for students to ask questions from certain policy makers. However, this limited to questioning and is not a consistent practice at higher decision-making levels. 

At a micro level the question of autonomy is even more complex in South Asian cultures such as ours, where children are often considered to be more vulnerable and less independent. In general, parents are more likely to follow a “see no evil, hear no evil” mantra with regard to their child. In this context, the debate boils down to whether children possess the autonomy to voice out their concerns regarding their common future and whether it is effectively heard by the right people.

Arguably the age of social media and increased digital connectivity has positively correlated in encouraging initiative, ownership, engagement and advocacy not only with regard to the youth of the country but also the schooling population of Sri Lanka. At a macro level, even though this is a tool that can be utilised to engage more students in governance and social policy, we currently do not see adequate incentives on the part of the policy makers to exacerbate such a process.

The need of swapping education for activism in Sri Lanka

Another reason underlying the lack of mass scale student activism in terms of climate change is the misconception of treating education as a means to an end, such as social mobility, and not an end in itself.  This erodes the scope and space attributed to initiative and critical thinking in the traditional classroom environment resulting in poor levels of activism on the part of the students. 

For most part of their school years students are trapped in a never- ending trail of exams and tuition classes cushioned into a memorisation and no-question culture which inherently discourages independent thought and ideation. If you were to ask a Sri Lankan student of their biggest fear, you are likely to receive a name of an examination as a response. In this context, a climate strike movement is alien to the majority at the grassroot. 

Although social media today curate platforms which provide more incentives for initiative, volunteering and engagement, it is a question as to whether this has trickled down to the grassroot levels across the Sri Lankan landscape. Is it an example of the “connected” being and staying connected and the rest ending up isolated?

Hence, there is a pressing need to swap traditional classroom education for activism in Sri Lanka, particularly to prompt more school children to take initiative and ownership of the environment they live in. It is imperative to extend the classroom beyond four walls and develop sensitivities to social issues which involuntarily prompt critical thinking. 

At a macro level, whilst there should be more scope and inclusivity for school children to participate in decision making processes, the education system should facilitate such engagement by allowing for the time to be creative and take initiative.  

What is the way forward?

Building an intergenerational movement to halt climate change thus requires changes both at a macro and micro level. At a macro level, the level of inclusivity and the scope of involvement in terms of school children should be recognised at a higher decision-making level, where their involvement is as participant stakeholders prompting climate policy reforms, formulation, enforcement as well as monitoring. 

The education system should allow for student activism especially with regard to pressing environmental issues such as climate change. Hopefully then the change will trickle down to the grassroot and expand into a sustainable momentum aiming at tangible results. 

 

(The writers can be contacted via [email protected] and [email protected].)