With the hot topic at the moment being the cooling of the planet and the pressing need and call for action, GSD has decided to make Climate Change the theme of its 2019 graduation. The idea of a theme came last year as we were inundated with news of the (continuing) issue of Migration. Unable to turn a blind eye and in order to stay true to our humanitarian commitment, we thought it good to highlight an issue and join the world’s voice to help heed its call.
So this year, with Youth Climate Strikes taking place across the globe and one has just taken place this past Friday in Geneva, we want to add our voice to the mix and make some noise for Climate Action.
In line also with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), in particular, SDG 13, ‘Climate Action’, which GSD uses as a road map for its humanitarian endeavors, we are determined to take a stance in view of the 2020 shared mission deadline we have. Then, more pressingly, the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit, scheduled for September 23rd, in New York. With Mission 2020’s slogan “A Race We Can Win”, we hope to join the collective, national and political ambition that we put out there to help meet the colossal climate challenges set before us. As 16-year-old Swedish leading environmental activist Greta Thunberg said, it is time for us to adopt ‘Cathedral Thinking’ (in reference to the fire that partially destroyed the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris). “We must lay the foundation while we do not exactly know how to build the ceiling,” expressed Thunberg.
Let’s hurry up and make planet Earth cool again!
