TUNZA: The UNEP Magazine for Youth

In February 2003, the Governing Council of UNEP adopted a long-term strategy for engaging young people in environmental activities and in the work of UNEP. The strategy was entitled the TUNZA Youth Strategy.

The word “TUNZA” means “to treat with care or affection” in Kiswahili (a sub-regional language of Eastern Africa). The overall TUNZA Concept, therefore, is built around this theme. It is an initiative that is meant to develop activities in the areas of capacity building, environmental awareness, and information exchange, with a vision to foster a generation of environmentally conscious citizens, capable of positive action.

Important by-products of this strategy include the annual TUNZA International Youth Conference, Tunza Advisory Council, TUNZA magazine, and the book "A Time for Action" provide up-to-date information and resources that support the environmental empowerment of young people.

EDITORIAL

Not long ago, the polar ice caps and the world’s mountain tops were thought to be pristine, among the few parts of the planet to have remained unsullied by humanity and pollution. Now we know they are feeling the heat more than anywhere else on the globe.

For global warming is having its most dramatic and ominous effects at high altitude and high latitude, with enormous consequences for the rest of the planet. Like the canaries that miners used to take underground, they are providing an early warning of grave dangers to come.

Temperatures are rising faster in these cold corners of the Earth than over the planet as a whole, and the effects are already all too visible. The very atlases are having to be redrawn as great ice shelves collapse on the Antarctic Peninsula, forever changing the shape of its coastline. Arctic sea ice is shrinking much more than ever in recorded history, and may disappear altogether by the middle of the century.

Glaciers are retreating at both poles, suggesting that both the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets may eventually melt, causing sea levels to rise to cover most coastal cities.

And they are also rapidly thawing in mountains across the world, from New Zealand to Alaska, the Himalayas to the Andes, the Alps to Africa’s Mountains of the Moon: their disappearance would devastate water supplies worldwide. So melting ice is a hot topic, one of the hottest there could be. It is also one of the most urgent challenges we face. It demands immediate changes in government polices, in industrial practices – and in all our lifestyles. We must rapidly reduce our emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by reducing our use of polluting fossil fuels and by preserving forests and other key ecosystems.

Otherwise we will be the first generation since the start of humanity to witness the vanishing of the Earth’s ice and snows. And, like the canaries in the mines, their extinction will presage deadly peril for us all.

Download Tunza Vol. 5 No. 1: Meltdown

ENGLISH, PDF format, 1.6MB, 24 Pages.

Visit Tunza for Youth Website

for young people · by young people · about young people

World Environment Day

Cool & Cooler

IDEA 1: Empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development.
Cool: Plant a community organic garden at school or in the neighbourhood.
Cooler: Start a group that meets regularly to prepare a special meal with the garden’s harvest.
Coolest: Read Barbara Kingsolver’s new book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, and be inspired to eat only home-grown and local produce.

IDEA 2: Promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues.
Cool: Go for a long walk or bike ride in a local nature area with family and friends.
Cooler: Organize a carbon-free parade, with people using their favourite mode of green transport, eg: walking, jogging, skateboarding, roller-skating, cycling and unicycling, even pushing baby buggies!

IDEA 3: Advocate partnership, which will ensure all nations and people enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.
Cool: Ask your teachers to help set up green pen-pals with a school in a different country, and share ideas on helping the environment.
Cooler: Find an environmental programme in another country that you’d like to support. Organize a local photo exhibition, talent show, concert or play to raise money to help support this cause and spread the word about it.

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