Children have the power to change the course of environmental decline

As Al Gore's small masterpiece, "An Inconvenientplanet. Some of these organisations are offshoots
Truth", looms across our screens, the scourge ofof larger institutions: for instance the United
environmental pollution and climate changeNations Environment Programme (UNEP) has a
becomes more and more inescapable. While largechildren's education program called TUNZA , which
international oil companies have been accused ofworks in partnership with children across the globe
feeding us propaganda for years about the realand aims to equip them with information on how
effects of environmental damage, environmentalto best treat the planet. Children are represented
awareness has been growing rapidly in manyby a Junior Board, which is elected every two
corners of society, and one of these increasinglyyears at the same time as UNEP's TUNZA
visible social groups taking a stand is children.International Children's Conference. By creating an
The number of children's environmentalinteractive website, which includes a cartoon strip
awareness and activity groups has been risingcalled "Ozzy Ozone, Defender of Our Planet",
rapidly in the last decade, with many taking aTUNZA's approach is exemplary in its global
more and more active role in protests. However,outreach and ongoing commitment to keep
most kids' environmental organisationschildren engaged with the problem of climate
concentrate on education as the key tool in thechange.
learning process towards a better future for our