Debating Europe, in partnership with Friends of Europe and Green Week 2015, held a youth forum in Brussels on 4 June 2015. The forum brought together young people with policymakers to discuss biodiversity and environmental sustainability.
Moderating the debate was Hans Bruyninckx, Executive Director at the European Environment Agency (EEA), and Tamsin Rose, Strategic Advisor at Friends of Europe.
Also taking part was Christian Schwarzer, Member of the Steering Committee of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network and Youth Ambassador for the UN Decade on Biodiversity; Leanne Tough, Member of the Phoenix Group of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), and Maddy Bartlett, Founding Chair of the Bristol Nature Network.
They answered questions on biodiversity sent in by Debating Europe commenters, as well as a live audience in Brussels.
Why should people care about biodiversity? What needs to be done to make current lifestyle and consumption patterns more sustainable? Let us know your thoughts and comments in the form below, and we’ll take them to policymakers and experts for their reactions in our future debates!
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biodiversity is an illusion. We’re all the exact same thing, right? Created equal by Marx?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxuyQl_SQwE
Bio diversant. :D
‘Green week’ should be called ‘Eco-week’ or similar as it suggests an affiliation/bias toward a political party.
Why people should care about biodiversity? Because nature is wonderful and we should do the best to protect it.
I use as artist the tools of photography and film to show people the magical beauty of nature. So far this deems efficient in inspiring people to see the world around them with other eyes.
So my suggestion is: Show people the wonders of nature, without forcing them into guilt.
To the 2nd question, how we can make our current lifestyle and consumption patterns more sustainable.
People should educated in terms of meat consumption (bring out the torches and forks for me suggesting that). What I mean with that, is that if less people consume meat (unrelevant to your position on whether killing animals is ethically ok) we need less space to grow plants on, eliminating the loss from feeding plants to the final product.
This would mean more spaces where biodiversity could flourish.