Introducing Next Generation Diplomacy
by Ethan Chiu
As a high school freshman, I watched a YouTube video about the long-term implications of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. As I began looking more into the environment, however, I realized that oil spills were not the only thing killing marine life: plastics and toxic waste products were as well.
Thus, I sought to conduct research on removing toxic metals, oil, and plastics from water while leading my high school’s Red Cross chapter in multiple beach cleanups cleaning plastics from local beaches. While looking for more opportunities to clean up my local environment as a high schooler, I stumbled across the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As an active participant in Model Congress and Model UN, we often talked about not only local but also international environmental disasters caused by toxic pollutants, but I realized that young people could work together all around the world to clean up their local environments.
By doing so, we can all make the world a better place. Especially in a world full of so many different cultures, we can bounce ideas off each other based on our respective cultural and economic backgrounds to think of ways to improve existing solutions in one area of the world or even create universal solutions. However, just like how New York City has historically discriminated against minorities but putting landfills near their neighborhoods, we must deal with regional racial and environmental disparities on an individual basis.
Across all different cultures, humans typically follow a leading role model. Thus, I started Next Generation Diplomacy in hopes of connecting with local leaders to forge cross-border partnerships with communities to conserve the environment through pursuing SDGs such as clean water and sanitation, climate action, and life below water. By building a community of sustainable leaders from Brazil to Nigeria, we have addressed the issues of clean water and sanitation, climate action, and life below water through cross-cultural role models. By connecting with local leaders worldwide to host community shoreline cleanups and educate their respective communities about the harmful effects of toxic wastes on the environment, we have used role models to promote positive environmental sustainability with various local flairs.
Through local beach cleanups and environmental justice campaigns around the world, Next Generation Diplomacy seeks to unite a network of role models to set their communities toward a sustainable path.
About
Ethan Chiu is a rising senior in New York. He has conducted research in environmental science, and led students in local environmental initiatives. Building upon his local experience, he currently wants to connect role model youth around the world to promote environmental sustainability through their unique cultural experiences. He loves to not only explore national parks and beaches around New York, but also clean them as well.