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“Do you like to breathe?” The question, put to the audience by one of the young activists sitting on stage at the UN in Geneva, sinks like a rock in the ocean.
There’s a pause. Titouan Bernicot, the 22 year-old founder of Coral Gardners, an ocean conservation organisation working to restore dying reefs in the French Polynesian Islands and beyond, continues:
“More than half of the oxygen that we breathe, wherever we are, is coming from the oceans with healthy coral reefs. But over the last three decades, we have lost 25 per cent of the world’s reefs and they could be the first ecosystem collapse on our planet.”
In short, no coral reefs, no oxygen. His message, along with those of five young entrepreneurs selected as laureates of this year’s Young Activist Summit, is one of urgency. And they, along with the millions of youths that have sat out in the streets on Fridays over the last few years, are not waiting until they hit 18, or to be handed a degree or a promotion, to take action.
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