TakingITGlobal

2 .1.1 Dir ec t and Indir ec t E x per iences o f Env ir onmen t al Change We theorized these youth would be motivated to engage based on direct and compelling climate change experiences, like surviving a climate change-amplified fire, flood, or other disaster. We based this on research suggesting that a lack of personal experience with destructive climate impacts often leads to disinterest (Hibberd & Nguyen, 2013). To the contrary, our team members generally began this process highly engaged. In their short lifetimes, many team members expressed that they have directly experienced real environmental changes they attributed to a changing climate. When I was a child, like 6 years old, in the morning I had to wear two jackets to not be cold when I went to kindergarten, but now it gets more and more warm, and now its not necessary to wear two jackets in the morning. ( B O G O T Á 2 , I N T E R V I E W ) In the older days Kenya had predictable rain patterns; Kenya had two rainy seasons but now I see things have changed. People are starving in over half of Kenya's 42 counties due to the cycle of famine related deaths brought about by ongoing drought. ( N A I R O B I , B L O G 1 C ) Geography matters, and the impacts team members observed are regionally specific; for example, flooding from rising sea levels and heavy rains was observed by team members in some regions, but not others. When I was a child, I remember that the weather was like, all day, spring temperature. But now the temperature increase a lot. There are too much hot, and also the landslides. So, an experience is that I was traveling to Lima, but I got stuck all day in one route from a mudslide as also there are a lot of rains. Now is worse than before. ( L I M A , I N T E R V I E W ) Some team members reported that they have never experienced climate change directly, but have indirect experience of climate-exacerbated disease vectors, resource scarcity, and extreme weather events, all of which have become disruptive new realities in their regions. In Bogotá, many people have lost their houses because of floods... the number of dead people is increasing and that's a little bit scary. I haven't seen it with my own eyes, but the media is showing the reality. ( B O G O T Á 1 , I N T E R V I E W ) 24 | F I N D I N G S

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