The inspiration
The idea for ‘think2050’ sprung up from a campaign that a small group of young people from all over the world began at the United Nations climate talks in Germany, in March/April 2009.
Two young advocates, Thomas Spencer and Kirsty Schneeberger designed some t-shirts that read how old will you be in 2050?, and took them to the UN meeting to try and spread the word about thinking about the future.
At the beginning of the conference Kirsty was invited to give an intervention (or a speech) as a delegate of civil society. The speech was given to the UN plenary hall (where all the countries sit in the main room and negotiate) and Kirsty asked delegates how old they would be in 2050.
The main message of the speech was to show how important it is to think ahead to the future of young people when making decisions about that will directly affect them.
The speech also challenged the negotiators to ‘look the young people in the eye and guarantee that they would have a liveable planet in the year 2050.’
You can find the speech here.
Following on from the success of this informal campaign, which saw the Chair of one of the conference sessions wear a tshirt on stage and talk about the importance of thinking about the future, the idea of asking people ”How old will you be in 2050?’ really took flight and tshirts were made in many different countries and the message was being spread by numerous youth organisations.
Since then how old will you be in 2050? developed as an open source campaign dedicated to encouraging people to consider their own role in society and their ability to affect positive change as responsible members of communities.
