Climate change doesn't just affect animals or the environment. It affects every single one of us. Awareness needs to be taught from a young age.

If we don't act against global warming and climate change, we ARE going to die. That includes you, reading this right now. Our crops are dying. Farmed animals are dying. Forests and wetlands and oceans are dying. People are dying. And you will, too. Nobody is immune.

Don't we want a better future for our children? So that they don't have to grow up the way we have? I'm fourteen years old, so while most people take action "for the next generation", I am the next generation. We can't allow the world to continue this way.

My proposal is that all government schools in South Africa should have Climate Change awareness as a subject, once a week at minimum, from Grade 2 and upwards. It doesn't have to be a subject of doom and depression, but rather how we can change the world for the better - going vegan, recycling, walking instead of driving. The youth need to be educated, because they are the decision makers of the future. They decide whether we live or die. They need to be given hope.

This will be an opportunity to provide jobs for teachers, give students the tools they need for an environmental job and, above all, help to save the planet from climate change.