More and more young people are joining the fight to conserve the planet that holds their future. From awareness to action, their initiatives span a huge range. In an effort to bring these to wider knowledge, SN has launched a Youth EcoVoices section for young people who are doing their bit for nature. So, if you have anything to ‘crow’ about, shout out… we’re all ears.
About me
I am Urmika Saboo. I hold a BA (Sociology) from Mumbai University and a Diploma in Strategic Design and Management from the Indian School of Design and Innovation, Parsons, Mumbai.
What are you doing?
I run a social media page World For Now that seeks to inform users of the eco-friendly actions that they can take as individuals and as a community to bring about even a small change. How to? When to? What to? are some of the questions that we seek to answer.
Why are you doing this?
A few years ago, my life’s motto was to earn money and live a lavish life. But all that changed after I watched the documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. Despite so many years of learning EVS in school, I realised how little I knew. This made me really upset. EVS is so theoretical and boring that it loses the potential to create young environmentalists. I am doing this to bring about an environment-oriented system redesign that offers action-oriented and interesting education to make young people aware of everything happening around the globe and what they can do to bring a change.
When did you begin?
I began in 2018. After working on the page on my own for about 8 months, I increased my team to 6 people.
How did you begin?
The Diploma in Strategic Design and Management from the Indian School of Design and Innovation, Parsons, Mumbai, shaped my mindset and brought out my passion and creativity in all paradigms of life. We were exposed to sustainability, green initiatives, material exploration, which made me really curious and furious about the critical situation at hand. Education played a key role in helping me take my first step towards becoming an environmental advocate. One of my favourite professors and now mentor, Gourav Keswani helped me shape my vision and what I’m trying to achieve today.
What has been the impact?
The page has reached over five countries and built a community of motivated folks who love talking about climate change. We have focused a lot on ideation, debating on various topics, growing our network and collaborating with different pages/ organisations. For instance, we partnered with Earthly Education that’s run by a team of 4 Australian scientists and has more than 130k followers. We also collaborated with a Portugal-based company, Eutopia, that has a database of more than 16,000 climate-tech companies.
Where can one know more about your work?
https://www.instagram.com/worldfornow/
https://in.linkedin.com/company/world-for-now
Can you share a list of the green books on your bookshelf, for young people interested in environmentalism?
- The Future We Choose: Surviving The Climate Crisis by Tom Carnac Christiana Figueres
- All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson
- The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of the Future by David Wallace-Wells
- Unearthed: An Environmental History of Independent India by Meghaa Gupta
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
- An Ecotopian Lexicon Edited by Mathew Schneider-Mayerson and Brent Ryan Bellamy
