Vincentian environmentalist publishes book on the impact of Climate Change on Youth

‘The Impact of Climate Change on Youth in Small Island Communities’ by Dr Andrew Simmons, published by Springer Nature, one of the largest global publishers of academic books and journals, is now selling in bookshops across the globe.

The book is an output of Simmons’ Doctoral thesis on ‘The Impact of Climate Change on Youth in Small Island Developing Communities: The case of SVG’. Springer Nature is publishing the book as part of its Sustainable Development series within the Climate Action category.

Dr Andrew Simmons is an award-winning environmentalist from Enhams, St Vincent and the Grenadines, who has won the UN Global 500 award in 1990, the Caribbean Conservation Award for his environmental leadership and stewardship of JEMS in 1993, the Goldman Environment Prize in 1994 and many other global recognitions. He is wellknown in St Vincent and the Grenadines for his tremendous contribution to building the resilience of communities to adapt to climate change and other development calamities through the JEMS organisation, and the Government’s Community Development Division in his capacity as President and Director for Community Services respectively.

According to Zachary Romano of Springer Nature, the series on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to provide a comprehensive platform for scientific, teaching and research communities working on various global issues in the field of geography, earth sciences, environmental science, social sciences, engineering, policy, planning, and human geosciences to contribute knowledge towards achieving the current 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The series is organised into 18 subseries based around each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals with the final book “Connecting the Goals,” which serves as a home for volumes addressing multiple goals or studying the SDGs as a whole.

‘The Impact of Climate Change on Youth in Small Island Communities’ presents a comprehensive overview of the history, causes, effects, impacts and implications of climate change on young people globally, with a focus on Small Island Communities (SIDS) in particular. The text highlights the fundamental problems associated with the impact of climate change on young people in SIDS, specifically its effects on socio-economic development and livelihoods. It explores the need for the development of a new conceptual framework to deal with building the resilience of the adaptive capacity of youth in SIDS. The book analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the emerging phenomenon of Global Youth Climate Change Movements/Actions created by Greta Thunberg, Swedish teenage environmental activist, and examines the management and governance challenges associated with the Movement in terms of its operational mechanism, mobilisation strategies and its use of social media/technology to mobilise mass action. The text concludes with a recommendation for further research in this area to understand how the Movement functions and its mechanism for implementation of future research.

Michael Sutton, Executive Director of the Goldman Environmental Prize, wrote in the forward of the book, “Today, after years of building coalitions, knowledge, and successful programmes, Andrew has worked with organisations in more than 50 countries throughout Asia, the Pacific, the Caribbean, and Africa to develop initiatives empowering youths and addressing climate change and other acute environmental issues. To cite just one example, because of Andrew’s trailblazing work, Sierra Leone has recently became the first African nation to implement a climate change adaptation curriculum at the tertiary level of its education system. Thanks to Andrew’s unyielding advocacy and leadership, and the efforts of hundreds of other grassroots environmental champions like him around the world, climate change is globally understood as an existential threat to our planet and youth activism is front-and-centre in developing solutions”.

Dr Andrew Simmons is currently the Head of Mission in Sierra Leone and a Lead International Development Consultant for LA International Corporation/LATTANZIO Kibs, a management consulting firm offering Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) globally, focused on public sector reform and private sector SME development. He is currently in the process of writing a second book for the series on Youth, Climate Change and Sustainable Development.
The book is available at online book stores across the globe and can be pre-ordered through Springernature.com, Amazon.com, Bookdepository.com and many others.

https://www springer.com/gp/book/9783030506568#about