青少年，让世界更美丽！

珍·古道尔博士当时正坐在飞越于美国上空的飞机上，她注意到旁边有一位睡眼惺忪的女士。她问这位女士为何如此疲惫不堪，女士说自己凌晨两点就起床去关自来水，彻夜未眠使得她精疲力竭。原来她的女儿是其学校环境保护协会的成员，对环保满怀热情，并要全家人都成为环保人士。女士出行的前一天晚上，他们住在女士弟弟的家里，半夜时分，她女儿被水龙头的滴答声吵醒。原来水龙头的把手坏了，女儿只好向大家求助——关掉水龙头。而要解决水龙头的漏水问题，只有一个办法：挖出埋在屋前草坪里的水管，关掉主阀。女儿非要漏水问题得到解决才肯睡觉。于是，在凌晨两点的时候，为了把水龙头关掉，家里的每个人都赶到外面院子里帮忙挖水管。

古道尔博士说，这就是青少年的力量。孩子们在生活中做出的改变会促使他们的家人也成为环保人士。

青少年能影响的还不只是他们的家人。古道尔博士还讲了另一件事情：纽约有个男孩去听了她的一个讲座，了解有关黑猩猩的各种面部表情。有一天，他看到一个谷类食品盒上印有一张黑猩猩在咧着嘴笑的图片。根据从古道尔博士讲座里学到的知识，男孩意识到图片上那只黑猩猩展现的实际上是恐惧的表情。于是，男孩写信给该食品制造商，请他们将黑猩猩的图片从食品盒上移除。后来，男孩收到了食品公司的回信，并在几个月后发现盒子上已经没有了黑猩猩的图片。“我采取了行动，”男孩如是说，“而且那家公司更换了图片。”无论如何，食品盒上的图片被更换了，男孩和他的家人都确信那是他的“功劳”。

这两件事情表明，青少年有能力去倡导和实现改变，这种能力往往超出成人的想象。此外，他们还往往会取得连自己也意料不到的成就。同时，这两件事情也向环保团体阐明了值得牢记的两个要点：

首先，拯救环境并不意味着只举行针对成年人的大型公共活动。学生也可以通过家中的点滴行动或大型活动来实现重大改变。通过影响家人、企业和政府，学生可以发挥重要的积极作用。所以，与学生社团合作可以是实现大改变的第一步。

其次，点滴行动可以产生巨大影响。我们常常很容易就想到诸如“清洁绿色周”这样的大型活动，其实，许多小行动也可以引起大改观。假如成千上万的学生说服他们的家人关掉水龙头以节约水资源，将空调温度调高一至两度，少开车或做一些其他有利环境的改变，那么整个家庭的行为方式都将发生变化。通过这些富有象征性而反响巨大的小行动，青少年带来了超出行动本身的深远影响。

当青少年意识到自己的行为产生了比预期更大的影响时，他们便能从中受益；而环保人士也可以从与青少年（即使是与年龄最小的学生们）的合作之中受益良多。

Sitting on an airplane as she was flying across the United States， Dr. Jane Goodall said she noticed a bleary-eyed woman sitting next to her. She asked the woman why she was so tired， and the woman said she was absolutely exhausted because shed been up at two in the morning trying to turn off the water. Her young daughter was in an environmental group at school and her daughters passion had turned to making sure her family was eco-friendly. They were staying at the womans brothers house the night before her trip， and in the middle of the night her daughter woke up to the sound of a dripping faucet. The daughter asked for help turning it off as the faucet handle was broken. The only way to stop the leak was to dig to the pipe in the front lawn to find the main valve to turn the water off， and her daughter wouldnt go to sleep until the leak stopped. So at two in the morning everyone in the family was out in the yard helping to dig to turn off the water.

And that， Dr. Goodall related， is the power of youth. When children make a change in their lives， families are dragged along to become environmentally friendly too. Its not just families that are changed by youth either. Dr. Goodall tells another story about a young boy in New York who went to one of her talks and learned about the facial expressions of chimpanzees. When he saw a picture of a chimpanzee on a box of cereal and it looked like the chimpanzee was grinning， the boy realized from what hed learned at Dr. Goodalls talk that the chimpanzees look was actually one of fear. The boy wrote to the cereal-maker asking to take the chimpanzees picture off the box. Along with receiving a letter back from the company， he saw the picture of the chimpanzee disappear from the box within just a few months. “I took action，” the boy now relates， “and the company changed.” However it happened that the picture changed， the boy and his family believe it was his doing.

As these two stories show， young people have much more power to initiate and accomplish change than what adults may believe. Moreover， youth often achieve much more than they ever expect they will. These stories also illustrate two key points that environmental groups would do well to remember.

First， saving the environment means more than just holding large public events targeted at adults. Students can make a major difference through smaller actions at home or larger campaigns. By influencing families， corporations and government， students can have a significant positive impact. So working with student groups can be the start to making big changes.

And second， small actions can have a big impact. We often tend to think about big events like Clean and Green Week. Instead， a lot of small changes can make a difference. If hundreds or thousands of students convince their families to turn off the tap to save water， move the air conditioning temperature up a degree or two， drive less and make other environmentally-friendly changes， the entire family may change its behaviors. With these small and symbolic yet high-impact changes， youth have an effect beyond just their own actions.

Youth can benefit by realizing that their own actions have more power than they may expect， and environmentalists can benefit by taking the time to focus on even the youngest students.