"How I'd change the world..."

The future generation has an unenviable task: tomorrow they must tackle the environmental problems we are creating today. Ahead of the Kyoto treaty coming into force, we asked seven young people from around the world how they would do things differently.

Alex Lin 11, USA "It is very important to recycle e-waste - much of our e-waste is dumped in other countries" Aparna Bhasin 17, India "One of the global problems that really worries me is poverty" William Roper 17, UK "Free trade isn't helping - the bottom line is entirely monetary" JC Martel 17, Canada "My government should invest money in environmental education"

Analiz Vergara 16, Ecuador "We don't realise that many problems could have been prevented if we took care of the environment" Shoko Takahashi 14, Japan "Everyone should do a bit - if everyone does small things it can change a lot" Yvonne Maingey 17, Kenya "People don't realise that poverty and the environment are part of the same thing" Georgina Viveash 15, UK " I think it would be a lot better if children were made to walk"

Aparna Bhasin

HOW I'D CHANGE THE WORLD... I don't like the way that people only focus on certain trouble spots

I am helping to run a project for street children in Delhi. We are trying to offer them an extra curricular programme, which street children in India hardly ever get.

In July we hope to work with them from 2pm until 7pm every afternoon - and we will do music, drama, art, photography and dance workshops.

One of the global problems that really worries me is poverty. Also, I don't like the way that people only focus on certain trouble spots.

The tsunami was a really big thing. And someone asked us the other day why we hadn't thought of changing our project to go down south and help tsunami victims.

Agreed - they need all the aid they can get, but that doesn't mean we should forget people in other parts of the world. They are still going to be suffering.

I think global warming and poverty need to be tackled at the same time, but in India poverty really is the main issue. Some 50% of the population are living in poverty and around 42% of our country are illiterate.

It needs to be tackled - and it is, but it will take a while - we have a population of 1.4 billion people. Population control is also something we should look into - it will make everything else much easier to tackle.

India is going through industrialisation at the moment and that creates many environmental problems.

For example I've never seen a recycling bin in my city. And there are a lot of problems with even simple things like garbage on the road.

That is sad and it needs changing - but we are facing so many other problems so it has to be low on the list of priorities.

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