19 Sep 2019

How far would you be willing to go to save the planet? Would you skip school?

Doesn’t seem like that big of an ask, but that’s exactly what the then 15-year-old Greta Thunberg did to kick off her #FridaysforFuture campaign, which has since developed into an enormous global movement to not just raise awareness for climate change, but to actually do something about it.

So what? She skipped school and now the world is saved? I haven’t noticed any changes.

Well, that’s exactly the issue Greta’s been trying to address.

 

What is the emergency?

While there might not be an evil villain hovering his finger above a button which reads “Destroy The World”, or an enormous asteroid hurtling menacingly towards the Earth; the world is still, in fact, in crisis.

From unfathomable CO2 emissions to the incessant mining of fossil fuels, our Earth is being exploited to the point where it is now on a rocky path to becoming uninhabitable. Governments across the world operate under the guise of being pro-environment, however, whenever big money gets involved, they tend to find a way to circumvent their own policies.

I know, it’s hard to panic about issues that aren’t staring us straight in the face. This summer will probably seem just as hot as every other summer, the and winter just as cold. Yet, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reckons that with the way things are travelling, we are “less than 12 years away from being able to undo our mistakes”. That’s where the emergency lies.

Whose fault is it?

That’s beside the point now. What’s happened has happened and the question we need to ask now is who’s going to take responsibility for changing our course and cleaning this mess up? Your parents? Your teachers? Someone in a position of power, surely!

Unfortunately not. You see, when people are given an opportunity to earn serious amounts of cash at the expense of the environment, ol’ Mother Nature tends to cop the short end of the stick. And when it comes to money, those with more of it tend to be the ones in positions of power.

So, if exploiting the environment tends to make the rich richer and the powerful powerful-er, how do we stop it?

Meet Greta Thunberg

Named by TIME Magazine as one of the most influential teenagers of 2018, Greta believes that the youngest generations hold the power. Us. While individually one student doesn’t have much authority to change the world, in a large-scale protest with thousands of students, their message can be heard.

#FridaysforFuture started with a lone Greta protesting about the lack of her government’s action on climate crisis, and grew to become a weekly student strike occurring every Friday around the world.

This has continued escalating to the point where now, this Friday September 20, tens of thousands of students and adults alike will be going on strike in an attempt to force governments the world over to treat climate change seriously. To treat it like an emergency.

“Why study for a future, when it might not be there?”

By walking off the job (or out of the classroom), the hope is that the strike will create enough disruption and pressure that taking action becomes inevitable.

While everyone can do their bit to reduce carbon emissions, it’s large, concrete changes in government policy that will really facilitate a large-scale shift in the right direction.

That a 15 (now 16)-year-old girl could act as the catalyst for such a huge worldwide protest is insanely inspirational and makes you wonder if there are any other positive changes you want to see in the world that you could possibly start yourself.

If you want to support the #ClimateStrike protest, then head on over to https://globalclimatestrike.net/. Here you can receive regular updates on how to join and help out with the climate strikes, or you can even register your own strike if there are none happening near you.