Young Climate Activist – Greta Thunberg
“Build back better. Blah, blah, blah. Green economy. Blah blah blah. Net zero by 2050. Blah, blah, blah.” Says Greta Thunberg.
As perhaps the world’s most well-known young climate activist, Greta spoke at the recent Youth4Climate summit in Milan, Italy, dismissing the words of “our so called leaders” as “Words that sound great but so far have not led to action.”
Greta’s solo climate strike in 2018 generated a youth movement where millions of young climate protesters across the world began their ‘school strike’, calling for Government to listen, to halt fossil fuel extraction, reduce carbon emissions and address pollution. It was their young lives and future that was being put at risk by the inaction of our world leaders.
Research shows that children born today would experience many times more extreme heatwaves and other climate disasters over their lifetimes than their grandparents, even if countries fulfil their current emission pledges. This is why Greta, and other climate activists living in India, Australia and the UK who have featured in our newsletters, are calling for governments to stop coal mining, oil extraction and creating toxic pollution.
According to the United Nations, carbon emissions are on track to rise by 16% by 2030, rather than fall by half, which is the cut needed to keep global heating under the agreed limit of 1.5C. Therefore, their efforts need to be re-doubled, not ignored. No wonder Greta is so disheartened.
An important Climate Summit, known as COP 26, is being held in Glasgow early in November. Here, world leaders of the highest polluting countries, must be held to account to deliver upon their pledges to cut emissions and keep the goal of 1.5° C within reach. Local councils in the UK too need to have produced their Climate Action plans for their area and be seen to be carrying them out!
Yet, Greta is positive. She admits that reaching our targets can happen but only if we take drastic and immediate action to cut our emissions.
It is good to know that both Greta Thunberg and Ugandan young activist Vanessa Nakate, plus 400 other young people worldwide, were invited to the Youth4ClimateSummit to increase the participation of young people in decision-making, helping to transform energy use, nature conservation and climate adaptation, and explain how education can create a climate-conscious society.
Thanks to Greta’s actions in 2018, at least there are more opportunities for young people to officially have their say about the Climate Crisis. Let’s hope this time, our leaders will listen and act on what they are telling us.
Please come and offer your support on behalf of your children’s future and that of young people worldwide. Join with Moorlands Climate Action on the International Global Day of Action for the Climate. Meet with us on Saturday 6th November at 11.00 a.m. (by the fountain next to SMDC Offices).
Hear also Scottish children voicing their aspirations for the future.
Photo credit: Markus Schweizer, Greta Thunberg Lausanne - Palais de Rumine 17 Janvier 2020 copie, CC BY-SA 4.0