Sorry you only heard this here first. But our media were understandably preoccupied by the President of the United States promoting a doctored video to try to embarrass our House Speaker by suggesting she was drunk. (Hint: she was not).
Meanwhile, the children who inhabit the rest of the world are more concerned about the survival of the planet.
Hundreds of thousands of students around the world walked out of their schools and colleges Friday in the latest in a series of strikes urging action to address the climate crisis. According to event organizers Fridays for Future, over 1664 cities across 125 countries registered strike actions, with more expected to report turnouts in the coming days.
I wonder what’s going to happen when this generation finally realizes just how horrifically their forefathers and mothers wiped out their futures. But we adults in front of our screens will all be dead by then, right?
The “School Strike for Climate” movement was first started by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, who began her strike outside the country’s parliament in Stockholm in August 2018 and has said that she will continue to strike until Sweden is aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Since then, her singular action has spread into an international climate movement, organized by young people around the world. This strike followed the last co-ordinated event on March 15, which saw over 1.6 million people across 133 countries turn out at demonstrations according to organizers.
Probably the saddest aspect of this is that it took a 16-year old to raise this kind of awareness. Of course, since she’s not an American, she doesn’t really count much in terms of our media coverage. Oh well, let’s listen to her anyway:
“May 24 is the last chance to affect the E.U. elections. Politicians are talking about the climate and environmental issues more now, but they need more pressure,” she said. Voting across the European Union takes place May 23-26, where the 751 representatives of the European Parliament will be elected by citizens across the continent. Recent polling suggests environmental issues and policies tackling climate change are high on the agenda for voters considering who to elect.
The student movement to raise awareness of man-made climate change is well underway in Europe and Asia, even as their voting parents keep pulling the lever for right-wing gasbags and fraudsters, much as they did in the United States.
As compiled by Suyin Haynes for Time Magazine:
Australia
Climate change has been amplified in Australian public conversation in recent weeks, as voters in national elections on May 18 surprisingly re-elected the conservative coalition, which has long resisted calls to cut carbon emissions and coal. Australia has just experienced its hottest summer on record with the country’s farmers facing a punishing drought, and recent research has shown that warming seas are preventing the Great Barrier Reef’s ability to regrow.
Meanwhile, in the serious “adult” world, voters in Australia just elected a horrific climate denialist.
India
In Delhi, schoolchildren marched carrying a banner referring to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the leading international body for the assessment of climate change. In October 2018, the IPCC stated that the impact of a 1.5C increase in global temperatures over pre-industrial levels would “disproportionately affect disadvantaged and vulnerable populations through food insecurity, higher food prices, income losses, lost livelihood opportunities, adverse health impacts, and population displacements”.
Meanwhile, in the serious “adult” world, voters in India just elected a populist “climate skeptic.”
United Kingdom
While social media and headlines were filled with the resignation of British Prime Minister Theresa May, announced on the morning of May 24, some young people saw it as an opportunity to highlight the climate crisis instead.
Meanwhile, in the serious, “adult” world, Britons are expected to replace the outgoing incompetent Theresa May with yet another conservative huckster, perhaps the climate denialist Boris Johnson.
So as the “adults” who comprise the voting majorities in these countries (though not all, thankfully) have collectively proved themselves as nothing but short-sighted fools, the young people have to shoulder the burden themselves. Those of us who do care about such things should be thanking God for kids like Greta Thunberg.
While Thunberg may have started her strike alone, May 24 proved that people all around the world are in solidarity with her and willing to spread the message. “I’m not planning to stop this movement, and I don’t think anyone else is either,” she told TIME. “We have to start acting now, even if we don’t have all the solutions.”
Greta, you are the solution.
