16-year-old Greta Thunberg’s Challenge to World Leaders

by: Crista Nicole Buat

Climate change is inarguably one of the most pressing issues of our time. We learn about it in class, we are taught about the threat it poses to our future; and yet, we see no one taking strides to make effective changes. The issue of climate change has been in talks since the 1970s, and until today, almost half a century later, we still have no foolproof plan to counter the devastation it is bound to cause.

Greta Thunberg understands the absurdity of the situation and does not hesitate to use her voice to address the problem. “How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words, yet I’m one of the lucky ones.” She spoke at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York last September 29.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/15/the-beginning-of-great-change-greta-thunberg-hails-school-climate-strikes

Here, the 16-year-old Greta calls out world leaders in their failure to take action in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control. 50% may be acceptable to you, but those numbers do not include tipping points.”

If you are unaware, carbon dioxide emissions are the largest contributor to human-induced warming; which means that your use of metal straws in an effort to save the turtles is useless if large companies don’t start cutting off their emissions. The fact that politicians refuse to truly acknowledge the urgency of this issue angers Greta Thunberg; and it should anger all of us too.

“People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is the money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you?”

As the youth, we are the future generation. We are the ones who will have to suffer the consequences of climate change—consequences which we do not have to deal with, if world leaders start to act now.

Granted, we have our own fair share of work to do as individuals in order to reduce the effects of climate change and global warming. But these efforts would be in vain if we do not see large scale changes in carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel sources. We need to see some real change.

“I want you to act as if the house was on fire. Because it is.” Greta stated in a previous speech in January, and her statement perfectly summarizes the lack of urgency on the matter.

“You are failing us, but the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say, we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line.”

Clips of her speech went viral on social media and received mixed reviews, with most of the negative comments coming from politicians, specifically US President Donald Trump (the United States is one of the Top 20 nations with the highest CO2 emissions) who replied, “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!" to a post of Thunberg’s video on Twitter. She also received mockery from online trolls who criticized her appearance.

On the positive side, most of the general public applauded Thunberg and showed their support for the climate activist by liking and sharing the post on social media. This year’s climate strike also saw a significant rise in participants, and has become one of the largest demonstrations in human history with over 7 million people marching to demand for climate justice.

We can only hope that world leaders finally hear the cries of a generation in danger, and take action to combat the growing threats of climate change. If not, it is our duty to ensure that our cries are heard.

#GretaThunberg #ClimateChangeAwareness