Do you already know?
It is true! There is no doubt about what is going on with our environment, whose fault it is and what’s needed to be done now!
Even if this Blog just started, we already established a growing platform and we take it seriously: The bigger your platform, the bigger your responsibility. And even if there would be only 1 person reading this, it was worth my time I spent writing.
To make it simple: these are the goals Greta and we all (should) want to reach:
- Stop CO2 emissions
- Keep the promises you made in the Paris agreement
- Make the climate crisis a headline everywhere
- Act like we were in a crisis – because we are
And now in more detail. Thank you, Greta, for each and every speech you held. Here are some of you sentences, because I think nobody can speak more clearly and touching about this topic than you do!
What is the problem?
“Our civilization is so fragile, like a castle in the sand. The facade is so beautiful, but the foundation is far from solid.”
“My name is Greta Thunberg. I am 16 years old. I come from Sweden and I want you to panic. I want you to act as if the house is on fire. Because it is. To panic, unless you have to, is a terrible idea. But if your house is on fire, and you want to keep your house from burning to the ground, then this requires some level of panic.
Our house is falling apart, and our leaders have to act accordingly. Right now, they are not. It is an emergency.”
“We are in the midst of the 6th mass extinction. The extinction rates are up to 10.000 times faster to what is considered as normal. About 200 species become extinct every single day.”
“Erosion, unfertile topsoil, deforestation of our great forests, toxic air pollution, lows of insects and wildlife numbers, the acidification of our oceans. These are all disastrous trends accelerated by a way of life that we, in the financially fortuned part of the world see as our right to simply carry on.”
“Hardly no one knows that these are just the first symptoms of an ecological breakdown. How could they? They have not been told by the right people in the right way.”
“Our civilization is being sacrificed for the opportunity of a very small amount of people to make enormous amounts of money. Our biosphere is being sacrificed so that rich people can live in luxury. It is the sufferings of the many, that pay for the luxuries of the few.”
“You say you love your children above anything else. yet your stealing their future in front of their very eyes.”
“You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden you leave to us children.”
Why school striking?
“Since you adults give a damn about my future, I won’t either. Why should we care for our future when we might not have one? Why should we bother to learn facts when facts don’t matter in the society?”
“We cannot solve a crisis, without treating it like a crisis.”
“When you have done your homework, you know, we have no other choice.”
“Since our time is running out, we started to take action.
We started to clean up you mess, and we will not stop until we are done.”
“You can’t just sit around, waiting for hope to come. Then you are acting like spoiled, irresponsible children. You don’t seem to understand, that hope is something you need to earn.”
“Put the focus on the climate crisis. We have done our homework, but we are not allowed to vote. We need new politics and economics where everything is based on our rapidly declining carbon budget. We need a whole new way of thinking. Right now, you cheat when you can, cause all that matters is to win, to get power. We must stop competing with each other. We have to start to work together and share the resources of the planet in a fair way.”
“Some people say that we are fighting for our future. But that is not true. We are fighting for everyone future.”
“Many people say we are too young and that we shouldn’t do this. And I agree, we shouldn’t have to do this. But in the situation, we are in right now we feel like we have to do this because you are risking our future.
If the adults won’t take responsibility than we will have to.”
“It is ok if you refuse to listen to me. I am after all just a 16-year-old schoolgirl from Sweden. But you cannot ignore the scientists or the science or the millions of school striking children, how are school striking for the right of a future.”
What can be done?
“We have to call it by the name: It is an emergency.”
“We have to speak clearly, no matter how uncomfortable it may be.”
“Unite behind the science, make the best available science the heart of politics and democracy.”
“There is still time. According to the latest IPCC report we are 11 years away from setting of an irreversible chain reaction beyond human control.”
“I have learned that you are never too small to make a difference. And if a few children get headlines all over the world by not going to school, imagine what we could all do together if we really wanted to.”
“I don’t care about being popular. I care about climate justice and a living planet.”
“If solutions in this system are impossible to find, then maybe we should change the system itself.”
“Everyone and everything has to change.
The bigger your platform, the bigger your responsibility
The bigger your carbon footprint, the larger your duty”
“The real power belongs to the people.”
“Change is coming, whether you like it or not.”
“Please wake up and make changes required possible. To do your best, is no longer good enough. I beg you, please do not fail on this.”
Sources
Greta and her family also publish books about their life, their decisions and now also one with speeches from Greta. I can highly recommend them!
These are the videos from YouTube I took as a source:
1 comment
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