Greta – the new face of climate activism
Climate activism has a new face, Greta Thunberg, the 16-year old Swedish girl. Amid all the Earth Day activities, it is timely to recognize this new voice for the next generation. For forty nine years, Earth Day has been a great day to celebrate, educate, legislate, and activate for all things environmental.
Climate change is obviously part of all things environmental, but also is in a different category. If the climate keeps getting warmer, if oceans continue to acidify, if the polar ice continues to melt, and seas continue to rise, we face a threat that will overwhelm most other environmental issues. Already, extreme heat, drought, and flooding threaten people, cities, agriculture, global productivity and national security. Bad as it is now, the full brunt will fall to future generations.
Greta Thunberg has been on her public path since August 2018, when she started her “school strike for climate” outside the Swedish Parliament, which she now does every Friday. She was then fifteen. Since then she has been invited to address the United Nations General Assembly, the World Economic Forum in Davos, met with the Pope and been nominated for a Nobel Prize.
Greta’s meteoric rise in just eight months seems improbable. Social media made it possible, but it is her unique persona and message that makes her so effective. She wastes no words, talking in perfect English with a hint of Scandinavian accent. She scolds adults. Her message is that adults are failing the next generation, with inadequate action in the face of an existential crisis.
Greta’s protest has gone viral. Last month an estimated 1.3 million young people, in 1,500 cities, in one hundred countries, participated in the March 15th strike following Greta’s lead. It is now known as: Fridays for future –#fridaysforfuture
I urge you to watch at least one of the two videos below of Greta, either her eleven minute TED Talk where she has the opportunity to give her history and full message, or at least the two minute version at the Earth Day rally in London last Sunday (The Guardian).
They say that every movement needs to find its leader – its public face and voice. I think Greta is just the right persona and voice for our time. Go Greta!