If there is one huge problem besides the escalating effects of climate change, then it’s us.
I mean
us as responsible adults, facing the biggest challenge of our history and the
way we are handling the truth blowing in our face. Because the reactions of
some of us in the media after Greta Thunberg’s heartfelt speech at the UN is
disturbing, the least to say.
I won’t speak about the reactions some
politicians around the world had. That was rightfully addressed by many good
pens and journals. I will stick to social media. I’ve seen people (some of them
whom I know to be otherwise educated and intelligent), furiously asking: “Who
is she to call out on the world’s political leaders?! Who is she to speak at
the UN assembly?!”
Who is she? She’s a citizen of this world
and thus, she’s entitled to call out on any politician, because they were
elected by us to serve and represent our interest. Consequently, we have the
right to call them out and they have the duty to answer us. What Greta Thunberg
expressed in her passionate speech is what most of us are thinking, but we just
failed to say it loudly. In her words she voiced our very much adult frustrations
towards the lies we are fed by many politicians, media etc. while we are the
one, down here, in the middle of reality sensing that things are getting worse
every day.
Why is she the one speaking? Because we’ve lost hope in our strength, we’ve lost trust in the institutions; we’ve lost trust in each other. And she speaks like the child in Hans Christian Andersen story, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. In a world where all adults were silently supporting a lie, it was a child saying out loudly: “The Emperor is naked!” And right now, the emperor is naked.
So where is your moral upper hand, oh, my fellow adults, when you’re embarking into the public bashing of a brave child when you support the ones who smear her name when you lend your voice to the chorus of those minimizing her endeavor and the truth of her message? How great are you in doing this?
Where is your sound mind, your reason and
mature thinking, when you fail to realize that all this campaign against this
young speaker of conscience is lead/sustained/paid by those who lose the most
if deep changes are to come? How can you be so oblivious of the efforts of big
capital to derail the discussion from the real problem we all face, the climate
change? How can you fall into this trap of petty fight over the rights of a
child to express her opinion? Are we all blind? She speaks the truth, the one
we lamely fail to support and defend and we choose to bring her down in the
most disgraceful way? Is this an adult behavior?
Years ago, when the melting of the polar ice unraveled
new territories, all I could read in the news was the hope for….possible new
sources of fossil fuel. The voice of scientists worrying about the loss of the icecap,
the global climate effects and the loss of habitat for polar animals was turned
down, muffled by the happy counting of money on the part of the capital. Where
were you then, oh, you mighty Greta bashers? Where was your voice?
Global climate change is a reality and its
costs are unforeseeable. I am a Nature lover, living in a continental temperate
climate area. We used to have 4 distinct seasons. In less than my lifetime, we
have lost one of them: Spring. So what, you might ask? Why is that such a
problem?
It is a huge problem, first of all, because such a change occurred in a very short time compared to any other similar change in climate history. Second, it is a problem because that was a season of gradual returning to life of the whole natural world. It allowed plants to emerge to life after winter in a well set and long, long rehearsed chain of actions. Everyone knew its time and place; the whole complexity of ecosystems was relying on this gradual warming up, on the soft rains and the mild sunshine. The farmers who feed us, who have fed and keep feeding the world were always relying on the clockwork of seasonal changes, on the predictability of climate at a larger scale.
My family and I, we are weekend gardeners. We are not depending on our crops, but we know firsthand what unpredictability means for those working the land. In 2019 we saw weather extremes from March to August and I cannot expect less from the remaining days of this year. We had catastrophic hail storms, floods, prolonged cold and severe draught. I live in a big city where I have clean, clear tap water coming from the nearby mountains. Each time I let it run, I recall the dry floor of the forest and the mountains where people have foolishly cut down the forests for petty profit. I wonder how long will last our freshwater source…I wonder how much draught can the forest take before it starts to die. I wonder how the farmers will feed their families and their animals if the weather keeps ruining their work…I wonder who knows about this, who cares about this, who will speak for them, for us, for the whole world.
I am grateful to the child who speaks in my
name.
I am grateful that she voices my thoughts.
We
should grow up and step in, giving back her hope that we are able to make the
change.
She deserves to be a child; it’s her childhood
we are wasting now.
