Houston, Houston, we have a problem and it’s not Greta Thunberg!

   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.