Sixteen year old Greta Thunberg from Sweden has inspired a global movement of young people pushing for genuine action to slow down and stop carbon dioxide emissions, and then start reducing carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. On 20 September 2019 I went with my 17 year old daughter to a student strike and public march for climate change action in Brisbane, along with about 300,000 other Australians.
Shortly afterwards, Greta gave a brief and bracing speech to the 2019 United Nations Summit on Climate Change. I watched her speech. I wept. I could not eat. I could not sleep. I did not know what to do with myself in response to the power, urgency and truth of what she said.
She pointed out that “listening” to young people like her is a sop for hope when no action to give hope is being taken. She pointed out that parents are failing their children and she was not going to accept false comfort as we power past tipping point after tipping point in global warming. Given the consequences of not taking radical action, and given that our children and their children will have to suffer our inaction, Greta refused to accept a counsel of despair about how hard the problem is to fix.
