Rising climate star captures world attention
Published on: Sunday, September 29, 2019
By: Kan Yaw Chong
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Recurring theme – can no longer ignore younger generation.
After speaking at the UN in New York, Greta is now in Canada to launch the second wave of global strike where hundreds of thousands of young people are expected to march down the streets of Montreal.
Greta has become such a popular teen idol in the climate cause that even Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau felt compelled to join her in Friday’s global strike March.
Anybody who had felt futile fighting climate change cannot miss this emergence of a sudden phenomenon who doesn’t mind being labelled a rebel.
Blunt, direct and tell it like it is to world leaders, “how dare you”, she had twice taken her ultimatum to United Nations and EU Parliament to act quickly and strongly or else… “We won’t forgive you – your failings and betrayal.”
Tough talk, hard talk.
Established powers can no longer ignore her
To which the established powers and self-serving corporate oligarchies can no longer ignore.
But here is mystery of her surprise and rapid burst into the global climate debate scene.
I first heard about this girl from Pier Remitti, lead expert on climate action for the EU-backed Global Covenant for Mayors on Climate and Energy who twice cited this sensation who staged a personal strike alone at her school.
Then in August 2018, Greta also staged a protest alone outside the Swedish parliament, which rapidly swelled into a huge movement of 1.6 million teen students from 125 countries who staged a global strike across 2,000 locations worldwide on March 15, 2019 – that is, only six months ago!
But even I myself did not pay much attention to what Pier Remitti had cited with zeal and hope, first at the Johor GCoM meet in March and later in the GCoM meet in Kota Kinabalu in July, because I didn’t realise the extent of her following.
Greta speaks at UN COP 24. Poland.
‘Rebels’ out to revolutionise energy system
Even Greta herself has said she was surprised by her huge global inspirational impact among her own generation.
But Greta’s Belgian peer leader, Anura De Wever, 17, knew exactly what the objective of this global strike is before it happened: “On March 15 (2019), we have a strike and we want to make them feel if the whole world can unite about climate change the politicians cannot ignore it anymore.”
Openly confessing that they are rebels out to create a “revolution” to change the energy system and the lifestyles that they argue doom their “future”, Anura De Wever said: “There is little you can say against young people who demand a future.
“We don’t do this because it is easy, we do this because it is hard and we are doing things and we refused to be silenced about our future,” Anura explained what she is in for.
When the powers that be don’t give a damn to science
After barely months into the student strike experience and contact with politicians, German peer leader, Luisa Neubuer said she realised one reality that dodges the issue of climate action:
“I think I understood no one listens to science. It was totally boring right? Yeah.”
But realisation is always a potent strength for anyone who gains the insight.
In this case, the new generation has come to the conclusion that the established political, economic and corporate order really don’t care about their opinion and interest.
Luisa concluded there is only one way: “There is nothing that frightens our Government more than voters heading into the streets but I actually had no idea this was going to be so big, I expected only a few but it was huge…”
Greta leading a street protest.
The ‘Greta Thunberg Effect’ in the UK
Indeed, the surprise swell of millions of supporters has been coined the “Greta Thunberg Effect”.
To maximise their political leverage for serious climate actions, one of the demands of Greta’s followers is to lower the voting age to 16 to empower the young a greater say in their own destiny.
Anyway, the global street strikes had worked. EU politicians had taken note.
British Minister of Environment, Michael Gove, told Greta: “When I listened to you I felt great admiration, but also responsibilities of guilt,” and admitted that the UK had not done enough.
On April 23, the United Kingdom became the first country in the world to raise the stake of climate change when the House of Commons or British Parliament voted to declare a state of Climate Emergency!
So, the demand of Greta’s British peer leader, Anna Taylor, 18, to get UK to declare climate emergency actually happened very quickly.
“Our second demand is to accurately portray the crisis to the general public and the government to recognise that as the youths, we have the greatest stake in our future in putting, making and bringing the voting age down to 16,” Anna pointed out.
Impact in the EU
Then on April 26, Greta was invited to speak at the EU Parliament based in Strasbourg, France.
But two months before that, in February 2019, well before this EU Parliamentary stint, Greta shared a stage with the then EU Commission President, Jean Claude Juncker who outlined in the next financial period from 2021 to 2027, every fourth euro spent with EU Budget will go towards climate action to mitigate climate change.
Global strike on March 15, 2019.
Making her mark at the United Nations
Speaking to big-time politicians, parliaments and world class assemblies such as the United Nations COP 24 on Climate Change on Dec 23, 2018 and again at the UN COP 24 Climate Action Summit held in Poland and again at the UN Climate Action Summit on Sept 23, 2019 after refusing the fly but crossed the Atlantic for two weeks to New York aboard a 60ft long solar powered racing yacht!
But it was her appearance at UN COP 24 on Climate Change where Greta made her mark internationally.
Blunt speech at the UN
Characteristic of her style, she was blunt and had no time for niceties:
“You only speak of green eternal economic growth because you are too scared of being unpopular. You only talk about moving forward with the same bad ideas that you got us into this mess, even when the only sensible thing to do is pull the emergency brake.
“You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden you leave it to us children. But I don’t care about being popular. I care about climate justice and the living planet. Our civilisation is being sacrificed for the opportunity of a very small number of people to continue making enormous amounts of money.
“Our biosphere is being sacrificed so that rich people in countries like mine can live in luxury. It is the sufferings of many which pay for the luxuries of the few.”
The taunt at UN
In between, she taunted them about the year 2078, when probably 99pc of those listening may be 6ft underground.
“The year 2078, I will celebrate my 75th birthday. If I have children maybe they will spend that day with me. Maybe they will ask me about you. Maybe they will ask why you didn’t do anything while there still was time to act. You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes.”
“If the solutions within the system are so impossible to find, maybe we should change the system itself,” she said.
‘The inevitable whether you like it or not’
“We have not come here to beg world leaders to care. You have ignored us in the past and you will ignore us again. You have run out of excuses and we are running out of time.
“We have come here to let you know that change is coming, whether you like it or not. That real power belongs to the people. Thank you.”
Mighty speech, asserting her outspoken stance to the older generation in the established power who will face the inevitable systemic change saying when it comes, they will be powerless to stop it.
Existential crisis created by old generation
In one onsite interviews elsewhere, she said the burden of proof falls squarely on the older generation to fix the mess they have created.
“We are facing an existential crisis – the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced yet it has been ignored for decades by those who knew about it. We are the young, we have not contributed to this crisis, we have just been born into this world and suddenly there was this crisis ahead of us that we have to live with for our entire lives, our kids and grand kids and all future generations, we will not accept it, we won’t let it happen.
“That’s why we are protesting, we strike because we want a future and will continue. I think this is just the beginning of a movement where 1.6 million people attended the global strike in 125 countries at 2,000 locations,” Greta said.
Packed strike in Australia.
Nobel Peace Prize mooted for Greta
Pretty soon, we may see the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize ever because the idea has been floated around.
So, by any standard, this is a teen girl extraordinaire.
Make the world Greta again
In a lighter vein, her followers now chant a puny new mantra “Make the World Greta Again”, to apparently mock climate denier President Trump who espoused “Make America Great Again”.
Put to a vote, Greta will win world opinion hands down because she champions world interest while Trump‘s narrow idea of American supremacy has irked many.
Greta’s background
So what is it that fired her up in this cause in which she accused the adults had failed and betrayed her generation?
Which is a very interesting human interest story by itself.
Born on Jan 3, 2003, mother Emman was an opera singer, father Svante Thunberg is an actor while grandfather Olef Thunberg was a director and actor.
A teacher started it all
“I first started learning about climate change when I was eight when my teacher showed us pictures of plastics in the ocean and starving polar bears and extreme weather events,” she recalled.
“Those pictures were stuck in my head. I could not stop thinking about them. When I was maybe 11, I saw so little was done. I became depressed. I stopped eating and talking, and I stopped going to school.”
I don’t say nice things
“But I got out of depression by thinking to myself: there is so much I can do. So I woke up as usual and had breakfast then took some flyers and signs and just sat down outside the Swedish Parliament, inspired by the Parkland students in the US (where a mass shooting killed 31 students sparked a ‘March for Our Lives’ Gun Control campaign targeting the 2020 Election) and then some media started writing about my case.
“And already the second day I sat down, people started joining me and since then I am almost never alone when I am here (in front of Swedish Parliament). After weeks, it started spreading to other Swedish cities and then to other countries.
“I would never have imagined it was going to be this big. So what are we going to do? Save the climate, when? When? When? Now! Now! Now! Since I have Asperger’s, I am very direct, I don’t say nice words just to be polite, I say just like it is,” she said.
Diagnosed with Aspeger Syndrome
So, Greta confessed she was diagnosed with the Asperger’s Syndrome – a kind of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (preoccupation with narrow interests) with Selective Mutism (silent or not talking even when consequence hurts) thrown in.
So she argues Selective Mutism may keep her quiet but when it warrants it but is direct and brunt when it’s time to speak so that people listen.
Greta conceded the Aspenger Syndrome limited her at first but learnt to convince herself that is not an illness but instead a ‘super power’.
That super power is a belief that one person can make the difference.
But it is never easy to live up to the truism of a climate action activist especially in radical life style changes to reduce one’s personal carbon foot print.
The day Greta realised one person can make the difference
But apparently Greta became a vegan (abstention from use of animal products especially diet) and also managed to convince her parents to be vegans that is, eat no meat and don’t fly, after two years of persuasion.
So, mother Emman gave up flying and her career as an international opera singer.
Her parents’ positive response to life style changes bolstered her belief that she could make a difference to climate change which calls for life style changes.
Declare an international climate emergency
But Greta tells the world in one case: “I am from Sweden, I am a climate activist, we are outside the Swedish Parliament, I am here every Friday (Fridays for the Future), I am not a scientist, I don’t have any proper education, I am only a messenger. If we continue at the rate we are now by the year 2030 it will set of an irreversible chain reaction which will trigger events beyond human control then there is no going back.
“My demand is that the politicians follow the Paris Agreement. If you have read the Paris Agreement you will know that it is very radical. If I have any other demand, it would be to declare an international climate emergency.”
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