While completing an internship in Västernorrland County of northern Sweden early this year, I was fortunate enough to witness the development of the ‘Greta Thunberg effect’ first-hand in her home country.
It spread through relentless activism and the highly-effective leadership of the then 15-year-old Thunberg. She famously skipped school on a Friday in August 2018 to protest for climate action at the Swedish parliament. In a short time, she became the young heroine of a global social movement primarily focused on fighting climate change.
I could see it in the people I interacted with every day. They were moved to care more about environmental activism after being directly inspired by Thunberg. They decorated her with adornment in our conversations, discussing her inspirational leadership frequently.
They knew that although she was well-known in Sweden at the time, she would soon become an international superstar. Now, I know that my Swedish friends were right.
On Friday, Sept. 20, a passionate but orderly wave of what’s estimated to be four million young people around the world came out into the streets and expressed their anger. Their urgency was loudly heard as they demanded action to be taken on climate change, the biggest threat ever posed to humanity.
The power that true, inescapable fear has in bringing people together knows no bounds. These were not young people typically involved in activism. Rather, they came from a broad spectrum of backgrounds.
Thunberg is an organizational mastermind—her ability to bring this coalition of youth together into a powerful social movement without seeing any notable infighting is fascinating.
To the engineering student in New Delhi, who understands that we need a vast expansion of our solar and wind energy grids while protecting fossil fuel workers during the transition to the renewable energy system: we stand with you.
To the elementary school teacher in Vancouver, who knows that her students will be on the frontlines of the climate catastrophe in the decades to come if we don’t commit to shifting to a sustainable economy now: we stand with you.
And to the teenage girl in Moscow, who recognizes the danger that climate deniers in leadership, like Vladimir Putin, Boris Johnson, Jair Bolsonaro, and the U.S. President can pose to our ecosystems and global air quality: we stand with you.
Young people are the vanguard for our future. The future cannot fight for itself and future generations have no voice now. While we will certainly feel the effects of climate change in the decades to come, it is unimaginable to think of what could become of life on Earth one or two centuries from now if we do not act to protect and preserve our environment.
Here is what’s at stake. Without action, entire countries will be swallowed into the rising oceans. Habitats and ecosystems will vanish, and billions of people will suffer under extreme heat waves. Global migration and trade patterns will fundamentally alter as a new class of climate refugees emerges into a full-blown crisis.
Yes, it is very scary. This is what has drawn people to Thunberg. It is her consistent pursuit of aggressive action on climate change and her demands for world leaders to do better that has made her a figurehead of the most prominent social movement in the international sphere since Occupy Wall Street.
I, and millions of others, believe in Thunberg’s message that yes, climate change is an existential threat to our lives and all future generations to come, but we all have a voice now. For too long, Indigenous communities have been in this fight alone. We must use our voices and protest in unity.
We must fight until our politicians are strong enough to stand up to fossil fuel companies and lobbyists. Until we see the action that science demands of us from our governments, we will continue to demand better.
Join the climate strike in Ottawa on Sept. 27 and be a voice for the voiceless—both future generations and your future self.
No one can put it more clearly than Thunberg did in 2018: “I want you to act as if our house is on fire … because it is.”
Feature image from file.
