Greta Thunberg

Eduardo del Buey
Foto: Afp
La Jornada Maya

Martes 1 de octubre, 2019

Sixteen years old.

Has Asperger’s syndrome.

Small, diminutive, and shy.

Yet in one year Greta Thunberg has gone from being an anonymous teenager in Sweden to the moral leader of a worldwide crusade to mitigate climate change and transform how humanity behaves.

On September 23, she spoke at the United Nations, telling the assembly of world leaders that, “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth - how dare you!'

At her young age, and in less than a year, she has galvanized the global community in a crusade against climate change in a way that few other political leaders, scientists, or celebrities have managed to do so to date.

While millions march around the globe, climate change deniers have tried to taint her with various brushes.

Some said that due to her age, some dark radical environmental forces are manipulating her. Others claim that she is simply an alarmist whose discourse is upsetting many people.

But U.S. religious historian Diana Butler Bass has written that “Those commenting on Greta Thunberg would do well to remember that Joan of Arc led an army, Jane Austen wrote her first book, Sojourner Truth escaped slavery, Anne Frank wrote her diary, and Malala Yusafzai won the Nobel Peace Prize at the same age”.

Hence, history has shown us that a young person, with a strong message, and an ability to connect with people – despite her Asperger’s – can galvanize public opinion.

Some have criticized her speech as being too emotional.

Well, the dry discourse of science has not created this coordinated global level of mass marching for change.

The obfuscating discourse of many political leaders has not achieved enough over the past fifty years that environmental issues have been at the forefront of human concern.

Meanwhile, the voices of many business leaders have, until quite recently, generally ignored environmental problems as an area of business focus likely due to the relative cost of the major changes required to transform their business models.

Finally, we consumers have been loath to reduce, recycle and especially, in this disposable society, re-use what we buy as few want to pay the cost associated with taking more responsible decisions.

Cost?

How do we price the air that we breathe and the water that we drink?

How do we substitute arable land that falls into disuse due to drought or flooding resulting from the rapidly changing global climate?

How do we address the fact that tens of millions have no access to drinking water, and similar numbers of people who are being poisoned by the air that they breathe?

How do we deal with entire countries such as the Maldives, Tuvalu, and Kiribati that are inches away from being flooded into oblivion as ice caps melt and water levels rise?

How many millions will be left homeless and destitute when rising water levels cover major coastal regions on all six continents?

As Thunberg well noted, the answer does not lie in 2030, or 2050. It challenges us today. According to many scientists, we are on the brink of a major environmental catastrophe, and many of us along with our political leaders are responding, in many cases, too slowly or, worse yet, with denial.

Many politicians claim that they must strike a balance between economic growth and the cost of modifying human behavior.

But, if humanity begins to die off due to a lack of fresh air and fresh water, the issue of economic growth will be mute

I would also posit that perceived costs should instead be looked at as investments in human survival.

What is required is a revolution of the mentalities.

We each can vote in two ways to achieve environmental improvement: with the ballot and with our wallets.

We can vote for political leaders who espouse and implement sound environmental stewardship while ensuring that the resources and stimuli are there to maintain economic growth.

We can also vote with our wallets by ensuring that we purchase goods and services from environmentally sound companies while avoiding products or services that contribute to global warming. We can ensure that we purchase products and services that have a small or zero carbon footprints. As well, we must insist that our elected leaders ensure that recycled waste is in fact recycled and not simply sent overseas or dumped in the oceans.

When the businesses and governments see that their bottom lines are affected by their environmental activities, they will be quick to change and adapt.

New technologies arise when old technologies prove untenable.

Electric vehicles can one day replace combustion driven ones if governments and industry facilitate the investment in charging stations the way oil companies have invested in gasoline stations around the world since the beginning of the last century.

Solar panels on every rooftop of every building around the world can, along with wind and hydroelectric power, relieve humanity of the need for coal and oil fired power plants.

Chimney scrubbers can convert polluting manufacturing sites in to clean producers.

Yes, we must all participate in this great endeavor. But if governments, the private sector, and individuals have to pay a little more for goods and services, should that not be seen as an investment and not as a cost?

We can create new industries, new export markets, and millions of jobs around the world.

Yet leaders of some countries, including the United States and Brazil, ignore the science, deny it is an issue and avoid international forums aimed at discussing these problems and formulating solutions.

They will probably not live long enough so suffer the consequences of their beliefs and actions.

But Greta Thunberg, her children, and the children of her millions of young followers will.

Thunberg is leading a climate change crusade like no one else has so far been able to achieve in our lifetime.

She is showing us what anyone of us, even a sixteen-year old girl, can achieve in a year.

Let’s admit it: my generation has contributed to many of the problems that humanity faces with our unrestricted consumption and incredible production of waste of all kinds.

And this is the inheritance that we are bequeathing to the next generation.

Politicians everywhere should take note; in a couple of years these teenagers will vote.

Many will say that it is easy for us to speak, but how many of us are willing to change our behavior? How many of us are willing to pay a price to pursue a greener economy and shape our lifestyles to meet environmental realities?

As I stated above, it will take a change in our mentality.

It will take pressure from those who will be the victims of our behavior – our children and our children’s children.

To paraphrase President John F. Kennedy, we must ask what each of us can do for our common environment. We must each commit to changing our behavior to ensure that we become part of the solution and do not remain part of the problem.

No one country can stem the tide of climate change.

This is a global problem requiring a global solution.

Some public and private sector leaders are beginning to realize that not only is environmental stewardship economically feasible and, increasingly, politically palatable, but that many voters are actually looking for the kind of leadership in our political and industrial leaders that a sixteen year old Swede has demonstrated.

Indeed, on the eve of the U.N. Conference on Climate Change, one third of global banks with assets of $47 trillion announced that they had signed on to a U.N. backed “responsible banking” program aimed at turning away from fossil fuel investments.

Companies like Amazon are converting their worldwide fleet of vehicles to electric trucks.

As individuals, we must be conscious of the lifestyle decisions that we take and how they impact on the environment. Companies must redefine their business models to meet this new and evolving market. Oil companies must redefine themselves as energy companies and pursue new environmentally friendly business lines if they are to survive.

Hence the importance of the Special United Nations Conference on Climate Change, and the need for critics like Thunberg and her millions of followers to continue pressuring or even shaming not only global leaders but also each and every one of us to take action and be the difference.

Some people have tried to make fun of Ms. Thunberg’s Asperger’s syndrome, others of her age, and yet others of her diminutive size.

But age and physical size are not the main determinants of leadership.

A focused mind, a strong message, an unshakable vision and conviction, and a direct and determined connection with the public are.

And sixteen year old Greta Thunberg has these in spades.

Do we?

Mérida, Yucatán

[b][email protected][/b]