"Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people, to give them hope. But I don't want your hope. I don't want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is."
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish girl who made the news after telling world leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland that they lacked the maturity to discuss the topic, spoke at a World Economic Forum conference in Switzerland this week... [npr.org]
Some of us were once your age. We panicked as we "ducked and covered". We marched to stop war, promote disarmament, stop police brutality, and protect the world for our future children. We fought in union halls for sexual equality, racial equality, and against hatred. But we are getting older and we need to pass the torch to you, young lady. We who care still panic at the thought of the stupidity that causes pain to the people of our planet.
We were once the younger generation with great ideals and high idealism. The generation than spawned Green Peace and Ban The Bomb. But in real life we didn’t care. We had the opportunity to change things but got sucked into the consumer way of life and hypocritically forgot our message. Why would the current young generation be any different to us?
Some of us have kept up our activism throughout our lives from the anti-nuclear marches of the early sixties until now, and voted and stood for office. We don't all sink into comfortable lassitude.
@CeliaVL that is true. Unfortunately the conviction got lost somewhere or we wouldn’t be where we are.
This new generation of realists will face stiff competition from those of their age group who are brought up as haters & bigots (what they're taught at home). The upside of these realists is they are making their voices heard in the face of adversity. What we need is a real education system, a right being denied them, where truth and acceptance are nurtured instead of shunned. Too many parents are blind to reality and pass along their fears and prejudices. I call this child abuse, and it is truly sad that is so pervasive. There is still some hope as I see more and more people coming to their senses. Getting rid of FOX "news" and its' ilk would be a good starting point.
The fundamental problem for humanity is population expansion - climate change, food and water shortages, plastics, air and other pollution, all go back a rapidly growing number of humans all wanting more of the earths resources. In any other species we would define it as a plague - and like other plagues will be self extinguishing as resources run out.
I love Greta! She's motivated, clever, and on the correct path. I hope to raise my kids with as much concern for the future as she has.
Unfortunately we are acting on the ideals our adults gave us, and they likewise. Cultures change very slowly and almost never without a crisis. The"don't worry be happy" meme is a failure. A former partner was alcoholic and refused to have children because alcoholism was in her family and she didn't want to take a chance and pass on what she had to deal with onto another. That seems to be a rare idea because too many don't care; they just follow their instincts and procreate no matter how difficult things are for them or how bleak the future for future generations. There are also plenty of young people who also won't see the future realistically. I think history and the world experiences have proven great changes don't come without a lot of pain. I really feel for these young people. I also feel tRump is not a problem, he is a symptom of a bigger problem.
My question is just who is it that lacks maturity?
Global warming means dramatic changes in weather patterns, some heatwaves, droughts, storms and floods but none of that will end human life on the planet - though of course large parts of many coastal cities and towns (London, New York etc) will be submerged.
The more probable end of humanity will be a virus, maybe ebola variants, particularly once antibiotics become ineffective.
Then of course there are the ever present possibilities of nuclear war, meteor strike, supervolcano, sunspot energy pulses and too many other routes to devastation,
Moral of all this - don't worry - live well and seek happiness and maybe you will grow old and die with a broad smile on your face.
You're right that a pandemic is the most likely threat. What concerns me is that global climate change has the potential to spark one. As farmland either dries out or becomes inundated, the locations of farms will have to shift, including expansion into previously dense tropical forests, where there are many pathogens we've never encountered. Ecological catastrophes in tropical latitudes will also result in increased population movement, which inevitably carries the risk of shifting a locally endemic illness to a global epidemic. Rising sea levels will also result in more densely occupied cities, which provide fertile ground for epidemics.
I agree that it's pointless to just "worry" about the risks, but if worry spurs us to action, it might be a good thing!
What it could mean if left unchecked, though, is dramatic changes to ecosystems and a vast reduction in arable land worldwide, which means a massive decrease in availability of food, a massive increase in refugees and immigration as hundreds of millions of people try to relocate to areas where there is still food and a huge drain on resources - which in turn leads to war which, as you say, in this day and age could end human life on the planet, or at the very least cause the total breakdown of civilisation.
(BTW, antibiotics don't work on viruses, so antibiotic resistance won't affect viral diseases such as ebola. We are likely to see a resurgence of bacterial diseases, meanwhile.)
Funny, we always here about heat waves but extremely cold temps in the northern hemisphere, not so much.
@FloydA Global warming, pollution, and the use of herbicides and pesticides are reducing the number of insects in the world, which in turn has affects up the food change. We are stupid to think we are untouchable.
@AstralSmoke You're absolutely right! I've got a couple of beehives, so I don't use any pesticides or herbicides in my garden, but I am constantly worried that my neighbors might. Colony collapse disorder and other threats to pollinating species are huge concerns!
@FloydA And how are your hives doing? A lot of people (around here) are experiencing colony collapse. I don't have hives personally, but I plant with the honey bees in mind.
@Jnei Been thinking onthis one ... there is an unstated presumption in your argument that civilisation is equivalent to human civilisation. Yet there are many species that have distinct social behaviours (wolves, apes, bees, ants etc) but this isn't my area of knowledge. I simply question the value of placing on human existence above that of other species. Take the point on antibiotics - but viral infections often immunosuppress and open the way to bacterial and fungal infection.
@AstralSmoke Thanks for asking! Our hives are doing well. We lost a colony a few years ago, but I suspect that was from a cold snap, rather than CCD. (Actually, I think my brother just took too much of the honey and didn't leave enough to feed them through the winter; the cold snap was just what pushed the colony over the edge. We've been less greedy since.) There was no sign of CCD or any fungal infestation in the hive, but we sterilized the boxes anyway, just to be sure, and the colony we got to replace it has swarmed twice since then (!) and overwintered just fine. We had a bit of a scare a couple of weeks ago, when a big windstorm knocked one of the grape vine trellises over on the hives, but there was no real damage.
Thank you for planting with bees in mind! They're great for our garden and orchard, and there's nothing like fresh honey!
My advice to older generation is sit down, STFU, and hear them roar. For good or bad, most of the younger are so much smarter than we were.....and many of us are.
There's an old story about two aging rock stars who hear some hip hop music one day. One of the rock stars complains that he doesn't understand the youth of the day. The other replies, "It's not our job to understand - our job is to get out of the way."
Unfortunately it's fear that keeps people from acting. It's fear that causes people to abandon common sense and leads them to follow anyone that tells them it's all a hoax. They prefer to attack the facts and revel in their ignorance as long as it's not their house that's on fire or under water, yet.
Or ignorance.
She's right. We need to be raging against the inaction to correct and prevent climate change.