Friday 15th
February was the day that school students around the world took to the streets to demand
that world leaders start some serious action to address our environmental
crisis. We had our own excellent
examples, for instance here in Brighton.
You could
feel various emotions on hearing this.
First should
be shame. While we might point to all
sorts of things that we feel we’ve done, the basic fact is that we have
failed. For instance, in 1992 the UK,
along with most countries in the world, signed both the Climate ChangeConvention, and the Conventionon Biological Diversity. A generation ago we committed to really doing
something about the environmental crisis.
Since then, however, we have emitted more carbon dioxide than in the
previous 200 years and the world has slipped into its 6th mass extinction. Extinction rates now are between 1,000 and
10,000 times the background rate. Our
situation is about as serious as the mass extinction that saw off the dinosaurs.
Our
generation has failed, and we’ve failed spectacularly.
Second, we
might feel enthusiasm. The kids are
revolting, they have got some buzz about them and it doesn’t look like they are
going to accept any nonsense. This is
perhaps the brightest ray of hope that has emerged for a very long time. A failed generation has woken a justifiable
anger in young people.
Third is our
own anger. The students raise obvious
issues – the climate and environmental crises are the most serious issues of
our time, yet they are given a pathetic level of attention by both the media and
world leaders. The contract between one
generation and the next has been broken – we are taking their future from them
and not even talking about it. They know
it and are not going to put up with it.
The past generation of environmentalists should feel anger for battering
our heads against a brick wall trying to raise the concerns, and give positive
solutions, yet we’ve been constantly marginalised.
The clarity
of the arguments put forward by those on school strike was impressive.
We may claim
that we done a great deal to address the most important issues of our
time. All these kids need do, however,
is point to the results – feeble.
Some
criticised them for campaigning on a school day - they should do it on their
day off. A weekend demo, however, would
simply not have been reported by the media.
Quiet complaint has been tried – it failed.
They should
be at school working. “We’ll do our
homework when you do yours” was one great response. “Why improve our knowledge of science when
governments do not act on the science they already have?” – a charge that is
difficult to answer.
Theresa May
said they are wasting teachers time – the response was that while this may be
true, governments have wasted 30 years, which is worse! “2 years bitching about Brexit while the
planet is dying” was such a good poster it almost went viral.
As worn out
old cynics we might say that they don’t yet know how difficult or complicated
it all is – they are being simplistic.
But that is their right. Youth
has a great knack of getting to the nub of a problem – cutting through the
fluff and saying it how it is. The past
generation can try to confuse and procrastinate, but the facts speak for
themselves.
There is
going to be another school strike on 15th March. A little while ago, Greta Thunberg one of the
motivators behind the strike said that they are not there to ask for change but
to say that change is coming whether we like it or not. This is no longer just a demonstration – it’s
a movement.
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