If you’ve been active on any form of social media in the past few weeks, you’ve probably noticed the flurry of activity centered around climate change. With one of the recent Global Climate Strikes taking place just several days before the U.N.’s 2019 Climate Action Summit in New York City, there’s no denying the discussion is at the forefront of our news.
What’s really making headlines, however, is the rise of the climate change movement as a primarily youth led one. Fresh faced and fueled by countless articles warning of the disastrous consequences to come, these young activists aren’t just angry, they’re scared.
Generation Z and beyond will bear the brunt of dealing with the aftermath of climate change, which poses a serious threat to their futures and livelihoods. Young people across the world are growing restless with policymakers’ proclivity to slowness and are demanding tougher restrictions be put in place immediately.
This sense of urgency is what spurred the creation of the Global Climate Strike, a series of worldwide coordinated school walk-outs on September 20 and 27 that spanned 150 countries and is estimated to have had around 6.6 million in attendance. The organization of the protest is unlike any of its predecessors; eight national youth led organizations coordinated most of the strikes across the globe, making it one of the largest scale events put on almost entirely by young people. Organizers asked adults to take a hands-off approach by instead becoming an “adult ally,” where young people’s ideas are made first priority and are taken into serious consideration by the adults in the room.
One of the strike’s most significant demands is the implementation of a “Green New Deal,” which calls for a 100% transition to clean, renewable energy by 2030 and the halt of the construction of any additional fossil fuel infrastructure, such as coal plants. Protecting biodiversity is another key component of the movement’s demands, with protestors calling for an end to all deforestation by 2030 and restoration efforts for global forests and oceans.
Similarly, protestors are pushing for an end to industrial agriculture and a movement towards sustainable animal agriculture, an industry which currently accounts for a large amount of carbon emissions. Many activists are also placing an emphasis on the need for education surrounding the issue, such as declaring climate change a national emergency and requiring public schools to teach future generations about its consequences.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the strike drew an overwhelmingly diverse crowd in terms of age and ethnicity, proving the looming threat of existentialism is certainly a unifier across varying backgrounds. At the Washington, DC strike, half of all participants were college age or younger and nearly a quarter were under 18. People of color also accounted for a third of those in attendance, a figure similar to the national population.
The face of the climate change movement is not only young; it’s also proved to be overwhelmingly female. Girls comprised 68 percent of the youth leaders. Among those leaders is Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish activist who is largely credited with giving the youth climate strikes its momentum when she began skipping school on Fridays in her hometown to protest the lack of policymakers’ actions regarding climate change.
Thunberg has garnered extensive media coverage since her rise to fame, praising her passion for the cause at such a young age and hailing her as the leader we’ve all been waiting for. There have been countless articles examining how and why she has drawn such a dedicated following and despite all the theories, the reality is simple: Thunberg is a kid who is asking the adults of the world to do better.
In her most recent speech given at the U.N. Climate Action Summit, she deadpans, “You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you, and if you choose to fail us, I say, we will never forgive you.”
Thunberg is the voice of a generation that refuses to lie down and accept the future they are told is inevitable. By being raised with constant access to more information than ever before, young people are becoming increasingly inquisitive of the world around them and demanding tangible change.
Thunberg and 15 other youth activists recently filed a legal complaint with the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, stating that five major countries, such as France and Germany, had known about the dangers of climate change for years and failed to take any action to curtail them. They argued that by putting the climate in danger, the countries were breaching the rights of children to a safe environment and future.
Despite Thunberg’s riveting speech and the legal efforts of her fellow youth leaders, the U.N.’s Climate Action Summit arguably failed in taking any substantial steps forward. The three largest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions in the world (China, India, and the U.S.) hardly budged in their policies. China and India did very little to accelerate their timelines towards change or ramp up their goals of curbing emissions. The U.S. did not announce any further efforts.
Smaller impact countries collectively announced more pledges to action and national climate targets than did the top three contributors. A total of 70 countries have committed to tougher Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) in 2020, although all 70 countries only account for around 6.8 percent of global emissions. Germany and Britain also offered to contribute larger donations to the U.N.’s Climate Fund, an effort that aims to help developing countries reduce their emissions and switch to more sustainable power usages.
Without further commitments to change from major global contributors, the movement that has generated such an extensive social presence seems to still be falling short of producing substantial results.
But if Thunberg’s fiery speeches and her crowds of unwavering, poster-wielding teens are any indicators of their dedication to the cause, it seems like policymakers might not be getting a break from being condemned anytime soon.
