The i news online and i newspaper print edition 9th August 2019.
A year ago, Greta Thurnberg was an anonymous school girl who every Friday sat outside the Swedish parliament with a home made sign protesting against inaction on climate change. Today politicians and celebrities hang on her words, the figurehead of an international climate justice movement by school children.
Her actions, along with the high profile take over of parts of London earlier this year by Extinction Rebellion, have produced a tremendous increase in the public’s concern about what is happening to the climate. Many people now realise that this isn’t an issue far off in the distance. Climate breakdown is bearing down on us. Older generations may escape the worst impacts, but it is our children who have most to fear from this uncertain future.
What increases the sense of urgency is the realisation of just how far away we are from doing what is required to avoid disaster. While the UK Government’s commitment to reach net-zero carbon by 2050 is a welcome step in the right direction, it is not enough even if all other nations took similarly ambitious measures. And of course they are not. The only thing that matters with global heating is global carbon emissions.
They need to be decreasing at an annual rate of at least 3% for most of the rest of the century if we are to have a good chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. In 2018 they jumped to a seven year high and show now signs of slowing down.
Like it or not, we are all in this together. But just like Brexit which has stress-tested UK politics to near destruction, climate change demonstrates just how dysfunctional our globalised civilisation is when it comes to coordinated action. Only with much higher stakes. As bad as a no-deal Brexit would be, we can expect the UK to eventually recover. There will be no way back for humanity if it causes the climate system to crash out of the stable state it has enjoyed for the past ten thousand years.
The situation needs radical action. Hence the strike on 20th September which is a call for adults to join with children to demand that society to steps up. Find out where event are happening in your neighbourhood by visiting the UK Student Climate Network website: and get involved. Talk to friends, families, and work colleagues about climate justice and invite them along.
On the 20th September 2018 Greta Thunberg had no plan or strategy. She just wanted to do something. On the 20th September this year you can stand with her and millions of others in what could prove to be a tipping point. We certainly do not have all the answers. It is not clear how we can rapidly wean ourselves off the fossil fuels that have powered our development for centuries and around which we have built most of our political institutions.
The scale of the changes required are unprecedented. But what cannot be avoided is the choice to either transform our communities, cities, and countries, or see them swept away by dangerous climate change.
We will either make history, or through our inaction, end it.