Climate Change is the defining issue of our time but sadly, we are not defining it by regarding it as a hoax and moving ahead in our lives. But what life are we heading towards? A life where we have to fight for food, live with the constant fear of being hit by a catastrophe or come in the wrath of harmful gases. We are all heading towards the doomsday with each passing day and we are doing nothing. The greatest threat to our climate is that we wait for someone else, maybe some superhero, to save it.
All superheroes do not wear capes. Some superheroes are school going children who stand with their heads held high in front of the politicians asking about their RIGHT – RIGHT TO INHERIT A HEALTHY CLIMATE. These children were mobilised by one teen who changed the perception of the world and made them think what they were ignoring. This sixteen year old teen, GRETA THUNBERG, started a school strike for climate change outside the Swedish Parliament in August 2018, which has now gradually made a world wide impact. This strike started by one has gained the power of over 1 million school children and the movement is called ‘FRIDAYS FOR FUTURE’.
The existential crisis has made her speak freely and bluntly of her fears and panics about the future that the leaders are stealing from the young generation. The future that they study in the books is long gone. Recently her speech #howdareyou at the United Nations General Assembly made people realize the extent of the problem. She wants to change how the world is being run for the profits of a small group of people at the cost of future of a whole generation.
Her ‘superpower’ according to her is her Asperger Syndrome which has made her see the world differently from another perspective. She urges everyone to wake up and change. The change is to create a new world where the environment does not need any protection.
Everything is transient as Robert Frost says, “Nature’s first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold.” In these changing times, if this little 16 year old school girl can make a difference, everyone can. We just need to come together as a generation and work to make the unheard heard.
