Greta Thunberg on the Climate Fight: "If We Can Save the Banks, Then We Can
Save the World"
By Naomi Klein, The Intercept
14 Saturday 19
We are living through some scary times. As Greta has told us so often: Our
house is on fire. And I firmly believe that there are three things that
have to align if we are going to douse the flames. First, we need the
courage to dream of a different kind of future. To shake off the sense of
inevitable apocalypse that has pervaded our culture. To give us a
destination, a common goal, a picture of the world we are working towards.
But those dreams are useless unless we are willing to embrace the other two
forces. One is the need to confront the truth of our moment in history the
truth of how much we have already lost and of how much more we are on the
brink of losing if we do not embrace revolutionary levels of change.
The other thing we have to do is this: We have find our fight. We have to
come together across differences and build credible, unshakable power. In
the face of the fires roiling our world, we have to find our own fire. Truth
and fire.
Greta Thunberg is one of the great truth-tellers of this or any time. Let me
refresh your memories about some of her most iconic lines. To the U.N.
climate negotiators in Poland last December, she said: You are not mature
enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden you leave to us children.
To the British MPs who asked her to speak, she asked, Is my English OK? Is
the microphone on? Because Im beginning to wonder.
To the rich and mighty at Davos who praised her for giving them hope, she
replied, I dont want your hope.
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.
She also told them that not everyone is to blame for the climate crisis. No,
she looked them in the eye and said that they were to blame. And we will
always love her for that.
But Greta is not all talk. All of this began with action. It began when
Greta realized, one year and one month ago, that if she wanted powerful
politicians to put themselves on emergency footing to fight climate change,
then she needed to reflect that state of emergency in her own life. And so
she stopped doing the one thing all kids are supposed to do when everything
is normal: Go to school to prepare for their future as adults.
Instead, she stationed herself outside of Swedens parliament with a
handmade sign that said simply: School Strike for the Climate. She started
doing it every Friday, and pretty soon she attracted a small crowd. Then
other students started doing it in other cities as well.
Students like Alexandria Villaseñor, who stations herself outside the United
Nations in this city every Friday, week after week, rain, snow or shine.
Sometimes the student climate strikes were just one lonely kid. Sometimes
tens of thousands showed up.
And then, on March 15, came the first Global School Strike for Climate. Over
2,000 strikes in 125 countries, with 1.6 million young people participating
on a single day. 1.6 million people. Thats quite an achievement for a
movement that began just eight months earlier with a single 15-year-old girl
in Stockholm, Sweden.
And now this movement is gearing up for its biggest challenge yet: They have
called on people of all ages to join the and go on strike, all around the
world, on September 20. Because protecting the future is not a spectator
sport.
Thunberg and the many other amazing young organizers have been very clear
that they do not want adults to pat them on the head and thank them for the
hope infusion. They want us to join them and fight for the future alongside
them. Because it is their right. And all of our duty.
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