Pay attention.

This young lady is mobilizing the world.

I know it’s tough to pay attention with so much crap going on in the world — most notably rumblings of our peachy President’s impeachment proceedings, the UK melting down before our eyes, Saudi Arabia in flames, the Amazon burning, Harry, Megan and Archie touring Africa, opioid hell, voter registration campaigns, vaping deaths, mass shootings, Hong Kong riots, US primaries, the start of American football season…

But truly… pay attention. Look beyond our borders for a moment and see what’s happening out there. This week. Today. It’s real. It’s raw. It’s urgent. It’s people all over the planet organizing to tell our leaders that we need to act — quickly, united and in drastic ways.

Look.

Really look. We’re talking protests, strikes, marches, gatherings, school rallies, and more in New Zealand, Australia, Uganda, NYC, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, India, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Italy, Israel, Canada, Greece, Angola, Germany, Brazil, France, Vietnam, Mexico, Easter Island, Austria, Thailand, Ireland, Pakistan, Vanuatu, Bangladesh… are you getting the picture? Here, maybe these will help — all from this week (September 20-27, 2019)!

The world is waking up. People are showing up.

This all began with one kid sitting somewhat miserably and alone outside the Swedish Parliament with a sign saying why she was there. It read, “School Strike for Climate Change.” That one kid, Greta Thunberg, has now appeared before the US Congress, the United Nations Climate Action Summit, the World Economic Forum, the EU’s Parliament, the French Parliament, Amnesty International… and she has a TedTalk. This girl is fearless.

Greta has also met more famous and impressive people than I can count, and my guess is that the privilege has been theirs. Here are just a few:

And the best part about all of this… is she could honestly care less about the pomp or the circumstance. Her message has remained exactly the same since she started and it caters and cowers to no one. Her main talking points (butchered by me) are as follows:

• Our leaders are failing to act and in so doing, they are failing us and especially her entire generation

• People are suffering and dying, entire ecosystems are collapsing, entire animal species are going extinct

• Don’t believe her, believe the science — and the entire world of scientists saying the same thing for the last 30 years

• Business as usual won’t fix this; this is urgent and pretending otherwise is a farce

• We are watching and we will keep you accountable

Her words are better than mine, so here a few from when she spoke in Davos to the world’s premiere economic leaders. I hope they give you a sense of her and her passion and urgency.

“The main solution however is so simple that even a small child can understand it. We have to stop the emissions of greenhouse gases. And either we do that or we don't. You say nothing in life is black or white but that is a lie, a very dangerous lie. Either we prevent a 1.5 degree of warming or we don't. Either we avoid setting off that irreversible chain reaction beyond the human control, or we don't. Either we choose to go on as a civilization or we don't. That is as black or white as it gets.

There are no gray areas when it comes to survival. Now we all have a choice. We can create transformational action that will safeguard the future living conditions for humankind, or we can continue with our business as usual and fail. That is up to you and me.”

And even better than all of this, people are extremely frustrated with her because she doesn’t succumb to the usual attacks normal people do… much less those a teenage girl might. People are attacking her. In the lowest and meanest ways. Aside from seething, random ,internet trolls, our president is one of the haters, along with Laura Ingraham and a Fox News guest to mention a few. Click the image for the source article if you’re incredulous.

But Greta seems to take it all in stride. She seems to have learned to take the hate and turn it into good. Here are two examples from Twitter:

So I don’t know where you stand on climate change… I’m certainly not an expert or an activist. But, I’m looking. And I’m listening. I’m learning. It’s hard. I can see why I’ve held this at arm’s length for so long… it’s complex and huge. It’s incredibly sad. And I bear responsibility. Just like you. Whether I choose to accept it or not. And I can choose to learn and act. Or I can continue to hide. I’ll probably do both if I’m honest. But in the end, I sure hope I’m on the side of taking care of this enormous, life-giving ball that has embraced us while allowing us to abuse her for so long. I sure hope I can stand with Greta, while she shows us all what it looks like to stand. Martin Luther King had a dream about equality. Greta’s dream is to have a world to live in when she turns 75 in 2078. I sure as hell hope we can give it to her.

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Sources

Photos from @GretaThunbergSweden on Facebook, Twitter and Google images

Main blog image photo by Anders Hellberg, retrieved from https://thebulletin.org/2019/04/greta-thunberg-climate-change-eloquence/