Greta Thunberg

It is interesting to read various people's reaction to Greta Thunberg's, the 16-year-old climate activist from Sweden, address to the UN. Some people are stuck in a rut - arguing as to whether or not her comments were polite enough or appropriate for a young person to make to her "betters". Others are, somewhat unbelievably, arguing that there is no such thing as climate change and that therefore there was no need for her to be there at all. Some people seem to feel it is all a public relations ploy engineered by the political left or her parents or that she is being manipulated by participants in some sort of weird conspiracy plot designed to change life as we know it. I am sure if I dug down deep enough, I would find at least a few people suggesting that is was all an alien plot intended to soften the world up for an alien invasion.

I do not have a clue as to who wrote her speech. I do not care if her thoughts have been influenced by her parents or by people who think that the world leaders need to get off of their butts and do something. It does not matter if she is a bit vulnerable or perhaps easily influenced. In fact the whole debate about who she is etc is just a smokescreen so that people do not have to confront the reality that our climate is changing and that while some of those changes might be due to cyclical complex weather patterns, some of the changes are clearly because of what humans have spewed into the atmosphere, the land and the water.

It is easy to get distracted by how she got here, how she travels about or to debate her age or her relative lack of sophistication in terms of world affairs. She clearly is relatively sheltered, coming from a first world country with access to all types of services and levels of education. She is at best naive in terms of her understanding of both the science and of what needs to happen to address the problem in a meaningful way. But none of that means that her message is wrong

For all of those people who think her a near -saint or as someone who can motivate the leaders of the developed world to create policies that will reverse the changes in our climate - they are wrong. For all of those people who see Greta Thunberg as our saviour, a person worthy of the next Nobel Peace prize - they are living in a fantasy world that is doomed to be drowned in the next flood or else be turned into a desert. She is not our knight in shining armour, she will not cause anyone to do anything. Nothing will change because of her impassioned speech - as impressive as it was. Unfortunately, a handful of inspired by her but privileged high school students protesting for a day will be equally as un-useful.

The only hope is that she and others like her will be able to convince their older peers who can vote - to do so. And that those new voters will vote for individuals and parties that have both the vision and the capacity to act. The only hope is that she and others like her will be able to convince their parents to vote for those same individuals and parties. And the only hope is that all of those young people will be able to convince their peers and the others in their lives that we cannot keep on living a lifestyle that depletes the earth's resources.

Greta Thunberg may be a wonderful person, but changing the world is everyone's job. We must not abdicate our responsibilities to her.