How one girl may change the world
It has been over a year since Swedish Teenager Greta Thunberg stood outside the Swedish Parliament Building in Stockholm, holding a sign that said “Skolstrejk för Klimatet” or “School Strike for the Climate.” Since then, Thunberg has sparked a global movement of Friday strikes from work or school to protest the inaction of government officials against the rapidly deteriorating environment. And it’s only getting worse.
On the 21st August 2019, the skies above the Brazilian City of São Paulo went completely dark in the middle of the day, so much so that street lights had to be turned on. It was later discovered that this was caused by smoke from multiple forest fires that had been raging in the Amazon Rainforest the whole summer, and that we only discovered that day.
We later learned that they were started by beef companies to make room for their cattle farms. Many speculate that they were ordered by Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro fired back claiming that it was started by environmentalists in an attempt to undermine him. However, he has admitted that he has no evidence for this claim
Bolsonaro has been extremely vocal about his denial of climate change in the past and has previously encouraged loggers, farmers and ranchers too clear land in the Amazon. He has spoken openly about abolishing indigenous rights to achieve the deforestation of the Amazon and has elected Ernesto Araújo as foreign minister, who described climate change as a “Marxist Hoax”
Within hours of the fires being discovered, #prayforamazonia was trending on twitter and there was global outrage at governments for seemingly not doing anything. This outrage was only fuelled when, in the G7 summit later that month, many of the richest world leaders decided to send $22 million to help combat the fire, which isn’t nearly enough. To put that into perspective, Leonardo DiCaprio, one actor, has pledged $5 million, a quarter of what multiple world leaders managed to scrape together. Needless to say that environmentalists weren’t exactly thrilled that the only people capable of doing the most help barely managed enough money to give everyone on the front lines a water pistol.
Then, on September 20th and 27th, the global climate strike happened again. Millions of people all over the world skipped school and work and took to the streets to demand action from their government to combat the climate crisis. September 20th was the most successful one yet, with thousands managing to block roads and commit other low-level disruption.
Then, from October 7th to 20th, the controversial activist group, the Extinction Rebellion, hosted a two week rebellion of more disruption. This included using a fire hose to spray the UK treasury with fake blood and climbing on top of trains in the London Underground. Videos were recorded of the trains and uploaded to social media before going viral, with the media split over whether this action was good or bad. T
So what happens now?
On November 29th, another global climate strike will occur. And it looks like it‘s going to be the biggest one yet. With increasing numbers of protestors all over the world, whether peaceful or disruptive, it will be harder for world leaders to ignore or silence them. And hopefully, with enough raised voices, they will take action.
Will Bell, Year 11
On the 21st August 2019, the skies above the Brazilian City of São Paulo went completely dark in the middle of the day, so much so that street lights had to be turned on. It was later discovered that this was caused by smoke from multiple forest fires that had been raging in the Amazon Rainforest the whole summer, and that we only discovered that day.
We later learned that they were started by beef companies to make room for their cattle farms. Many speculate that they were ordered by Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro fired back claiming that it was started by environmentalists in an attempt to undermine him. However, he has admitted that he has no evidence for this claim
Bolsonaro has been extremely vocal about his denial of climate change in the past and has previously encouraged loggers, farmers and ranchers too clear land in the Amazon. He has spoken openly about abolishing indigenous rights to achieve the deforestation of the Amazon and has elected Ernesto Araújo as foreign minister, who described climate change as a “Marxist Hoax”
Within hours of the fires being discovered, #prayforamazonia was trending on twitter and there was global outrage at governments for seemingly not doing anything. This outrage was only fuelled when, in the G7 summit later that month, many of the richest world leaders decided to send $22 million to help combat the fire, which isn’t nearly enough. To put that into perspective, Leonardo DiCaprio, one actor, has pledged $5 million, a quarter of what multiple world leaders managed to scrape together. Needless to say that environmentalists weren’t exactly thrilled that the only people capable of doing the most help barely managed enough money to give everyone on the front lines a water pistol.
Then, on September 20th and 27th, the global climate strike happened again. Millions of people all over the world skipped school and work and took to the streets to demand action from their government to combat the climate crisis. September 20th was the most successful one yet, with thousands managing to block roads and commit other low-level disruption.
Then, from October 7th to 20th, the controversial activist group, the Extinction Rebellion, hosted a two week rebellion of more disruption. This included using a fire hose to spray the UK treasury with fake blood and climbing on top of trains in the London Underground. Videos were recorded of the trains and uploaded to social media before going viral, with the media split over whether this action was good or bad. T
So what happens now?
On November 29th, another global climate strike will occur. And it looks like it‘s going to be the biggest one yet. With increasing numbers of protestors all over the world, whether peaceful or disruptive, it will be harder for world leaders to ignore or silence them. And hopefully, with enough raised voices, they will take action.
Will Bell, Year 11