We need to save the future for ourselves
Our futures are endangered.
Futures are always undetermined. Nobody knows what the next day will bring: a failed job opportunity; a last kiss; a phone call from the hospital. This is life. The futures of our generation, though, contain a new danger. It is not unpredictable or unavoidable - it is not even uncertain. It dominates our lives as we leave school, go to university, start our new jobs and new lives. Yet we still are prompted to plan the years ahead of us as though they will be the same as the years lived by our parents and grandparents: as though they will be filled with ordinary life; with accumulating belongings and paying the mortgage; with wondering where the years went. We are reminded to think of our career paths as though the greatest thing we have to fear is graduate unemployment. We are living in a world in denial.
Climate change is happening now. Up to this point, there has been no substantial recognition or action to tackle what is now a crisis. There is no more time left to waste attempting to convince skeptics. No longer can it be an issue relegated to background news; no longer can it be considered a cause pursued only by the radical. If, over the last three years, the same number of headlines devoted to Brexit had been focused on the global crisis on our hands, we would be in a far more environmentally aware country. The generations before us have ignored the catastrophe that is fast approaching: they have failed us.
David Attenborough, exceptional in his own time and inspirational in ours, insists that the outrage of young people is ‘certainly justified’. ‘My generation’, he says, has ‘done terrible things’. Young people have been forced to act. Sixteen-year-old Greta Thunberg has rapidly become the face of climate activism through her initiation of the school climate strikes - the most recent of which drew 1.6 million protestors around the globe. Young people are sacrificing their education in a bid to make people listen: and, suddenly, our voices have never been louder. At Greta’s speech to the UN at COP24 last year, she powerfully declared, ‘We have not come here to beg world leaders to care. You have ignored us in the past and you will ignore us again,’ continuing, ‘change is coming whether you like it or not. The real power belongs to the people.’ As she argues, we do not need to search for a solution - the solution is to cut carbon emissions. What we need is radical change. With almost revolutionist rhetoric, she represents the next generation: those taking action now to save the futures that are being discarded by current political leaders.
Greta Thunberg is one of a powerful group of individuals leading the movement. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who recently became the youngest congresswoman in history, advocated for environmental legislation that would have demonstrated action to match the magnitude of the crisis. This Green New Deal was not passed, but AOC has set the scene for climate change to be a crucial issue in the 2020 presidential election. Her tangible influence, as a young minority woman from a working-class background, is treated as a threat to the established order of American politics. Her push for environmental reform is considered another example of ideas that are too radical. And yet those Congress representatives that rejected it, or impartially voted ‘present’, did not offer alternative legislation. Politicians are acting as though we have time to spare - as though we have the luxury of entertaining political power games. We don’t.
We do not want to be remembered as the victims of our parents’ mistakes. It is no longer a matter of saving the planet; it is about saving ourselves. Perhaps the resolve of young people is so strong because it matches what is at stake - our own futures. The next generation is forcing the world to act. Greta Thunberg has furthered the climate cause more in the last four months than any politician has in the last four decades. Attenborough believes the recent protests of young people are ‘enormously encouraging’. Climate change is just now, finally, claiming its place at the forefront of political discussion. We are facing the crisis head on. We are going to save our futures.
Louisa Dollimore, Year 13
Futures are always undetermined. Nobody knows what the next day will bring: a failed job opportunity; a last kiss; a phone call from the hospital. This is life. The futures of our generation, though, contain a new danger. It is not unpredictable or unavoidable - it is not even uncertain. It dominates our lives as we leave school, go to university, start our new jobs and new lives. Yet we still are prompted to plan the years ahead of us as though they will be the same as the years lived by our parents and grandparents: as though they will be filled with ordinary life; with accumulating belongings and paying the mortgage; with wondering where the years went. We are reminded to think of our career paths as though the greatest thing we have to fear is graduate unemployment. We are living in a world in denial.
Climate change is happening now. Up to this point, there has been no substantial recognition or action to tackle what is now a crisis. There is no more time left to waste attempting to convince skeptics. No longer can it be an issue relegated to background news; no longer can it be considered a cause pursued only by the radical. If, over the last three years, the same number of headlines devoted to Brexit had been focused on the global crisis on our hands, we would be in a far more environmentally aware country. The generations before us have ignored the catastrophe that is fast approaching: they have failed us.
David Attenborough, exceptional in his own time and inspirational in ours, insists that the outrage of young people is ‘certainly justified’. ‘My generation’, he says, has ‘done terrible things’. Young people have been forced to act. Sixteen-year-old Greta Thunberg has rapidly become the face of climate activism through her initiation of the school climate strikes - the most recent of which drew 1.6 million protestors around the globe. Young people are sacrificing their education in a bid to make people listen: and, suddenly, our voices have never been louder. At Greta’s speech to the UN at COP24 last year, she powerfully declared, ‘We have not come here to beg world leaders to care. You have ignored us in the past and you will ignore us again,’ continuing, ‘change is coming whether you like it or not. The real power belongs to the people.’ As she argues, we do not need to search for a solution - the solution is to cut carbon emissions. What we need is radical change. With almost revolutionist rhetoric, she represents the next generation: those taking action now to save the futures that are being discarded by current political leaders.
Greta Thunberg is one of a powerful group of individuals leading the movement. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who recently became the youngest congresswoman in history, advocated for environmental legislation that would have demonstrated action to match the magnitude of the crisis. This Green New Deal was not passed, but AOC has set the scene for climate change to be a crucial issue in the 2020 presidential election. Her tangible influence, as a young minority woman from a working-class background, is treated as a threat to the established order of American politics. Her push for environmental reform is considered another example of ideas that are too radical. And yet those Congress representatives that rejected it, or impartially voted ‘present’, did not offer alternative legislation. Politicians are acting as though we have time to spare - as though we have the luxury of entertaining political power games. We don’t.
We do not want to be remembered as the victims of our parents’ mistakes. It is no longer a matter of saving the planet; it is about saving ourselves. Perhaps the resolve of young people is so strong because it matches what is at stake - our own futures. The next generation is forcing the world to act. Greta Thunberg has furthered the climate cause more in the last four months than any politician has in the last four decades. Attenborough believes the recent protests of young people are ‘enormously encouraging’. Climate change is just now, finally, claiming its place at the forefront of political discussion. We are facing the crisis head on. We are going to save our futures.
Louisa Dollimore, Year 13