By Egemen Aray
It all started in 2018. Greta Thunberg, a Swedish teenager with Asperger, decided not to go to school until 2018 Swedish general election. Spending days over days to learn about climate change and its effects, she was deeply worried. She thought that the world needs immediate action to survive. She had already convinced her family of reducing their carbon footprint, but it wasn’t enough. On 20 August 2018, she started sitting in front of the Swedish
Parliament, calling for strong actions to combat climate change. Greta was holding up a sign
reading as “Skolstrejk för klimatet” (school strike for climate).She demanded the Swedish government to align with the Paris Agreement. In September, Greta announced that she would continue strike even after elections until Sweden aligns with the agreement.
Other Swedish students realized Greta’s efforts and supported her. Greta and her
friends organized climate strikes under the name of Fridays For Future. Later in 2018,
she attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference and addressed to the
international community. Her efforts and the phrase “Fridays For Future” went viral and
attracted the attention of the international community. Starting in November 2018, strikes began to be organized all around the world.
Students wanted the call for stronger actions to save the planet, but the way authorities
responded was not satisfactory at all. In Australia, thousands of students organized protests.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for “more learning in school and less activism”. This
statement angered the people in the movement. In December, there were massive protests in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Japan,
Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
2019 was the turning point of the climate movement. Climate strikes took place all around
the world. Enough is enough, thought the youth. In addition to the countries above, students
in Colombia, Uganda, and New Zealand started to demand action from the authorities. In
January 2019, there were nearly 50000 students in German streets. Environmental
organizations such as Sunrise Movement, Extinction Rebellion, Zero Hour, and Future
Coalition helped people to coordinate those strikes. Also, a great number of scientists
supported the climate movement. In February 2019, 224 academics signed an open letter in
support of the School Strike for Climate action. The main intention of climate activism is to
make authorities listen to scientists, and support of the prominent academics meant a lot for
the movement.
In mid-February, a breakthrough occurred. Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the
European Commission, stated that he intends to spend hundreds of billion euros to mitigate
the climate crisis, amounting to a fourth of the EU budget. He announced this with Greta
Thunberg by his side, causing media to credit climate movement for their efforts to pressure
the leaders. In March, more than 25 000 scientists from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland
signed a statement supporting climate strikes.
March 15 was arguably the most important day of the climate movement. More than a million people demonstrated a series of events calling for adults, politicians, and authorities to take responsibility and face the greatest threat ever
toward humanity. In Germany, more than 300 000, Italy more than 200 000, and Montreal
more than 150 000 students attended the movement. In Finland and Scotland, some of
the authorities supported the movement, allowing students to attend climate strikes.
On 24 May 2019, the second wave of global climate strikes took place in at least 125
countries. Greta Thunberg stated that the movement intentionally chose the date, in order to affect the ongoing European Parliament election.
Global Week of Climate Action on 20-27 September led 4 million people to strike for the
climate. On September 23, Greta Thunberg addressed the world leaders in the 2019 UN
Climate Action Summit in New York City. This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I
should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope? How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass
extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!" Thunberg stated. "But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to
fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.
This speech attracted the attention of millions of people from all around the world. Some of
them criticized Greta and made fun of her, and the others fully supported her. Donald Trump,
the president of the United States who withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement, tweeted
a video of Greta’s opening remarks and mockingly commented: "She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!” Whatever you think of Greta Thunberg or Fridays For Future, there is one cold hard truth. As Greta once said, the change is here whether you like it, or not.
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