Civic and Community Engagement
The Frog will explore The Climate Action Handbook: A Visual Guide to 100 Climate Solutions by Heidi Roop in the first 100 days of 2024
In the first `100 days of 2024 we will explore 100 climate solutions that may “empower you to evaluate, engage, and act” to address on-going climate change as an individual on your terms.
You should buy Heidi’s book just for this chapter. It is a beautiful and powerful statement of the potential power of the youth climate movement and our duty to help.
Michael Mann, in his book The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet, elaborates on a key strategy to combat climate change – A Child Shall Lead Them. “The youngest generation is fighting tooth and nail to save their planet, and there is a moral authority and clarity in their message that none but the most jaded ears can fail to hear. They are the game-changers that climate advocates have been waiting for. We should model our actions after theirs and learn from their methods and their idealism.”
Watch young climate activists demand action and inspire hope at UNICEF.
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has been a very visible leader in a movement to hold everyone accountable and demand change for the generations that will be most impacted by climate change. And there are many others already making their voices heard and taking decisive action. And millions more, inspired by the pioneers, are waking up to the dreadful future they face – a future not of their making – and harnessing their passion and focus (and social media savvy) to fight back.
Of course, we need constructive dialogue, but they’ve had thirty years of blah blah blah, and where has that led us?
Greta Thunberg, in a speech at the 2021 Youth4Climate Summit
Blah blah blah. That is what they hear. And that is what they are working to challenge. And they should challenge it. More than 50 percent of greenhouse gases causing global warming have been emitted since 1990 by adults with access to a full understanding of the causes and likely devastating effects of fossil fuel driven climate change.
And youth activists are standing up, raising their voices and making themselves heard. Especially against the generations who knew and did nothing. They are targeting those in charge with clear intent – Greta Thunberg has leveled this charge at the policymakers: “We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth”.
If you were born after 1990 you have a right to hold the older generations to account. And as for me and my generation who are among the “climate-concerned individuals and community members” (as Heidi calls us) we have no choice but to support them and champion their cause as they take the lead in response.
Not only that, we have a duty to knock down barriers using our accumulated wealth, knowledge, experience, and political power and take action with a focus on “honoring, supporting, and advancing the priorities and needs that the growing youth climate movement has articulated”.
What can and should we do to help a “child” lead? Start with an understanding of your role, capacity, and capability and how it fits into and supports the approach these youth activists are taking. Then do everything in your power to support them. Find a local group and share your wisdom, time, commitment, and financial support. Join them in their marches and support them during school strikes.
At a minimum, defend them against critics and those that would dismiss them.
You can find youth-led climate organizations – local, national, and international – if you search for them. Immerse yourself in the UN Voices of Change series that “looks at the determination and drive of young people mobilizing for climate justice”. The UN has a Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change that provides the Secretary-General with “practical and outcome-focused advice, diverse youth perspectives and concrete recommendations”.
The Sunrise Movement is a powerful group of “young people fighting to stop the climate crisis and win a green new deal”. They approach the problem by growing power through organizing activists in their communities, rooting themselves in what they’re fighting for, and committing themselves to a “journey to become better organizers, leaders, and people”.
Yet some in my generation may question the suggestion that a “child” is capable of leading them. Older adults may tend to be complacent or hopeful in the face of this on-going and looming disaster. It will be OK. It will all work out. OK. Sure. But if you are old enough, this is not your fight to fight. Or rather, the consequences of you losing the fight are not quite as dire for you compared to the youth that are gearing up to take the lead to fight it. If they lose, humanity loses.
Take Greta Thunberg, who at 17, knowing that her generation has been forced by older generations into a fight to save a planet, articulated the reality of youth climate activism – “I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is.”
Next Up: Climate Action in 2024 – Day 87: Share Your Observations and Experiences
Howard Creel
#rescuethatfrog
Email: rescuethatfrog@gmail.com