climate change

The disarming case to act right now on climate change

-Greta Thunberg is a Swedish climate activist.

When I was about eight years old, I first heard about some thing called climate change or global warming. Apparently, that was some thing humans have created by our way of living. I was told to turn off the lights to save energy and to recycle paper to save resources.I remember thinking that it was very strange that humans, who are an animal species among others,could be capable of changing the earth's climate.Because if we were,and if it was really happening,we wouldn't be talking about anything else.As soon as you'd turn on the TV,everything would be about that.Headlines, radio, newspapers,you would never read or hear about anything else,as if there was a world war going on.But no one ever talked about it.If burning fossil fuels was so bad that it threatened our very existence,how could we just continue like before?Why were there no restrictions?Why wasn't it made illegal?

To me, that did not add up.It was too unreal.So when I was 11, I became ill.I fell into depression,I stopped talking,and I stopped eating.In two months,I lost about 10 kilos of weight.Later on, I was diagnosedwith Asperger syndrome,OCD and selective mutism.That basically means I only speakwhen I think it's necessary.Now is one of those moments.

For those of us who are on the spectrum,almost everything is black or white.We aren't very good at lying,and we usually don't enjoy participating in this social game that the rest of you seem so fond of.(Laughter)

I think in many ways that we autistic are the normal ones,and the rest of the people are pretty strange,especially when it comes to the sustainability crisis,where everyone keeps saying climate change is an existential threat and the most important issue of all,and yet they just carry on like before.I don't understand that,because if the emissions have to stop,then we must stop the emissions.To me that is black or white.There are no gray areas when it comes to survival.Either we go onas a civilization or we don't.We have to change.

Rich countries like Swedenneed to start reducing emissions by at least 15 percent every year.And that is so that we can staybelow a two-degree warming target.Yet, as the IPCChave recently demonstrated,aiming instead for 1.5 degrees Celsiuswould significantlyreduce the climate impacts.But we can only imaginewhat that means for reducing emissions.You would think the mediaand every one of our leaderswould be talking about nothing else,but they never even mention it.Nor does anyone ever mentionthe greenhouse gasesalready locked in the system.Nor that air pollution is hiding a warmingso that when we stop burning fossil fuels,we already have an extra level of warmingperhaps as high as0.5 to 1.1 degrees Celsius.Furthermore does hardlyanyone speak about the factthat we are in the midstof the sixth mass extinction,with up to 200 speciesgoing extinct every single day,that the extinction rate todayis between 1,000 and 10,000 times higherthan what is seen as normal.Nor does hardly anyone ever speak aboutthe aspect of equity or climate justice,clearly stated everywherein the Paris Agreement,which is absolutely necessaryto make it work on a global scale.That means that rich countriesneed to get down to zero emissionswithin six to 12 years,with today's emission speed.And that is so that peoplein poorer countriescan have a chance to heightentheir standard of livingby building some of the infrastructurethat we have already built,such as roads, schools, hospitals,clean drinking water,electricity, and so on.Because how can we expectcountries like India or Nigeriato care about the climate crisisif we who already have everythingdon't care even a second about it --or our actual commitmentsto the Paris Agreement?

So, why are we not reducing our emissions?Why are they in fact still increasing?Are we knowingly causinga mass extinction?Are we evil?No, of course not.People keep doing what they dobecause the vast majoritydoesn't have a clueabout the actual consequencesof our everyday life.And they don't knowthat rapid change is required.We all think we know,and we all think everybody knows,but we don't.Because how could we?If there really was a crisis,and if this crisis was causedby our emissions,you would at least see some signs.Not just flooded cities,tens of thousands of dead peopleand whole nations leveledto piles of torn down buildings.You would see some restrictions.But no.And no one talks about it.There are no emergency meetings,no headlines, no breaking news.No one is actingas if we were in a crisis.Even most climate scientistsor green politicianskeep on flying around the world,eating meat and dairy.If I live to be 100,I will be alive in the year 2103.When you think about the future today,you don't think beyond the year 2050.By then, I will, in the best case,not even have lived half of my life.

What happens next?The year 2078,I will celebrate my 75th birthday.If I have children or grandchildren,maybe they will spend that day with me.Maybe they will ask me about you,the people who were around back in 2018.Maybe they will askwhy you didn't do anythingwhile there still was time to act.What we do or don't do right nowwill affect my entire lifeand the lives of my childrenand grandchildren.What we do or don't do right now,me and my generationcan't undo in the future.So when schoolstarted in August of this year,I decided that this was enough.I set myself down on the groundoutside the Swedish parliament.I school striked for the climate.Some people say thatI should be in school instead.Some people say that I should studyto become a climate scientistso that I can "solve the climate crisis."But the climate crisishas already been solved.We already haveall the facts and solutions.All we have to do isto wake up and change.And why should I be studying for a futurethat soon will be no morewhen no one is doing anythingwhatsoever to save that future?And what is the point of learning factsin the school systemwhen the most important factsgiven by the finest scienceof that same school systemclearly means nothingto our politicians and our society?Some people say that Swedenis just a small country,and that it doesn't matter what we do,but I think that if a few childrencan get headlines all over the worldjust by not coming to schoolfor a few weeks,imagine what we could all dotogether if you wanted to.

Now we're almost at the end of my talk.And this is where peopleusually start talking about hope,solar panels, wind power,circular economy, and so on,but I'm not going to do that.We've had 30 years of pep-talkingand selling positive ideas.And I'm sorry, but it doesn't work.Because if it would have,the emissions would have gone down by now.They haven't.And yes, we do need hope,of course we do.But the one thing we needmore than hope is action.Once we start to act, hope is everywhere.

So instead of looking for hope,look for action.Then, and only then, hope will come.

Today, we use 100 millionbarrels of oil every single day.There are no politics to change that.There are no rulesto keep that oil in the ground.So we can't save the worldby playing by the rules,because the rules have to be changed.

Everything needs to change,and it has to start today.

Thank you.