Youth Incorporated Magazine

A Swedish climate change activist, Greta Thunberg has left the world gasping. Her words were scathing enough to wake the sleeping leaders of the world from a deep slumber.

The world is currently experiencing a whirlwind of climate change which has caused unrest in the minds of millions of youth. One such youth that has grabbed the entire world’s attention is Greta Thunberg, a Swedish teen climate change activist. The UN’s climate change summit that took place on 23rd September 2019 came as a huge disappointment to all the climate change activists alike.

The earth, day by day is warming up giving rise to serious global warming. One of the major reasons for this is the extremity in which humans are generating greenhouse gasses which mainly include gasses like water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane. 

Researchers suggest that in order to make living conditions better on Earth and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius, the world needs to cut down the generation of greenhouse gasses to half by 2030. This goal, however, seems impossible, given that the majority of the countries are not even closer to fulfilling their present commitment of cutting down the greenhouse gas emission.

The main motive behind organising the UN Climate Change summit was to draw the nations’ attention to climate change and urge the countries across the world to undertake appropriate measures on their respective levels on this issue. Some of the major economies and also the major polluters of the world, which includes China, USA and India have fallen pathetically short in attempting to better the global warming conditions.  

This has angered the youth around the world resulting in protests and demonstrations worldwide. Greta Thunberg, in her comments, stated that the world leaders have betrayed the young people by showing their inaction towards the climate crisis.

She further added, “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words,” 

Her remarks received massive support from the common as well the elite section of the society. The social media witnessed a storm with the hashtag #howdareyou trending all over. 

The video of her speaking at the summit went viral in which she has seen asking one question, “how dare you” to the world leaders. This young girl states that in her age when she should be in school studying, she was at the summit questioning adults about climate change and the actions they have failed to take. She said that instead of adopting ways to save the earth from degrading, “you’ll” (world leaders) are busy talking about money and eternal economic growth.

Greta’s words have come across as a hard punch to all in the world and we must take the right measures to save our planet from mass extinction. We must do this not because we owe it to the Earth or for its better health, but because we owe it to ourselves and our betterment. After all it is we who need the planet to stay alive.