How Greta Thunberg Started A Worldwide Movement

Alberto Lionarons/Contributing Writer

Amidst a hostile political environment and an even more dangerous climate crisis, one teenager has taken a stand to challenge world leaders to do something about the destruction of the environment.

Over the past year, Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg has become an icon for environmental activism. She first garnered attention after she started a protest against Swedish parliament, demanding that they take action in reducing their country’s carbon emissions. Since then, she has become known worldwide for her persistent addresses towards politicians and world leaders about the dangers of killing the planet.

Despite being a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, her many detractors have been quick to regard her simply as a “mentally ill Swedish child” who should be in school rather leading school strikes thanks to climate change.  

To an extent, Thunberg agrees with their sentiment. In a passionate speech to the U.N. she said she  “shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean.” Yet here she is, saying what adults won’t. 

What I find most remarkable about Thunberg is that she doesn’t waste her time sugarcoating how she really feels about the future of our planet. The devastating effects of climate change might seem invisible to some people today, but it’s going to be an unavoidable existential crisis to the children of tomorrow. She has expressed great disappointment in world leaders who have failed to address this while speaking at a recent U.N. climate summit. President Trump gave his response by sarcastically responding to her in a tweet shortly after.

Thunberg is the voice of young people everywhere who feel powerless to do or say anything while the planet slowly deteriorates. Her words and actions have breathed new life into the environmental movement and have gone on to inspire millions as social media movements and rallies for conservation have exploded in numbers recently.

Human effects on the environment are undeniable. FIU students who go to the Biscayne 

Bay Campus are witness to the worsening conditions of the water quality and ecological health of the bay. With climate change, ecological degradation and mass pollution working in tandem, we are setting up the dominoes for a global disaster that’s going to be impossible to fully recover from. 

Words alone are only doing so much, and we need to take more immediate action into preserving the planet. A good example of this would be FIU’s participation in the 34th Annual International Coastal Cleanup in late September. As an individual alone, taking on the immense amount of pollution is daunting, but together, we can accomplish so much. 

We should follow the example of Thunberg and ask ourselves how we can come together and do great things as a community. We also need to evaluate some of the harder truths about how we pollute as individuals.

By taking a logical and scientific approach to our problems, the future is ours.

 

DISCLAIMER:

The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of PantherNOW Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.

Featured photo from Flickr.

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