(3 Dec 2018) A Swedish teenager, who takes time out of school each week to highlight the danger of global warming, says world leaders who are skipping a UN climate summit are “very irresponsible”. Fifteen-year-old Greta Thunberg travelled to Poland for the start of the two-week talks and delivered a speech on Monday to some of the decision-makers at the conference. Speaking afterwards, Thunberg said the absence of leaders such as US President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel “shows what they prioritize”. Thunberg, who protests outside the Swedish parliament every Friday, said of politicians not in attendance: “In the future we will look back, and we will either laugh at them or we will hate them.” Her activism has inspired other students from as far away as Australia.
Matthew Phillips, a communications official with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, interviews Greta Thunberg at the COP24 Action Hub. Greta will tell us why she decided to go on school strike for politicians in her country to act on climatechange. For all those following the climate crisis, Thunberg is both an inspiration and a warning: Sometimes we need a 15-year-old to tell us the truth. And the truth isn’t always pretty.
“If the adults don’t care about my future, why should I?” ~ Greta Thunberg #SupportGreta Greta Thunberg:
Our lives are in your hands https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roLBS…
Greta’s strong speech last day of the school strike: “I will continue and urge you to do the same!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrGp5… . . .
The significance of the first follower https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8am… “There is no movement without the first follower. We’re told we all need to be leaders, but that would be really ineffective. The best way to make a movement, if you really care, is to courageously follow and show others how to follow. When you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first person to stand up and join in.” “Being a first follower is an under-appreciated form of leadership. The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader. If the leader is the flint, the first follower is the spark that makes the fire.”
~ Derek Sivers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8am… . . .
The Sustainable Hour radio podcast which contains a longer version of this interview: » Podcast audio – one hour: http://climatesafety.info/wp-content/… »
Podcast webpage – with audio player and more info: http://climatesafety.info/thesustaina… . . .
This video is also available for sharing via The Sustainable Hours Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TheSustainab…
October 31st, Parliament Square, London. This amazing 15 year-old travelled from Sweden over several days in an electric car to address the ‘Declaration of Rebellion’, an unauthorised rally and call to action over climate change and species extinction. She has been on #SchoolStrike every Friday, sitting outside the parliament in Stockholm and handing out leaflets that explained simply “I’m doing this because you adults are shitting on my future”. To her, the problem is black and white, and she wonders why, if faced with extinction, we are not doing much much more. She has a simple solution to the problem – “We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed. It’s time to rebel.”
[vib] TheGuardian.com. Australia’s emissions are rising. It’s time for this government to quit pretending. Jan 8 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/business/…
From John Howard’s promise to introduce an emissions trading system in October 2007 to Malcolm Turnbull’s dumping of the emissions reduction target from the national energy guarantee in August 2018, the past 11 years of Australian politics has been marked by a torturous series of backflips and U-turns on energy and climate change policy. The so-called ‘climate wars’ span the leadership of six Australian prime ministers – John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and now Scott Morrison – and they show no sign of ending. Turnbull warns against ‘politics of race’ and says climate policy ‘very hard’ for Coalition
Students are set to skip school and strike in a fight against climate change this Friday. Lottie Tellyn and Dr. Michal Nachmany debate with Jack Payne and Sir Michael Wilshaw on whether or not students should be allowed to protest.
Thousands of schoolchildren and young people around the world have ditched the classroom to protest about climate change. Sky’s Thomas Moore hears why they think urgent action was needed to ensure the children of today have a sustainable future. Downing Street says their absence “increases teachers workloads and wastes lesson time”.
Welcome to Transition Studies. To prosper for very much longer on the changing Earth humankind will need to move beyond its current fossil-fueled civilization toward one that is sustained on recycled materials and renewable energy. This is not a trivial shift. It will require a major transition in all aspects of our lives.
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