When I heard about it, I knew I had to be there. An earnest young man at the Harvest Moon Festival last weekend handed me a tiny flyer and said, “we need old people to support us. Please come.” We old people have not been good stewards of our planet. This kid was right, the old people need to show up.
The Global Climate Strike is a youth led initiative. The story, from their Facebook page:
4685 events in 142 countries on all continents. Including Antarctica.
And counting…
Everyone is welcome.
Everyone is needed.
How can strikes and chanting battle Climate Change? Only governments can make the sweeping and fundamental changes needed to prepare us for the inevitable effects of climate change, and reduce our carbon emissions into the future. Politicians are ridiculously fickle people, who will do anything to get elected. These kids are the next voters. Politicians around the world are going to need to listen to them. Looking around, I’m pretty sure I’m standing beside a lot of future politicians, too.
It all started with one young autistic girl from Sweden, Greta Thunberg. If she has the nerve to get up and speak, we old people should too. We are, after all the greedy bastards that caused the whole mess.
Images from Winnipeg