Politicians around the world are mostly concerned with wars, immigration troubles, terrorism, and how to get re-elected the next time they’re due to campaign.
The kids of the world, though, have a different agenda – and although many of them are still too young to vote, they’re not letting that stop them from telling politicians their concerns for the future. Last week, kids around the globe ditched a day of school in an effort to call attention to the lack of attention paid to the looming climate crisis.
Which makes sense, because these kids are going to be the ones holding the proverbial bag when the harrowing effects of climate change create a brave new world – and guess what? They’ve had enough of the adults who are supposed to be “leading” totally ignoring their future.
There’s a growing global movement now, but it all started with one Swedish teenager with Asperger’s syndrome. Greta Thunberg (and her awesome pigtails) first protested outside the parliament building in Stockholm in August 2018, where she handed out flyers with climate facts on them. She kept it up, protesting every friday, week after week, and eventually she started to gain some notice. After she was invited to address climate officials gathered in Poland, her #FridaysForFuture campaign started to take off like a lightning fire all over the globe.
In Poland, she said “You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes. Until you start focusing on what needs to be done rather than what’s politically possible, there is no hope. We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis.”
Kids in London, Hamburg, Brussels, and gathered in massive crowds last week to echo Thunberg’s message: do something about climate change, and do it now. It was kids around the globe who helped organize last weeks protest – the biggest one yet, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets in more than 100 countries.
Haven Coleman, a 12-year-old from Denver, has been leading the charge in the United States. Until recently, Coleman’s act has been a solo one, but now things are catching on in the U.S., too. She helped make that happen by banding together with 16-year-old Minnesota-based activist Isra Hirsi and 13-year-old Alexandria Villasenor of NYC – together, the trio formed US Youth Climate Strike and built a social media machine to get the word out about upcoming protests.
Truly, these kids are an inspiration, and I’m not the only one who thinks so: In early March, Greta Thunberg was officially nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
