WE NEED TO STAND WITH THE CHILDREN AND THE PLANET AND ACT!
We need to recognize the truth of this reality: "The climate crisis is not just about the environment. It is a crisis of human rights, of justice, and of political will. Colonial, racist, and patriarchal systems of oppression have created and fueled it.... Collective action works; we have proved that. But to change everything, we need everyone. Each and every one of us must participate in the climate resistance movement. We cannot just say we care; we must show it."
There is an urgency that we adults understand what the children do — that this climate and ecological crisis is the single greatest threat that humanity has ever faced. It is far past time that we unite in dismantling the domination culture that has been the root of America's shadow since the beginning and which has produced the multiple crises that we face — the sixth major extinction, 415 ppm of CO2 in our atmosphere and 1 degree Celsius of warming, the demagogue Trump and the neoliberal Democratic and Republican Presidents before him, endless wars and the horrors of the military industrial complex, Wall Street and the Big Banks and crushing poverty amidst the vast redistribution of wealth upwards, the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and a "healthcare" system based on profit and greed rather than care, epidemics of addictions and despair and violence, a corporate political system and a corporate media which serves the wealthy and not the people or the planet, and on and on. This is madness!
The whole patriarchal, neoliberal, predatory, capitalist system that has been the root cause of so much suffering and death — and which now imperils all life on Earth — MUST GO! Let this be what we unite behind! Each and every one of us has a role to play in this Caring Revolution! — Molly
After more than a year of grim scientific projections and growing activism, world leaders, and the public alike are increasingly recognizing the severity and urgency of the climate crisis. And yet nothing has been done.
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For more than a year, children and young people from around the world have been striking for the climate. We launched a movement that defied all expectations, with millions of people lending their voices – and their bodies – to the cause. We did this not because it was our dream, but because we didn’t see anyone else taking action to secure our future. And despite the vocal support we have received from many adults – including some of the world’s most powerful leaders – we still don’t.
Striking is not a choice we relish; we do it because we see no other options. We have watched a string of United Nations climate conferences unfold. Countless negotiations have produced much-hyped but ultimately empty commitments from the world’s governments – the same governments that allow fossil-fuel companies to drill for ever-more oil and gas, and burn away our futures for their profit.
Politicians and fossil-fuel companies have known about climate change for decades. And yet the politicians let the profiteers continue to exploit our planet’s resources and destroy its ecosystems in a quest for quick cash that threatens our very existence.
Don’t take our word for it: scientists are sounding the alarm. They warn that we have never been less likely to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels – the threshold beyond which the most destructive effects of climate change would be triggered.
Worse, recent research shows that we are on track to produce 120% more fossil fuels in 2030 than would be consistent with the 1.5°C limit.The concentration of climate-heating greenhouse gases in our atmosphere has reached a record high, with no sign of a slowdown. Even if countries fulfill their current emissions-reduction pledges, we are headed for a 3.2°C increase.
Young people like us bear the brunt of our leaders’ failures. Research shows that pollution from burning fossil fuels is the world’s most significant threat to children’s health. Just this month, five million masks were handed out at schools in New Delhi, India’s capital, owing to toxic smog. Fossil fuels are literally choking the life from us.
The science is crying out for urgent action, and still our leaders dare to ignore it. So we continue to fight.
Please continue this article here: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/11/29/why-we-strike-again
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