"We'll Be Watching You" by Michael R.
This week, a 16 year old Swedish girl named Greta Thunberg delivered a scathing speech to the world leaders at the U.N. Climate Action Summit. Her message was simple: “... we’ll be watching you.” By ‘we’, she meant the four million students from across the globe who joined her on Monday on a climate strike, as well as every child and teenager in the world. She seemed to be to notifying the assembly of heads of state, as well as their governments and powerful people, that their inaction on climate change is being seen by her generation. “This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you?” In her speech she scorns world leaders for setting climate change on the shoulders of teenagers, who should be focused on their schoolwork rather than saving the world. She shames them for talking about money and economic growth when the world is dying.
In her speech, Greta Thunberg stated that the ‘popular idea’ is to cut our carbon emissions in half in 10 years. She claims that idea would give us a 50% chance of staying below a 1.5 degrees Celsius global temperature rise. The ‘popular idea’ relies on Gen Z “sucking hundreds of billions of tons of your CO2 out of the air with technologies that barely exist.” In other words, if changes aren’t made by our parents and grandparent’s generation, we will have to be the ones to come up with new technology to clean up the climate mess that older generations ignored.
Her speech was courageous, but were the world leaders listening? According to The Guardian, most of the countries who participated in the Summit did not do much in response to Greta and the four million students striking for climate change on the streets of their cities. While the Indian prime minister announced a plan to ramp up renewable energy, he failed to mention anything about phasing out of coal. The German chancellor did set a goal to end coal mining in her country, but by a lengthy goal of 2038. China declined to do anything new at all about the growing climate crisis. The United States did not attend, as President Trump announced in June of 2017 that the US would withdraw from the 2015 Paris Agreement. Brazil decided not to show because of a failure to make plans to strengthen efforts to counter climate change. The French president, however, did call for the EU to deepen its emissions cuts and said his country would not make trades with countries not signed up for the Paris Agreement.
After her controversial speech, some critics avoided her speech, instead making ad hominem statements about her speech. President Trump tweeted “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!” with a video of her speech attached. In a debate on Fox news, a guest called Thunberg a “mentally ill swedish child,” referring to her Asperger syndrome. Should people listen to her? Is her argument strong enough to cause change?
The various visceral reactions to her controversial speech at the U.N. Summit ranged from avoidance to blatant ad hominem attacks, such as a guest on Fox News calling her a “mentally ill Swedish child” when referring to her Asperger syndrome. President Trump tweeted “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!” with a video of her speech attached. Should people listen to her? Is her argument strong enough to cause change?
Epstein, Rachel. “The Reactions to Greta Thunberg's UN Climate Summit Speech Are Everything.” Marie Claire, Marie Claire, 25 Sept. 2019, www.marieclaire.com/politics/a29195068/greta-thunberg-un-climate-summit-speech-reactions/.
Irfan, Umair. “The United Nations Is Trying to Pressure the World into Faster Action on Climate Change.” Vox, Vox, 23 Sept. 2019, www.vox.com/2019/9/22/20877222/un-climate-action-summit-2019.
Mailonline, Rory Tingle For. “Greta Thunberg Changes Her Twitter Biography to Hit Back at Trump.” Daily Mail Online, Associated Newspapers, 24 Sept. 2019, www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7499779/Greta-Thunberg-changes-Twitter-biography-hit-Trump.html.
Milman, Oliver. “Greta Thunberg Condemns World Leaders in Emotional Speech at UN.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23 Sept. 2019, www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/23/greta-thunberg-speech-un-2019-address.
Staff, NPR. “Transcript: Greta Thunberg's Speech At The U.N. Climate Action Summit.” NPR, NPR, 23 Sept. 2019, www.npr.org/2019/09/23/763452863/transcript-greta-thunbergs-speech-at-the-u-n-climate-action-summit.
Voytko, Lisette. “'Unbelievable and Shameful': Fox News Slammed for Attacks on Greta Thunberg.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 24 Sept. 2019, www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2019/09/24/unbelievable-and-shameful-fox-news-slammed-for-attacks-on-greta-thunberg/#d41c80c7a28b.
Her speech was courageous, but were the world leaders listening? According to The Guardian, most of the countries who participated in the Summit did not do much in response to Greta and the four million students striking for climate change on the streets of their cities. While the Indian prime minister announced a plan to ramp up renewable energy, he failed to mention anything about phasing out of coal. The German chancellor did set a goal to end coal mining in her country, but by a lengthy goal of 2038. China declined to do anything new at all about the growing climate crisis. The United States did not attend, as President Trump announced in June of 2017 that the US would withdraw from the 2015 Paris Agreement. Brazil decided not to show because of a failure to make plans to strengthen efforts to counter climate change. The French president, however, did call for the EU to deepen its emissions cuts and said his country would not make trades with countries not signed up for the Paris Agreement.
The various visceral reactions to her controversial speech at the U.N. Summit ranged from avoidance to blatant ad hominem attacks, such as a guest on Fox News calling her a “mentally ill Swedish child” when referring to her Asperger syndrome. President Trump tweeted “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!” with a video of her speech attached. Should people listen to her? Is her argument strong enough to cause change?
Works Cited
Irfan, Umair. “The United Nations Is Trying to Pressure the World into Faster Action on Climate Change.” Vox, Vox, 23 Sept. 2019, www.vox.com/2019/9/22/20877222/un-climate-action-summit-2019.
Mailonline, Rory Tingle For. “Greta Thunberg Changes Her Twitter Biography to Hit Back at Trump.” Daily Mail Online, Associated Newspapers, 24 Sept. 2019, www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7499779/Greta-Thunberg-changes-Twitter-biography-hit-Trump.html.
Milman, Oliver. “Greta Thunberg Condemns World Leaders in Emotional Speech at UN.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23 Sept. 2019, www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/23/greta-thunberg-speech-un-2019-address.
Staff, NPR. “Transcript: Greta Thunberg's Speech At The U.N. Climate Action Summit.” NPR, NPR, 23 Sept. 2019, www.npr.org/2019/09/23/763452863/transcript-greta-thunbergs-speech-at-the-u-n-climate-action-summit.
Voytko, Lisette. “'Unbelievable and Shameful': Fox News Slammed for Attacks on Greta Thunberg.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 24 Sept. 2019, www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2019/09/24/unbelievable-and-shameful-fox-news-slammed-for-attacks-on-greta-thunberg/#d41c80c7a28b.
I find it ridiculous that someone can turn anything that our president says and trys to make the man look bad. He was trying to be nice saying its great that a young person is actually looking out for their future. I feel like we have gone too far with gases that could harm our planet. I miss the white Christmases and the nice September days. Im tried of the summer being dragged on into fall. We have to do something about it, for once I am with someone on a big issue.
ReplyDeleteI agree that world governments should push to speed up the phasing out of fossil fuels. It should not be on only our generation to stop using fossil fuels, I believe that we should do our part but I think that older generations should do more to help fight climate change. If we look to more renewable resources then I am sure that we could carbon emissions drastically in much less time than is expected. It may take a lot of effort but I believe that we could save our planet.
ReplyDeleteI believe people should listen to some of the points she is making. It should be a focus of everyone in the world to help the environment not just our generation. It is good that we are doing what needs to be done but it is going to take more than one generation to help the damage that has been done to the environment. There must be most adults and older generations helping also. There are other resources that could be used opposed to fossil fuels that are just as effective and don't harm the environment as drastically. There should be more research dedicated to finding solutions for the environment rather than it going to technology that is harming it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with many of the points she makes. I also like that younger generations are being heard and getting reconization they deserve. There should be more attention on saving our planet and fighting to reverse climate change. I wish older generations would listen and work with people like her to make a difference.
ReplyDeleteI think she was making some very good points. We all need to help make the world a better place. The earth is dying and we are not doing enough to fix our mistakes.
ReplyDeleteI think she was making some very good points. We all need to help make the world a better place. The earth is dying and we are not doing enough to fix our mistakes.
ReplyDelete