On Sept. 20, the global protest “Climate Strike” took place. It was portrayed as young people taking climate change seriously and calling for action. This is wrong. The protesters were grouped into a crowd with no distinct voice, argument or solution. Their blending into the crowd took away their individuality and made them arrogant and ignorant. In turn, they yelled incomprehensibly and pointlessly about people they did not know and about things they did not understand. The “Climate Strike” was a counterproductive protest.
Humans have impacted the climate. While the greenhouse gas effect is essential, it is the magnification of the effect through burning fossil fuels and releasing greenhouse gases that has created the unusually fast rate of warming on Earth. This creates serious problems. The question is how should these problems be fixed?
The protesters did not address any real problems or how to fix them. They instead yelled and made signs with catchy phrases. Some signs read “You’ll Die of Old Age, We’ll Die of Climate Change,” “Act Now or Swim Later,” and “System Change, Not Climate Change.” These represent the message from the protest: we are all going to die from global warming because greedy old people, who run society, have destroyed the world. Therefore, us young people are going to transform our systems and make things better. This is an ignorant and arrogant thing to think.
First, global warming is not going to end the world and kill everyone. The main consequences of global warming are the increasing rate of animal extinction, the increasing rate and severity of natural disasters, ocean acidification and the rising of sea levels.
Rising sea levels are not going to drown us. According to NationalGeograghic.com, many scientists say it would take 5,000 years to melt all the ice on Earth and the water would only cover the edges of continents. While ocean acidification would hurt marine ecosystems, that is not going to end the world.
The increasing rate of animal extinction is bad for biodiversity and should be addressed, but it is not going to kill us all. And while some natural disasters increase in frequency or severity with warmer temperatures, that is still not the end of the world. Global warming is a serious issue, but is not the apocalypse.
Second, modern society works and took thousands of years to build, and why it works is not completely understood. Therefore, to think completely shifting society will make everything better is ridiculous and arrogant.
Their arrogance is also shown in their contempt for those who disagree with them. They treat anyone who differs in opinion as an old, greedy, climate change denier.
This is a result of their group mentality. As they become part of the crowd, their individuality is taken away and they become part of a side. They identify themselves with the good side and anyone who disagrees with the bad side. This makes understanding things easier as you no longer have to think, you simply follow the herd. Then when you speak, it is not your view, it is the shared view of the crowd. You are a talking piece, spewing what you have been told, and talking about things you do not understand.
If someone left the group and talked to someone they disagreed with, they would quickly discover their own ignorance. Then, as an individual, they could assess their own thinking, get educated, do research, transform into something strong and then make real change.
There is a technology developed that sucks carbon from the atmosphere and stores it away into rocks, fuel or other materials. This is a real solution. Solutions such as this one come from people acting as individuals, thinking for themselves, assessing their mistakes humbly, doing actual research and making actual change.
The “Climate Strike” purports to be taking climate change seriously and to be a call for action. However, it is more of a spectacle of people with funny signs, yelling catchy chants. Their chants are synchronized as they are a part of a group, a group full of ignorance with no distinct voice, that builds itself up as being the good side. The “Climate Strike” is a counterproductive protest.
Photo by Ericka Solomon | The Oswegonian
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Oh honey, do you even know what you’re talking about? While it seems you think you know everything about climate change I feel like actually researching anything never crossed your mind. These natural disasters and breakdown of marine life ARE going to kill us (along with a plethora of other things that you would know had you actually done your research).
In fact, it’s hilariously arrogant, Dyllan, to believe that we are stronger than nature, a force that has existed eons (we’re talking hundreds of millions of years here pal) before us and a force that will exist for eons after us. It’s arrogant of you sir, to assume that none of us understand what is happening to us, to our own goddamn world, it’s rude and patronizing.
Also one quick thing I’d like to add: WE CANNOT CHANGE ANYTHING IF PEOPLE DON’T ACKNOWLEDGE ITS HAPPENING!!
That’s what the climate strike is for, something that completely went right over your head. To bring attention to something is to become familiar with it, to start accepting it, and finally start figuring out together how to fix shit. This is the first step, not the last step and entirely not the only step. I think you should think about where it is your own information is coming from and reflect on that, have you done your own research or are YOU the one that is the talking piece?