Dear Friend,
Last Friday, over one thousand Rhode Islanders walked out of their schools and jobs and took to the streets of Providence as part of the Global Climate Strike. They were among at least four million people around the planet who participated.
This youth-led movement was sparked by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who earlier today spoke to world leaders at the United Nations. I was very moved by her words, and wanted to share them with you.
“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be standing here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean.
Yet you all come to me for hope? How dare you.
You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth.
How dare you.
For more than 30 years the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away, and come here saying that you are doing enough, when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight.
You say you ‘hear’ us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I don’t want to believe that. Because if you fully understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil. And I refuse to believe that.
To have a 67% chance of staying below a 1.5 C global temperature rise – the best odds given by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – the world had 420 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide left to emit back on January 1st, 2018. Today that figure is already down to less than 350 gigatonnes. How dare you pretend that this can be solved with business-as-usual and some technical solutions. With today’s emissions levels, that remaining CO2 budget will be entirely gone in less than eight and a half years.
There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures today. Because these numbers are too uncomfortable. And you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is.
You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us I say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this.
Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.”
Greta’s right. Our young people might be an inspiration, but it’s not their job to fix this crisis. That’s on us, and the politicians we elect.
We owe this generation more than words. We owe them leadership. I am moved to step up my commitment to the fight for real climate action. I hope we all are. Because – as Greta and thousands of youth across Rhode Island remind us – time is running out.
–Aaron Regunberg