Letter from the young – reply from the living

We, the young, are deeply concerned about our future. Humanity is currently causing the sixth mass extinction of species and the global climate system is at the brink of a catastrophic crisis. Its devastating impacts are already felt by millions of people around the globe. Yet we are far from reaching the goals of the Paris agreement.

Young people make up more than half of the global population. Our generation grew up with the climate crisis and we will have to deal with it for the rest of our lives.

Despite that fact, most of us are not included in the local and global decision-making process. We are the voiceless future of humanity.

We will no longer accept this injustice. We demand justice for all past, current and future victims of the climate crisis, and so we are rising up. Thousands of us have taken to the streets in the past weeks all around the world. Now we will make our voices heard. On 15 March, we will protest on every continent.

We finally need to treat the climate crisis as a crisis. It is the biggest threat in human history and we will not accept the world’s decision-makers’ inaction that threatens our entire civilisation. We will not accept a life in fear and devastation. We have the right to live our dreams and hopes. Climate change is already happening. People did die, are dying and will die because of it, but we can and will stop this madness.

We, the young, have started to move. We are going to change the fate of humanity, whether you like it or not. United we will rise until we see climate justice. We demand the world’s decision-makers take responsibility and solve this crisis.

You have failed us in the past. If you continue failing us in the future, we, the young people, will make change happen by ourselves. The youth of this world has started to move and we will not rest again.

The global coordination group of the youth-led climate strike

We, the living, are deeply concerned about our young. You currently ignore reason, evidence and science and the global political system is on the brink of a catastrophe. The devastating effects of your ignorance are felt by millions of people around the globe for we are far from reaching a common understanding of the climate. Yet this can change.

Young people make up more than half the global population. Your generation have never known global warming, which has barely occurred since the late 1990s.

Almost nobody is included in the local or global decision-making process. That is the nature of democracy and the reason we elect a representative.

We will no longer tolerate your failure to learn how the world works. We demand you pay attention to science, for there is no evidence of a climate crisis. Current weather events are no more frequent or intense than before.

You are told to treat normal weather as a crisis, a shameful deceit that threatens society, but we will not accept climate policies that threaten our prosperity. Climate change already happens because it always has. We regret that you have not heard of our superb scientific and engineering feats that mean far fewer die by the weather today than in all of history.

We, the living, have always moved to change the fate of humanity, for we have always loved it. United we will rise without limit. We demand that the world’s decision-makers hear the truth and solve this crisis of reason with reason.

You have failed us in the past but our unquenchable love tells us to forgive you. You must deal with the climate for the rest of your lives, as must we, but our arms reach out to you warmly.

To embrace the living.

 

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10 Thoughts on “Letter from the young – reply from the living

  1. Simon on 04/03/2019 at 11:11 pm said:

    This is a good example of why 15 year olds should have the same voting rights as those over 70, or perhaps vice versa.

  2. Brett Keane on 05/03/2019 at 8:19 am said:

    No, an example of empty vessels making the most noise.

  3. Richard Treadgold on 05/03/2019 at 8:31 am said:

    Simon,

    Open your heart.

  4. Andy on 05/03/2019 at 1:17 pm said:

    15 year old kids would all vote Green because their brains aren’t fully matured yet

  5. Some feminist greenie mother wrote that, but, nevertheless, a good start if young people were to take notice. Protesting and demanding allsorts helps young people to grow up. I know, because I never protested and demanded enough when I was young, and younger than today, and even now I don’t protest and demand nearly enough, because I have been conditioned to not protest much and been conditioned to demand very little. Next time I will demand a lot, a lot of money, a lot of good sex and a lot of respect for my person and my individuatedness. Why, I can see myself as a young person becoming politically active and changing the world for the better. Now, since I’m old, I guess I have to leave it to the young ones to fix it.
    Another guess; the young today have been inculcated with a new world view, which has resulted in a mindset unlike the one we, the people around me, had when I was young. Today, many more young people have a great sense of personal entitlement. This actually clashes with the strong concern young people have for the world at large and the natural environment which is expected to furnish the material wherewithal which supports human society in our day and age. It will be some time before the young sort this contradiction. They might be old before they get it sorted, if they ever get it sorted.

  6. Andy on 05/03/2019 at 2:10 pm said:

    The science is in, the debate is over

    https://www.apnews.com/bd45c372caf118ec99964ea547880cd0

    U.N. Predicts Disaster if Global Warming Not Checked

    UNITED NATIONS (AP) _ A senior U.N. environmental official says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000.

    Coastal flooding and crop failures would create an exodus of ″eco- refugees,′ ′ threatening political chaos, said Noel Brown, director of the New York office of the U.N. Environment Program, or UNEP.

    He said governments have a 10-year window of opportunity to solve the greenhouse effect before it goes beyond human control.

    (AP article dated 1989)

  7. Brett Keane on 06/03/2019 at 6:45 am said:

    So, our poor trolls are too late! The world as already ended and we are now in Paradise. Well, we are indeed in this beautiful Creation if we are not trolls and/or greenred activists. They dwell in the other place, mentally. Sad for them…… Brett

  8. Kleinefeldmaus on 06/03/2019 at 10:04 pm said:

    And then there’s this.
    An Environmental footprint tax! In parliament – today! Gosh – the trolls are in!!
    https://youtu.be/QiTwnEMs–A

  9. Maggy Wassilieff on 08/03/2019 at 12:23 pm said:

    The young will have time to assess how beneficial some of the older generation’s attempts to go Green were.

    Andi May on the efficiency of NZ’s windfarms
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/02/19/tilting-at-windmills/

  10. If you continue failing us in the future, we, the young people, will make change happen by ourselves. That sentence makes me feel so good!

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