"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!” —the words from the speech passionately delivered at the UN Climate Action Summit 2019 by a 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg must have shaken the global community out of its deep stupor. The leaders of the so-called flourishing countries, who have turned a blind eye to the deteriorating climate situation with the passing of time, must have paid attention to the intensely brewing voice against their perilous policies towards the environment that they often tried to trample upon.
It defies comprehension that despite enough reports of an ensuing climate change havoc, the global leaders are busy building castles in the air for the eternal economic growth, instead of taking concrete measures towards mitigating the tragic effects of climate change. It is immensely unfortunate that the growing climate concerns of the global community are confined to the dialogues, hollow narratives and unfulfilled & abandoned goals set at the several International Climate Forums.
As the years roll by, the ecosystem is, gradually and conspicuously, being impoverished, and this fact is corroborated by the ravaging natural havocs occurring and recurring across the globe in the form of constant cyclones and other disasters and, for that matter, the melting glaciers.
Now, the question that arises out of the whole picture is that will just the high-toned dialogues and inspiring speeches about conserving the environment by global leaders at the International Forums suffice? The simple and precise answer is ‘NO’. We cannot let our successors bear the brunt of our disservice to the ecosystem and we must give a break to our ‘fairy tales of eternal economic growth’ and spare a thought for our environment. However, that is a very big ‘but’.
Provided such callous attitude towards the severe environmental problems like climate change, a large number of young climate activists have upped the ante against climate change atheists at the international forums, with the latest being the UN Climate Action Summit 2019. The Global Environmental Conservation Icon, Greta Thunberg rallied a massive protest with fifteen other young activists from 12 different countries, joining her to file a complaint in the United Nations against 5 countries for not walking their talk and adopting indifferent stance towards climate change.
Unsurprisingly, the complaint embodies a clutch of allegations of a conspicuous child rights violation by these 5 countries by turning a blind eye to the grave environmental issues like climate change. Probably, this revolution appears to be the first of its kind where the young environmental activists led by Greta Thunberg articulated the world in a precise manner that tampering with the ecosystem today will cost an arm and a leg to tomorrow's generation and shed light upon the real picture of the ensuing climate crisis.
Despite the environmentalists expressing their deep concerns over gradual climate warming, and seamlessly, warning about the growing carbon emissions by the world’s leading economies, the Global Climate Institutions seem reluctant to recognise the symptoms, let alone treating the malaise.
Perhaps that indifferent attitude of the world leaders compelled the millions of young climate activists to lead a protest to make themselves heard and that, significantly, led to the organisation of Global Climate Summit 2019. Wrapped in the clouds of environmental uncertainties, the world witnessed another silver lining in those clouds in UN Climate Summit with the formation of new group pioneered by India and Sweden, aiming to transform large Greenhouse Gas emitting industries into the low-carbon emitter.
Taking into account the international community’s decades-old impotence in figuring out an infallible method to put a significant end to climate change, the daunting challenge that stares at this newly-formed group is, whether it would be capable enough to make a big difference? Moreover, beyond this, isn’t the ongoing and upcoming environmental crisis raise questions on the competence of the existing Global Forums for Climate Change that whether they themselves are capable enough to calm the intensely growing concerns of our younger generations?
No matter the international community takes cognizance of this or not, the revolution has been set off, the voices are growing more energetic, and young passion has been fuelled and that reflects in her vehement speech, “You are failing us. But young people are starting to understand your betrayal … We will not let you get away with this … The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.”
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