[Vision2020] 3-7-19 "Adults won’t take climate change seriously. So we, the youth, are forced to strike."

[Ted Moffett]

Today was the global student strike calling for action to address global
warming, which Greta Thunberg is credited with inspiring.  Though I think
the odds that humanity will largely stop
the onset of irreversible climate change tipping points, that are just a
few decades away, to be very small, Greta Thunberg is a truly inspiring
spokesperson that gives me hope:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/14/world/global-climate-strike-teenagers-school-walkout-greta-thunberg-intl/index.html

The following article is from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists dated
March 7.  It seems
appropriate that a website that presents the "Doomsday Clock" regarding
nuclear weapons also deals with catastrophic global warming.  Massive
nuclear warfare would be a rap[id global catastrophe while global warming
is more of a slow motion but very long term (centuries if not thousands of
years) planetary disaster.
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2000 through life
plus 70 years, Ted Moffett.  Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce
outside the Vision2020.Moscow.com <http://vision2020.moscow.com/> forum
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https://thebulletin.org/2019/03/adults-wont-take-climate-change-seriously-so-we-the-youth-are-forced-to-strike/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6Y67gs-F4QIVtR6tBh1yegEEEAAYASAAEgLFlvD_BwE

Adults won’t take climate change seriously. So we, the youth, are forced to
strike.

By Maddy Fernands <https://thebulletin.org/biography/maddy-fernands/>, Isra
Hirsi <https://thebulletin.org/biography/isra-hirsi/>, Haven Coleman
<https://thebulletin.org/biography/haven-coleman/>, Alexandria Villaseñor
<https://thebulletin.org/biography/alexandria-villasenor/>,

March 7, 2019

*Editor’s note: The authors are the lead organizers of US Youth Climate
Strike <http://youthclimatestrikeus.org/>, part of a global student
movement inspired by 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg’s weekly
school strikes
<https://thebulletin.org/2018/12/a-15-year-old-tells-un-climate-summit-our-leaders-are-like-children/>
in Sweden and other European countries.*

We, the youth of America, are fed up with decades of inaction on climate
change. On Friday, March 15, young people like us across the United States
will strike from school <http://youthclimatestrikeus.org/>. We strike to
bring attention to the millions of our generation who will most suffer the
consequences of increased global temperatures, rising seas, and extreme
weather. But this isn’t a message only to America. It’s a message from the
world, to the world, as students in dozens of countries
<https://www.fridaysforfuture.org/events/map> on every continent will be
striking together for the first time.

For decades, the fossil fuel industry has pumped greenhouse gas emissions
into our atmosphere. Thirty years ago, climate scientist James Hansen warned
Congress about climate change
<https://thebulletin.org/2013/07/james-hansen-taking-heat-for-decades/>.
Now, according to the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
report <https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/> on global temperature rise, we have only
11 years to prevent even worse effects of climate change. And that is why
we strike.

We strike to support the Green New Deal
<https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/109/text>.
Outrage has swept across the United States over the proposed legislation.
Some balk at the cost of transitioning the country to renewable energy,
while others recognize its far greater benefit to society as a whole. The
Green New Deal is an investment in our future—and the future of generations
beyond us—that will provide jobs, critical new infrastructure and most
importantly, the drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions essential to
limit global warming. And that is why we strike.

To many people, the Green New Deal seems like a radical, dangerous idea.
That same sentiment was felt in 1933, when Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed
the New Deal—a drastic piece of legislation credited with ending the Great
Depression that threatened (and cost) many lives in this country.
Robber-barons, ordinary citizens, and many in between were enraged by the
policies enacted by the New Deal. But looking back at how it changed the
United States, it’s impossible to ignore that the New Deal brought an end
to the worst economic disaster in history by creating fundamental programs
like Social Security and establishing new regulatory agencies such as the
Securities and Exchange Commission. The Works Progress Administration
mobilized workers across the nation to build important
infrastructure—including thousands of schools—that has improved Americans’
everyday life for generations.

Change is always difficult, but it shouldn’t be feared or shied away from.
Even for its detractors, Roosevelt’s New Deal ended up working out quite
well. The United States led the world’s economy throughout the many decades
since. The changes proposed in the Green New Deal will help ensure our
entire species has the opportunity to thrive in the decades (and centuries)
to come. As the original New Deal was to the declining US economy, the
Green New Deal is to our changing climate. And that is why we strike.

The popular arguments against the Green New Deal include preposterous
claims that it will ban airplanes, burgers, and cow flatulence
<https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/07/alexandria-ocasio-cortezs-green-new-deal-keeps-farting-cows-for-now.html>—claims
that are spread even by some of the most powerful leaders in our nation
like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
<https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/mitch-mcconnell-wields-green-new-deal-as-bludgeon-against-democrats>.
Although these outlandish claims are clearly false, they reveal a larger
truth apparent in the American, and world, populations: Instead of taking
action on the imminent threat of climate change, our leaders play political
games. Because adults won’t take our future seriously, we, the youth, are
forced to. And that is why we strike.

The alarming symptoms of Climate Denialism
<https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/out-the-darkness/201504/the-psychology-denial>—a
serious condition affecting both the hallways of government and the general
population—mark our current historical crossroads of make-it-or-break-it
action on climate change. Although there are many reasons for this
affliction—such as difficulty grasping the abstract concept of a globally
changed climate, or paralysis in the face of overwhelming environmental
catastrophe—the primary mode of Climate Denialism contagion involves lies
spouted by politicians, large corporations, and interest groups. People in
power, like Senator McConnell and the Koch brothers
<https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/global-warming/climate-deniers/koch-industries/koch-industries-pollution/>,
have used money and power
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-koch-brothers-impact-on-the-american-political-system/2016/01/15/6a3694aa-b579-11e5-9388-466021d971de_story.html>
to
strategically shift the narrative on climate change and spread lies that
allow themselves and other fossil fuel industry beneficiaries to keep the
fortunes they’ve built on burning fossil fuels and degrading the
environment.

The current US president is a rabid climate change denier himself.
President Trump pulled out of the historic Paris Agreement and repeatedly
tweets <https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/946531657229701120> about
<https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1065400254151954432> weather
<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1090074254010404864> phenomena
that he claims somehow disprove the existence of climate change—despite the
fact that his own administration has reported
<https://www.nps.gov/subjects/climatechange/sealevelchange.htm> the facts
of climate change and its impact on the United States
<https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/>.

We are also concerned that top Democrats demonstrate their own lack of
urgency about the existential threat of climate change. California senator
Dianne Feinstein’s recent dismissal of
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/02/23/schoolchildren-debate-dianne-feinstein-green-new-deal-her-reply-i-know-what-im-doing/>a
group of schoolchildren visiting her office to beg her support for the
Green New Deal was very disturbing for us young people. Feinstein will not
have to face the consequences of her inaction on climate change. She
suggested that the children one day run for the Senate themselves if they
wish to pass aggressive climate legislation. Sadly, that may not be an
option for us, if she and other Democrats, like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
continue to dismiss the pleas of our generation. Faced with politicians on
both sides of the aisle who belittle and ignore us, we’re forced to take a
stand, and we’re doing it together on a global scale. And that is why we
strike.

We strike because our world leaders haven’t acknowledged, prioritized, or
properly addressed the climate crisis. We strike because marginalized
communities across our nation—especially communities of color and low
income communities—are already disproportionately impacted by climate
change. We strike because if the societal order is disrupted by our refusal
to attend school, then influential adults will be forced to take note, face
the urgency of the climate crisis, and enact change. With our future at
stake, we call for radical legislative action—now—to combat climate change
and its countless detrimental effects on the American people. We strike for
the Green New Deal, for a fair and just transition to a 100 percent
renewable economy, and to stop creation of new fossil fuel infrastructure.
We strike because we believe the climate crisis should be called what it
really is: A national emergency, because we are running out of time.
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