On September 18, 2019, four youth climate activists appeared in front of Congress in Washington DC to present their testimonies at the U.N. Climate Action Summit.
While each one of them brought up great points, the members of Congress seemed unaffected. They tried to defend America, reinforcing it as an amazing country that has no role in climate change, or they politely praised the activists for their bravery and leadership with no desire to follow up with any real action. As The Cut reported, Greta Thunberg stated, “Please save your praise, we don’t want it. Don’t invite us here to tell us how inspiring we are without doing anything about it.” While the appraisal of young activists has almost been like a trend in media, with activists like Greta amassing millions of followers, Greta wants us to put the content of her activism first. At the U.N. Climate Action Summit, Greta was very straightforward: “I want you to listen to science and take real action.”
Jamie Margolin, another one of the youth climate activists pointed out that a quick meeting with climate activists did not represent a form of solution for the issue: “You’re here spending a few moments with me, but that is nothing compared to the hours the members of congress have spent with lobbyists from corporations that make billions of dollars off of the destruction of my generation’s future.” Jamie reveals that just one designated summit a year is not enough to counteract the damage the government is doing on a regular basis. Jamie ended powerfully, highlighting the passion many young people have for climate action, “People call my generation, Generation Z, as if we are the last generation. But we are not. We are refusing to be the last letter of the alphabet. I am here before the whole country today announcing that we are instead Generation GND—Generation Green New Deal.”
Jamie and Vic Barrett, another youth climate activist who presented at the testimonial, made sure to discuss the role that colonialism, racism, and systematic oppression have had in climate change. Coming from an indigenous background as a Garifuna-American, Vic talked about how climate change usually affects indigenous people and people of color more with impacts such as land displacement and loss of food sources. But of course those comments were not even addressed by the majority white members of Congress. However, what was addressed over and over again was the ideals of the conservative youth climate activist, Benji Backer.
Benji Backer brought up the idea that, “We must take quick effective action on climate change, but we cannot regulate our way out of this problem. That’s why we need to utilize innovation, technology, and markets to move forward.” He explained, “It is easier and more productive to export new innovative technologies than burdensome regulations, such as the Green New Deal, especially to rapidly developing nations.” Thus, Benji was effectively able to take out the necessary legislative steps to address climate change and directly played into the government’s capitalist interests.
Going off of Benji’s points and the need to defend America, Republican representatives could only think about China and how they aren’t doing anything, “I think we need to be focusing on the countries that are dumping trash in the ocean,” said Rep. Garret Graves. Deflecting the problem away from America revealed the government’s denial of climate change’s severity and the politicization of an apolitical problem.
Addressing the government’s deflection of China being more pollutant, Greta says “I would stop dumping my trash in the ocean and ask the other boat to stop dumping their trash in the ocean as well.” Just because another country causes more harm does not mean our country is not causing harm at all. In fact, the USA is one of the biggest carbon polluters in history and the world’s number one producer of oil. And as Greta reports, “It is also the only nation to signal its intention to leave the Paris climate agreement because it was ‘a bad deal’.”
The activists also explained how climate change is negatively affecting the world’s youngest generation, who are going to grow up on a deteriorating Earth with a limited future. Benji however is hopeful and sees it as “a beneficial opportunity to improve human health, save lives, support people who need it most, and stimulate our economy through the creation of new jobs and technologies.”
While it is comforting to be positive about the future, it’s more crucial that we are aware of how serious the climate crisis really is. Scientists have warned us that if the earth gets to a 1.5 degree Celsius increase, there’s a very low chance of it ever being saved. We are at 1.15 right now.
In addition to trying to push our governments for change, we need to remember that every small action and change in our own lives matter as well. After all, we need to reduce the carbon footprint as much as possible.
