There is no denying anymore that climate change is real, and is happening now! For years, we have seen protests and rallies to fight climate change, but nothing has ever come close to the worldwide youth-led rally on September 20, 2019. The strike was led by the youth but was joined by millions of people from all ages across the world.
Matthew Nisbet, a professor of Communication, Public Policy, and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University, who studies how people communicate about climate change says, “Youth activism is visual, it’s dramatic, it’s novel. It has a lot of authenticity in the voice—high school students are not trying to spin you.”
We have already laid out the goals we need to meet in order to save our world and all what lives in it in the 2015 Paris Climate Change Accords. The treaty was signed to limit the emission of greenhouse gases in order to bring control to the rising global temperatures. It is without question that we need to take actions and we need to take them now.
The youth holds a unique power with them. When they speak, people listen. Everyone wants a better future for their children, and when children want a better environment for their future, parents are more likely to listen and take action.
If you are a youth today, you are going to be an adult tomorrow. The future is nothing but the youth themselves. They create the world they want to live in and the youth of today understands the importance of preserving the planet. This rally proves that they are ready to do whatever it takes to get what they want: a better world.
“Anyone under the age of 50 is going to live to see some pretty spectacular changes in the global environment, and society because of it, but because they’re so young they have the most at stake, and they don’t have the same type of filters that older adults have when they talk about these very serious issues.” Nisbet adds.
Anushka Singh