When I was 16, the school taught us to ‘Care for environment’. The mantra was ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’. We were trained to close taps properly and switch off fans in empty rooms; car pooling made logistical sense and cloth bags were yet to become ‘cool’. But we rarely discussed environment outside the wonders of nature, and climate was usually what was confused with the weather, and described as cool, hot or wet.
In the last decade ‘care’ has been replaced by ‘save’. ‘Organic’ and ‘eco-friendly’ are buzzwords, all we see on social media are home gardens, reusable straws, people living responsible lives. Yet thousands have been displaced in natural disasters, many more have lost livelihoods, and most have been affected by at least one climate event while entire cities are swinging between too little and too much rainfall. Governments are making commitments, not nature but the Earth is the centre of discussions, and even then there are those who deny the climate crisis that is staring us in the face. No. Climate change is the crisis that deserves our collective attention.
Now 16, Greta Thunberg is the Swedish teen in the limelight for speaking about the above and the ‘good child’ who has been bunking school to start a conversation about the planet needing urgent saving. ‘Fridays for Future’ has caught on, with many kids around the globe protesting every week outside their parliaments and urging politicians to do better, and bring to end the age of fossil fuels. Over the next few days, millions of people young and old are going to take to the streets following a call for a ‘Global Climate Strike’.
The official website for the strike reads ‘Our house is on fire — let’s act like it’. But as we outrage about the Amazon, or volunteer with rescue teams and win arguments on social media it is only in our best interests to keep in mind that to secure a future for Greta and those born along with or after her, we need to do more than leading ‘responsible lives’ to hold systems accountable. The time to turn off lights and shut off taps, carry a tote bag and take public transport is gone.
A 20 rise in global temperature is not as far removed from our lives as we think it to be. Melting glaciers and sea level rise, extreme climate events, global food scarcity, rapid extinction of species will affect each one of us in more ways than we can imagine. Those living closest to and most dependent on the nature are on the frontlines of this, those with the least buying power are the ones that will face the brunt of the crisis. In a world so unequal it is those at the lowest rungs of the ladder that will fall first. This is why we each need to be doing more than our bit to remain critical of the world around us and, as Mary Robinson writes in her book Climate Justice, find a feminist solution to this man-made problem because we cannot afford to leave anyone behind. First, join your local strike action to show you care, are ready to save, think and fight together — there is really no Plan B, nor as they, a Planet B.
archanaa seker
seker.archanaa@gmail.com
The writer is a city-based activist,in-your-face feminist and a media glutton