We have been offered awards for our activism. We have spent hundreds of hours participating in panels and speaking with journalists and filmmakers. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, we met with prime ministers, presidents, and even the pope. At the UN, we addressed a room filled with world leaders. We are being invited to speak in the corridors of power. So we continue to fight.Īfter a year of strikes, our voices are being heard. The science is crying out for urgent action, and still our leaders dare to ignore it. Subscribe now to gain greater access to Project Syndicate – including every commentary and our entire On Point suite of subscriber-exclusive content – starting at less than $5 per month. Fossil fuels are literally choking the life from us. Just this month, five million masks were handed out at schools in New Delhi, India’s capital, owing to toxic smog. Research shows that pollution from burning fossil fuels is the world’s most significant threat to children’s health. Young people like us bear the brunt of our leaders’ failures. Even if countries fulfill their current emissions-reduction pledges, we are headed for a 3.2☌ increase. The concentration of climate-heating greenhouse gases in our atmosphere has reached a record high, with no sign of a slowdown. Worse, recent research shows that we are on track to produce 120% more fossil fuels in 2030 than would be consistent with the 1.5☌ limit. They warn that we have never been less likely to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels – the threshold beyond which the most destructive effects of climate change would be triggered. And yet the politicians let the profiteers continue to exploit our planet’s resources and destroy its ecosystems in a quest for quick cash that threatens our very existence.ĭon’t take our word for it: scientists are sounding the alarm. Politicians and fossil-fuel companies have known about climate change for decades. Countless negotiations have produced much-hyped but ultimately empty commitments from the world’s governments – the same governments that allow fossil-fuel companies to drill for ever-more oil and gas, and burn away our futures for their profit. We have watched a string of United Nations climate conferences unfold. Striking is not a choice we relish we do it because we see no other options.
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