Opinion: Don’t Blame Greta Thunberg, We All Have To Choose On Climate Change

Published on: 7 Jan, 2022
Updated on: 7 Jan, 2022

By Charlie Bennett

Environment activist

A gargantuan comet is hurtling toward Earth on a collision course. Obliteration of life is imminent but humankind is ignoring the obvious, carrying on as if nothing is happening.

This is the allegorical premise of the film Don’t Look Up and it is an accurate portrayal of where we are with climate change.

I have concluded that there is no longer any middle ground. We all now have to choose.

For over sixty years, there has been a clamour to protect nature instead of ransacking it.

Environmental crusaders, from David Attenborough to Greenpeace, from WWF to IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) have been in a David versus Goliath battle which the majority support without putting much thought into it. Why wouldn’t we want to save whales getting slaughtered, or stop the destruction of the Amazon rainforest?

But time has gone by, the situation has changed and just wishing is not enough.

The science is irrefutable, we know what is coming and it is not an option to let someone else deal with the problem, even you reading this, especially you reading this.

It used to be up to governments and environmental groups to sort out the planet. We citizens were bystanders in this tussle, glancing every so often in their direction, giving our side a cheer and a thumbs up.

Yet the uncomfortable truth is we, inhabitants of this planet and members of its society, are being forced to make a choice because there is no middle ground anymore, and this is where the discomfort lies.

We have left it too late to let our leaders solve this problem. We now have to choose a side.

Whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, you have already done so. To come to terms with this truth is man’s greatest challenge. We are either part of the problem or part of the solution.

Greta Thunberg, Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain are symptoms of society’s malaise and our political leaders’ inaction. We cannot blame those people or groups for what they do if the issue wasn’t ignored for so long by governments around the world.

One of the main battle cries of these protest groups is that they see themselves as the fire alarm for society. They are not there to be liked, they are there to grab you by the collar and shout in your face “Wake the f*** up!”

Wake up from your polluting, from your mindless Netflix flicking, and your corporate cappuccino.

Wake up and look up, not to the sky for a meteor but away from the trivia on your phones.

Look at what’s really happening around you. Look at what you’re eating, what you’re driving. Consider who you are voting for and why.

Because now you are complicit. It is time to join the David and Goliath fight.

I can tell you a secret that deep down you already know. Goliath doesn’t care about you; he just wants to make as much money from you as possible, regardless of the detriment to your physical and mental health, your wealth and your kids’ futures.

They want us to feel powerless but actually, if we all act, perhaps we are not.

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