Indigenous and youth groups disrupted a US-sponsored event
at the UN climate talks in Poland. Wells Griffith, a Trump administration
adviser speaking on a panel, said the US would continue extracting fossil fuels
and warned against ‘alarmism’ over climate change. Climate expert Andrew Light,
from the World Resources Institute, said the panel’s discussion would have no
impact on the outcome of the COP24 climate talks and it only proved that ‘once
again the United States is isolated with respect to the global community on
this critically important issue’
A youth activist on the climate crisis: politicians won't
save us
Victoria Barrett
At the COP24 conference, leaders lack the urgency felt by
communities on the frontlines of a global threat
Fri 14 Dec 2018 18.27 GMT Last modified on Sat 15 Dec 2018
04.39 GMT
As wildfires burn, as temperatures rise, as the last
remaining old-growth forests in Poland are logged, world leaders are in
Katowice to negotiate the implementation of the Paris climate agreement. To
outsiders, UN climate talks may seem like a positive step. Unfortunately, this
is COP24.
For 24 years, world leaders have annually talked at each
other instead of to one another in hopes of reaching an agreement on how to
mitigate the climate crisis. In all that time, they have barely scratched the
surface of an issue that the world’s top climate scientists say we now have 12
years to stop – and that is an optimistic estimate.
There’s an urgency in my heart being here in Katowice,
knowing that this negotiation process is supposed to protect my generation and
ones thereafter. I am afraid of the lack of accountability in the space,
knowing that the people with power will be patted on the back for simply coming
together without making meaningful policy commitments.
When the news stories come out about successful
negotiations, we forget about when leaders pushed to leave “human rights” out
of policy wording, or stood on the floor advocating for fossil fuels as a
solution (hint: they’re not), all to placate to their own interest in power and
maintaining it. They are voluntarily blind to the suffering their decisions
cause. Homes will be lost, families will be torn apart by displacement and at
borders, and the sea will encroach upon whole societies, exterminating cultures
and livelihoods. Developed countries like the US, corrupted by fossil fuel
interests, are to blame.
UN negotiators have been trying to solve the climate crisis
since before I was born. When will global leaders admit that this is a broken
and dysfunctional charade instead of burying the reality under false solutions
and jargon? What will be the catalyst for people in power to do what is right?
Do millions of people have to be displaced? Do we have to be stealing a livable
planet from people not even born yet? How many millions of people will have to
die from climate damage such as drought, famine, superstorms and wildfires
before world leaders commit to implementing real solutions to defeat this
crisis?
I’ve been doing this work for five years and have given up a
lot to do the things I know are right. I’ve given up personal finances,
friendships, a normal adolescence and more to get up on the global stage. I’ve
taken breaks from school, failed a few classes.
Youth activists everywhere make personal sacrifices every
day in order to protect the world we’ll inherit and our governments can’t do
the same for us. The institutions meant to protect me don’t seem to care as
much as I do and it’s a burden I carry everyday.
I watch my government and governments around the world trade
my future for profit. A future my mother fought hard to secure through
sacrifice, when she made the journey to immigrate to the United States. There’s
a lot of anger and depression inside of me because of this, but I found
happiness and reward in seeing the solutions, power and love in the climate
movement.
Though political institutions have fallen short, being on
the ground here does offer hope: it proves the strength of people power.
Politicians will never be the core of this movement. We need to highlight and
uplift genuine grassroots movements that properly address the lived experiences
of the people they protect. We need to turn our attention and our energy into
communities that are helping themselves in the best ways that they can.
The marginalized communities on the frontlines know what it
actually means to sacrifice in order to uphold future generations and young
people. They understand giving up their own comforts to protect lives.
We have called on our political leaders to demonstrate a
similar understanding. But resilience can’t be taught, and it doesn’t come from
a president, minister or monarch: it comes from the adversity you have faced.
This is why, to fight the powers that hand away pieces of our environment for
profit, we must enlist the people who have lived on the margins of society.
People power will always be stronger than the people in power.
Victoria Barrett is one of the 21 plaintiffs, aged 10 to 21,
in the high-profile Juliana v the United States lawsuit, which faulted the US
government for failing to protect its citizens from climate change. She
represents marginalized voices at international conferences and has addressed
the United Nations general assembly on the topic of youth involvement in its
sustainable development goals.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário