KIDS GO ON STRIKE TO SAVE CLIMATE

A young girl in Sweden seems to have taken a leaf out of Mahatma Gandhi’s book on Civil Disobedience. Greta Thunberg was 15 last year when she began to bunk school every Friday to sit outside the Swedish Parliament demanding that Sweden do something about climate change. Other school kids in Sweden joined her and they bunk school to sit in protest every Friday in front of their Parliament. Since then, Greta  has inspired children across the world to join the rebellion against extinction of life on the planet. They call it the Extinction Rebellion. Their initial demand was for Sweden, to fulfill the goals of the Paris Ageement on climate change but they are now calling on world leaders to act ‘maturely” on climate change.. On March 14 2019, all of 16 years of age, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

At the Paris climate agreement of 2017 , nearly 200 countries committed to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the temperature of the pre-industrial age. If not 1.5 degrees, then at least to keep the rise  below 2 degrees. But this is not happening. The US , one of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases that are warming the planet has withdrawn from the Agreement and will place no restrictions on itself to reduce emissions.

The heroic and thoughtful actions of this extraordinary student activist have led to a global children’s movement. On March 15 this year thousands of school children from almost 100 countries joined the Children’s Strike in a concerted global action to demand action from world leaders to halt the destruction caused by climate change. From countries as varied as India, South Korea, Australia, France and others in Europe and the US, the world’s children bunked school to get parents and elders to start taking seriously the climate disaster confronting us and to do something about it.

Even Indian children joined the strike, some as young as ten years old. Some NCR schools were supported by their teachers to miss school and collect at the Central Park in Delhi’s Connaught Place to demand a clean environment that would allow them to breathe clean air. Anyone who has lived in Delhi or the National Capital Region (NCR) which  includes Noida and Gurugram, knows that the winter months are a serious challenge because of the toxic air quality.

The children of the NCR joined the global Extinction Rebellion, carrying placards with  slogans like Fridays for Future, because the children’s strike across the world is staged every Friday. Indian school children articulated their demand for “clean air, water and soils for our safe future”  One placard said “ No Saans, No Vote”, telling contestants in the upcoming election to take note of the environment.

Medical advisories are issued to close schools and keep children indoors. Among other things, the cost of air pollution in India is 10 lakh premature deaths every year. This is apart from debilitating illnesses like asthma and cardio vascular disease. All of this leads to reduced quality of life and big financial burdens for the family and the government . India’s cities are some of the most polluted in the world, with Delhi being tagged as by far the most polluted. But it’s not just Delhi, almost all north India cities have filthy air. Jaipur, Varanasi, Lucknow, Mumbai, any city really , is a toxic nightmare.

What is scary is that according to all scientific estimates, even adhering to the goals and targets of the Paris Agreement will not stop Global Warming. There is so much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere already that the earth’s temperature will continue to rise even if we stop emissions today. Scientists assess that temperatures will rise from 2.7 to 3.0 degrees for sure. With the US withdrawing from any commitments to cut emissions, its more likely to be a 3 degree rise.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) , the global body that tracks climate change, has said that an increase of 1.5 degrees over pre industrial levels will mean extreme weather conditions with floods, droughts and cyclones,  heavy and unpredictable rainfall, heat waves, water shortages , melting glaciers and sea level rise. This will cause havoc. And t2030 is just 11 years away.

So what the children are doing should make the adults sit up and think. No, sit up and panic. Many of the children have responded to adult criticism of their strike, saying if we won’t have a future, then school and education will not matter. The children are fighting for their future, the future of the present civilization. The stakes are very high. Adults have to get the message of the school strikes and make one last effort to save ourselves from ultimate extinction. 

Dr Suman Sahai is a scientist and chairperson of the Gene Campaign