One Teen’s “How Dare You!” Inspires Worldwide Movement

It is undeniable in today’s society the ongoing push from people all around the world, many of them youths, to combat climate change; or to at least do something to protect future generations from the harsh reality mother nature is getting ready to set lose upon them. Sixteen-year-old Greta Thunberg of Sweden has called out not only the leaders of the world, but humanity in their lack of action against climate change and global warming. Her now famous speech in which she criticizes the people of the United Nations while at the Climate summit asking “How dare you!” has prompted a movement led by the younger generation. The question proposed by Greta’s words still echoes in the backs of minds everywhere, does anything need to be done about the growing predicament of the climate, and if so, what can be done?

Thunberg came under fire by many for not proposing solutions to the various problems she mentioned in her speech. Surely, the world as humanity knows it ceasing to exist is not something the population wants, however, her speech was not meant to provide solutions. There is an endless number of scientific sources describing a plethora of solutions and ways to fix the damage we have inflicted on this earth. However, Thunberg even criticizes the ideas provided by scientists all over the world in that they do not provide realistic solutions due to the hard-to-grasp statistics of climate change. The point was to show how the planet is tired of all the human race has put it through; the ever-growing carbon footprint, the way its animals are treated, the way its nature and life is treated.

And the world wants to do something about this. Retribution will not affect the years of previous generations who have shrugged it off because the repercussions do not seem imminent, or because it will cost too much money, or even because it doesn’t fit into a political agenda. It will affect the children, their grandchildren, and so on. They will be the ones left to deal with the melting, blazing planet who is enraged with sky-high temperatures and ocean levels. The earth does not care about time, or money, or politics.

In the end it will protect itself. Thunberg’s speech was meant to convey that change will require more than a continuous assembly line of protests and reports on global warming being funneled into the news every so often. It will take not only the education of the problem, but recognizing that something needs to be done, boundaries have to be pushed, and things must change.