How Youth Is Responding to a Changing World

September 21, 2019 – The Autumnal Equinox has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere and with it here in Canada we begin to prepare for the approaching season of cold. This is an annual rite of passage in a country that exists for the most part well above the 49th parallel of latitude. Coping with the normal swing from summer warmth to winter’s frigid and windy chill requires considerable fortitude. Not everyone is cut out to live in a climate that goes through these dramatic annual swings. When I describe what it is like in Canada to young Costa Rican friends who experience two seasons, dry and wet, they are flabbergasted. They can’t imagine living in a place where much of the country sees little in the way of sunlight throughout the winter, and at the same time in summer experiences days in which it seems the sun never sets. The same would be true for Russia, the state of Alaska, and Scandinavian countries. This is the norm that occurs because of the Earth’s axial tilt, elliptical orbit around the sun, and the annual changes that reoccur.

It has been this way for the entire time our species has existed on Earth. Variations have occurred that have seriously threatened human survival in the several million years of our existence. A couple of times we have come very close to extinction because of sudden physical changes impacting the environment of the planet. We didn’t cause these changes and our numbers were so few that we could easily have vanished just like so many other animal species. But we did survive and today more than 7.5 billion of us now live here while 6 of us live off-planet in an orbiting space laboratory.

Earth is our home and our lifeboat. And we are its custodians largely because we have developed a level of technical sophistication to alter the natural balance of things on the planet. If another intelligent species were to occupy the planet with us, they might describe us as selfish and self-absorbed because of our indifference to the planet’s well-being. But that indifference appears to be coming to an end in the generation of youth who have mobilized against the older generation to make their opinions known about climate change brought about by our human disregard for the planet’s health.

I often write about the science of climate change and describe the changes already occurring to the atmosphere, ocean, and weather patterns around the planet. I have written about how the nations of the planet have conferred and agreed upon targeted limits to our environmental impact. I have written about technologies and innovative practices that some on this planet have developed to help address changes to the atmosphere and ocean. I’ve become involved in the political process here in Canada to try and influence policy and climate mitigation initiatives. And I have sought out experts throughout the world to get their input into ways for our species to mitigate or adapt to the warming of the atmosphere that is increasingly evident over the last few decades. I have invited conservations with youth to have them stand up and defend their right to a world very much like the one I experienced when growing up.

Alas, on the latter point, that no longer seems possible. The Toronto I grew up in had toads hopping around the backyard, and clouds of June Bugs and Brown Skippers descending upon us every spring. The Toronto I grew up in was teeming with wildlife. The creeks and rivers were filled with tadpoles, mayfly and dragonfly larvae, salamanders, and newts. That world is gone and increasingly appears to be disappearing in locations well away from the city as our human footprint alters the natural balance. I would love to see a semblance of it return.

But now the task at hand is to support the young people who on Friday around the world followed 16-year-old Greta Thunberg on a one-day climate strike to demonstrate against governments everywhere that have done next to nothing in a meaningful way to mitigate against rising atmospheric temperatures, a decline in biodiversity, the increase in extreme weather occurrences, and other indicators of human-caused global warming. And next week the organizers of the Fridays for the Future youth march plan to do it again, and likely on many more Fridays for weeks to come until they see governments taking meaningful action.

So will governments act? We will know if any of this is resonating by the end of the week after the United Nations Climate Conference concludes in New York. In the meantime, I’m not holding my breath on seeing something new come out of these deliberations. The students will continue to march and will be joined by more of us in the weeks to come. The inspiration derived from one young Swedish girl and her determination to hold her government to account has ignited a global response.