You are the victims of a monstrous intergenerational crime, and you are as right as humans can be to demand justice.
You should know that there are millions of older people whose hearts are with you.
You should know you are not, in any way, alone.
I know this, because I was not much older than many of you when I saw the planetary crisis you're seeing now, and it irrevocably changed my life.
But you do see them, and you do have to fight for that future.
Nowhere in the world do you find your leaders having a genuine debate about stopping this emergency.
Instead, we offer young people stale platitudes & emotional silence.
("Whose future? Our future!" is one I particularly like...)
Remember, when you're marching tomorrow, you'll be fighting not just for your future, but for the future of younger kids (like my own baby boy), and the kids you may one day have—and their kids, too
You'll also be saying something very powerful: It's not too late.
We may not be able to stop all the terrible impacts inaction has set in motion, but there's a huge expanse between the worst catastrophes adults' continued inaction would trigger and the best futures we can still make.
The biggest fights are still ahead.
Regard them as you would a poisonous snake.
When you meet them, you have met your opposition.
But when the status quo is building a doomsday machine, every argument for delaying change is an attack on your future.
The inattention of most adults to the planetary emergency means that even many of us who are kind and entirely well meaning, just don't know when we are or what that means.
First, stay together. Don't face this struggle alone, and don't be emotionally silent; find friends and allies and supporters and teachers who get you, and open up to them.
We can't build what we can't imagine. Let yourself imagine the most awesome life we could make together, and share your dreams.
The poet Blake said the worst chains are "mind-forged manacles"—what we don't allow ourselves to think. Break them.
So much of the thinking you're be taught in school now is outdated. It belongs to a time before everything changed. Seek out new knowledge. Blaze your own trail.
The reality is that planetary emergency is going to be part of your life for your entire life, no matter where you live or what you do. Accepting that as a purpose to draw power from, and not a life sentence, is key to living in the now.
A lot of adults run into real psychological trouble, working on these problems. I did.
Do yourself a kindness, and stay human: eat decent food, exercise more, get some sleep, don't abuse drugs & booze, and if you feel depressed, seek some help.
One way emotional silences is enforced is a scolding voice barking "This isn't funny!"
"Some things are too serious not to laugh about." Humor is subversive now. Play is subversive. Making doing fun things and being funny part of your activism.
Invitations are powerful. Invite the older people you know to talk. Help them to see what you see, to join your fight, to be your ally. You never know, they might surprise you.
Big changes are coming, and they're coming fast. You are helping them come faster.
Over the next decade, humanity is going to need a lot of young people doing a huge amount important work.
That's just what a writer is, now.
If you decide to become an engineer, a doctor, an entrepreneur, a tradesperson, a farmer, a cook or a teacher, you'll always be an engineer, a doctor, an entrepreneur, a tradesperson, a farmer, a cook or a teacher working in a time of planetary emergency.
I know, it's a paradox: At the very moment so much of what you're being taught is out of date, learning has never been more important.
Learning how to become the kind of person this crisis demands is just as important.
May your hunger to learn may be just as big a shock to adults as your willingness to march.
#FridaysForFuture #SchoolStrike #wearegoingtochangethefateofhumanity
#SchoolStrikeForClimate
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"What do we want?
Our future!
When do we want it?
Later."
(via @MichelleEBlau)
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#strikeforclimate
smh.com.au/national/nsw/f…
Getting very real about the #carbonbubble, this one.
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