How Can We Ignore and Mock Our Own Children?

- January 30, 2022

As I watched Greta Thunberg melt down at COP26 in 2021, I thought of all the years that have gone by since the first COP, and how many children have spent their youths getting teargassed instead of skateboarding or speaking to arrogant so-called leaders at COPS and summits instead of working on their tans, or giving interviews to press corps about atrocities against nature instead of about winning volleyball or basketball games on their school teams, or exploring tar sands and ocean waste sites and dying coral reefs instead of taking pleasant strolls through nature. Greta has spent her youth researching, organizing, speaking, nay, begging, pleading, demonstrating, being interviewed, just as Slater Jewell-Kemker, and Severn Cullis-Suzuki and the thousands of children they led, did before her.

Three decades of sacrifice by young people who've entered their teens terrified – with excellent reason! – of the horrors that will likely unfold during their lifetimes. Three decades of the brightest and most passionate young people of their generations who have been trotted out by world "leaders", who instead of acting on their message, merely use them for photo ops and send them on their way with what amounts to a condescending swat on the butt as they figure out the very least they can do because to make any seriously significant changes to protect the earth means an equally seriously significant threat to their fossil fuel investments.

These children have established amazing organizations to get their messages out there. But the messages are falling on deaf ears. Their bravery to speak to power is extraordinary and commendable, however, sadly ineffective.

Because their timing is off. They're approach is wrong.

They need to speak to power when power is vulnerable. When Power is campaigning and going after votes to continue in their political seats. They need to demonstrate outside of campaign rallies, town halls, whistle stop tours, and call out the candidates for their lies. For their oil wealth. For their literal crimes against humanity and crimes against nature. They need the help of the press. They need their questions hammered at politicians every single time they're in front of a camera, not vague, "what's your stand on climate change?", but specific, monster-revealing questions about specific, local disasters – children getting cancer in waste disposal playgrounds, Cancer Alley, The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, and Eastern Utah – that show these corporate sellouts up as the ogres they are.

It's high time the press shelved their "if it bleeds it leads" mentality and start focusing on messages that average Americans really need to hear: Our children, our country, our earth is bleeding. Call out the demons who are profiting on their blood…our blood.

What kind of parents are we, that we've allowed generations of our children to take up a colossal fight that we've ignored because we're too busy being good little consumers?

I'm not speaking in judgment. I'm speaking to urge everyone reading this to do something to help. Pick an organization. Get off your ass and write some letters for it. Tweet on its behalf, attend some campaign events and ask your local candidates what they're going to do about specific environmental issues in your county, city, state. Trust me, they exist. Point out instances of greenwashing politicians and industries in your area are pumping out via their propaganda while their companies pump pollution and devastation into the soil, air, and water.

Don't keep your thoughts private. You have public platforms at your fingertips. Instead of plastering Facebook and Twitter with cat pictures and recipes, try photographs of tar sands the size of Florida, children with tumors in Cancer Alley, or dead gull chicks with bellies full of plastic pieces that they thought were food. Put them out there.

And then, go vote. Don't vote for promises – vote for records. Seriously vet candidates. Look up their investments, their actions, what they've done about issues so far. Look up their net worth, who they socialize with, where their kids go to school, what activities they're involved in – NRA? Oil, or causes for the people, charities, neighborhood cleanups or gardens. Start voting your consciences instead of "your" party. Trust me, it isn't "your" party and never has been.

And don't depend on government – depend on yourself, your neighbors. Get to know them. Participate in community events, have cookouts, block parties, plant gardens together, go on nature walks with bags to gather litter; get your kids interested. Do environmental activities, private and public together. Team up!

Because that's how America is supposed to work: Americans building together. Americans solving problems together. Americans working together on every level, to hand a healthy, vibrant country – and earth – to our children and grandchildren.

SOURCES:

Greta's Speech at COP 26 (2021)

Slater Jewell-Kemker interview at COP 21 (2015)

Severn Cullis-Suzuki 1992 speech at Rio Summit