We've been aware of climate change for decades, and yet it's still incredibly hard to mobilise and real change for the better.
Whatever the reasons though, the kids set to inherit the mess we're making aren't having it anymore, and they're going to make sure you know it.
From a Friday For Future student climate protest in Paris - Greta Thunberg/Twitter
This March 15 will see school students across the world skipping school in favour of protesting. They're speaking out against the greed of corporations, the apathy of politicians, and the general lack of import given to global warming. After all, if they're the ones dealing with Planet Earth and its problems a few years from now, they want to inherit it in the best shape possible.
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The Climate Kids, as they're called, is less of a institution and more of an organic global movement. In some cases, they're being backed by politicians, like with firebrand Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the US, or Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany. And this awareness of the state of our planet may have been permeating children's minds for a while now, but you can thank Greta Thunberg for the attention it's gotten lately.
Greta Thunberg herself at the UN climate summit in December
The 16-year-old Swedish student grabbed headlines last year when she ditched two weeks of school to protest outside the parliament building in Stockholm, right before the country's general elections. A lone protester, she simply displayed placards and handed out pamphlets reading, "I am doing this because you adults are shitting on my future."
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Then, on December 16, she attended a UN Climate summit in Poland, only to rain fire down on the political leaders present. "You are not mature enough to tell it like is," she said. "Even that burden you leave to us children." Then she issued her challenge.
In January this year she repeated the performance, riding the train for 32 hours to go to the World Economic Forum's annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland. There, she lambasted the political leaders present for making money for themselves at the cost to the planet. "I think many of you here today belong to that group of people," she said with a glare.?
There, she made another official call to students around the world, to join her in the?School Strike 4 Climate on March 15.
Another climate protest in Hamburg - DW Environment/Twitter
Since then, students in other countries have already taken up the torch. In the US, Europe, and Australia, students are skipping school most Fridays in order to protest. Reports indicated the biggest turnout was in Brussels on January 24, with 32,000 students taking to the streets with signs and slogans.
Now, it just depends how long it takes those in power to listen and take responsibility for the problem.