By Kendra Wang
Our world is slowly dying. Our Arctic Sea Ice Extent has been down 13 percent since 1979 (NASA, 2022). A report by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) revealed that all polar bears could be gone by 2100 (BBC, 2020). California forest fires have forcefully evicted thousands of people. The pandemic has rendered up to 7,200 tons of medical waste every day (MIT, 2021).
And amidst all the chaos, the burden to “fix” the world falls upon the shoulders of our next generation: teens. Greta Thunberg’s protest in 2018 urged students to leave school every Friday to stand their ground against climate change. Strikes for climate change make a statement. We tell the world that youth want change, that we are willing to do whatever it takes. And yet, many of us are merely forgotten as time passes. We become just another part of our history that few remember, because youth simply do not have the means to accomplish real change without adults.
The question of our future should lie not in what our youth can do, but in what adult society can do to make us better equipped for actions we can take on as we grow up. Power resides in the hands of corporate entities and corrupt political systems. The truth is that money buys all. Oil companies’ political givings outperform those in support of going green by a massive margin (Yale Climate Connections, 2020). A few articles written by high schoolers or any amount of boycotting governments will not have much impact on our society without the adults, without the government, without the money backing us up. Big oil, billionaires, and the federal government hold the keys to the kingdom, not the youth.
Yet our modern society insists on putting pressure on the future generation. Under the firm belief that what they are doing is correct, school curricula push for climate curriculum, telling kids to advocate for something far out of their grip. With the onslaught of modern burdens including that of social media, school work, college applications, it has become almost an accepted norm that high schoolers are now given the stress of solving a global problem. Instead of better preparing students for what comes in the future, every spotlight is put on what we do now. Which begs the question: when did the responsibility of that of the adults suddenly start turning towards our youth before their time?
It can be argued that it is we who will be leading the world in the future. However, the key in that phrase is the future. The point of Thunberg’s campaign that started in 2018 lies not in the emphasis that she as a youth will make a change, but in a call for help to the adults.
When did her efforts become painted by the mere idea of youths advocating, effectively disregarding her true intentions?
The climate crisis is one of the world’s largest problems, and has plagued experts for decades, with reports by scientists from the late 1980s already calling out to the problem. Instead of our adults leading the fight to save our plagued planet, all responsibility is tossed to the youth. (New York Times, 2021)
The futile efforts of youth lie not in the battle to create change in an age of capitalism, but in preparing themselves for a fight in the future. For them to be exposed to the issue, and made aware of this horrifying foe, but not for them to lead the charge. Why should they lead the charge? No high schoolers have the responsibility to save the planet. No children should have the pressure to become a climate activist that solves a decade-long issue.
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