From the streets to the summit: young climate leaders mobilize at UN

Yahoo – AFP, Issam AHMED, 21 September 2019

Young activists take part in the first UN Youth Climate Summit on September 21

A day after youth-led global climate strikes, several hundred young activists including Greta Thunberg gathered for a climate summit at the United Nations on Saturday, chiding older generations for doing too little to curb carbon emissions.

The UN has invited 500 young activists and entrepreneurs to take part in the New York meeting, the first of its kind, though some were unable to attend after being denied US visas, a point raised by the organizers.

It comes days before a climate action summit which UN chief Antonio Guterres has called to seek greater commitments from world leaders on reducing their greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris accord to avert runaway global warming.

The tone for Saturday's event was set by an impassioned speech by Argentine activist Bruno Rodriguez, 19, who led school strikes in his native country.

"The climate and ecological crisis is the political crisis of our time, it is the economic crisis of our time, and it is the cultural crisis of our time," he said, as Guterres, who was billed as the "keynote listener," watched on.

Students participate in the Global Climate Strike on September 20 in New York

"Many times, we hear that our generation is going to be the one in charge of dealing with the problems that current leaders have created, and we will not wait passively to become that future: The time is now for us to be leaders."

Thunberg, whose protests outside Sweden's parliament last year sparked the global youth movement, spoke first but briefly, saying she wanted to give more time to others.

"We showed we are united and young people are unstoppable," said the 16-year-old, who will also address Monday's summit.

On Friday, masses of children skipped school to join global strikes that Thunberg said were "only the beginning" of the movement.

Some four million people filled city streets around the world, organizers said, in what was billed as the biggest-ever protest against the threat posed to the planet by rising temperatures.

Swedish teen Greta Thunberg has become the poster child for a new 

youth-led climate change protest movement

'Greenwashing' under fire

The corridors of the UN were filled Saturday with young people in formal suits and ties, dresses, and traditional wear from their home countries, and others wearing simple t-shirts and jeans.

"This is the change, and it's coming," said Lalita P-Junggee, a green entrepreneur from Mauritius, who turns billboards and textile waste into fashionable bags.

The day also saw young innovators proposing solutions, pitching their ideas to panels from leading global companies like Google.

But corporations also came under fire for their ties to the oil and gas industries.

During one testy exchange, Kathleen Ma, a 23-year-old delegate who lives in New York turned to a representative from Microsoft, which this week announced a deal with Chevron and oilfield services company Schlumberger to provide cloud computing services.

Map of protests and actions planned during the "Week for the Future" scheduled 

from September 20 to 27, according to the Fridays For Future movement

"Do you care more about getting contracts from fossil fuel companies than you care about youth? Do you care more about profits than you care about us?" she asked, to wide applause.

Lucas Joppa, Microsoft's chief environmental officer, thanked her for the question, replying: "That's one that the entire tech sector, and everybody in the world we live in today which is predicated upon an oil and gas economy has to answer.

"It's one that you'll be hearing more about both from Microsoft and our peers in the broader tech sector as this moves forward."

Rodriguez, the activist from Argentina, later told AFP that young activists were strongly in favor of efforts to divest from the fossil fuel industry, which was responsible for "pillaging" across Latin America.

Pacific Islanders marched in Sydney in one of the first protests in a global 

day of action on climate change

He added that he welcomed the fact that the corporate sector had a heavy presence on the sidelines of the main UN climate summit this week, but that their efforts need to go beyond rhetoric and "they also need to be conscious that the greenwashing speech has no place anymore."

A landmark UN report to be unveiled next week will warn global warming and pollution are ravaging Earth's oceans and icy regions in ways that could unleash misery on a global scale.

But Guterres struck a more optimistic note Saturday, crediting young activists with spurring action.

"This changing momentum was due to your initiative and to the courage, with which you have started these movements."

Kathleen Ma, 23, criticized Microsoft over a cloud computing deal it has

signed with Chevron and Schulmberger

Kathleen Ma, 23, criticized Microsoft over a cloud computing deal it has signed with Chevron and Schulmberger

Young activists take part in the first UN Youth Climate Summit on September 21

Students participate in the Global Climate Strike on September 20 in New York

Swedish teen Greta Thunberg has become the poster child for a new youth-led climate change protest movement

Map of protests and actions planned during the "Week for the Future" scheduled from September 20 to 27, according to the Fridays For Future movement.

Pacific Islanders marched in Sydney in one of the first protests in a global day of action on climate change.

Related Articles:

"The State of the Earth" – (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“… 4 - Energy (again)

The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet; again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!

Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much…

Water

We've told you that one of the greatest natural resources of the planet, which is going to shift and change and be mysterious to you, is fresh water. It's going to be the next gold, dear ones. So, we have also given you some hints and examples and again we plead: Even before the potentials of running out of it, learn how to desalinate water in real time without heat. It's there, it's doable, and some already have it in the lab. This will create inexpensive fresh water for the planet. 

There is a change of attitude that is starting to occur. Slowly you're starting to see it and the only thing getting in the way of it are those companies with the big money who currently have the old system. That's starting to change as well. For the big money always wants to invest in what it knows is coming next, but it wants to create what is coming next within the framework of what it has "on the shelf." What is on the shelf is oil, coal, dams, and non-renewable resource usage. It hasn't changed much in the last 100 years, has it? Now you will see a change of free choice. You're going to see decisions made in the boardrooms that would have curled the toes of those two generations ago. Now "the worst thing they could do" might become "the best thing they could do." That, dear ones, is a change of free choice concept. When the thinkers of tomorrow see options that were never options before, that is a shift. That was number four.”