OPINION: CLIMATE CHANGE
ADULT(ERATING) THE TRUTH:
CHILDREN AND CLIMATE CHANGE By Alex Caesari It came as little surprise when media coverage of the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), a landmark summit to decide the future of our planet, focused on Greta Thunberg delivering a “foul-mouthed rant” in the rainy streets of Glasgow rather than her evocative censure of the inaction, empty promises, and industrial lobbying taking place inside the conference. In response to the media backlash, the 18-year-old Swedish activist announced on Twitter that she would “go net-zero on swear words and bad language.” Ironically, Thunberg’s lone tweet shows more commitment to a net-zero cause than Scott Morrison’s entire government. Later in the week, Barack Obama offered his support for those young activists clamoring for objective action: “The most important energy in this movement is coming from young people,” he said. “The reason is simple. They have more at stake in this than anybody else.” 4 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE
The reason they have more at stake should be obvious to the former president. “Suddenly America is the largest oil producer,” he once boasted to a room full of industry leaders. “That was me, people. Say thank you.” Under Obama’s presidency, exports of crude oil skyrocketed by around 750% and the U.S. ploughed $34bn into at least 70 fossil fuel projects around the world. High praise from the former president, then. Because of her staunch, unrelenting stance against climate change, Thunberg has ostensibly become the face of what Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s chief inspector, has previously described as a kind of “militant activism” which is “disrupting the work of schools.” Such a statement necessitates the question: What is the work of schools? To engender political acquiescence among young people? To teach children that standing up against political tyranny
and environmental catastrophe is disruptive? To transform individuals with unique insights and values into the indoctrinated Spies of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four? “Keep calm and carry on, children,” Spielman appears to be saying. “What you don’t know can’t hurt you.” Unless, of course, what you don’t know is world-altering climate change. Indeed, some would still have children believe that the world in which they live is fantasy, a fairy-tale universe in which little princesses are rescued by little princes. In this alternative reality, forests stay standing, cities are powered by magic instead of coal, and good triumphs over evil. All live happily ever after. But death, abandonment, trauma, inju-