The Greta Thunberg Hollers — why the world may not pay heed?
I saw the stare, when the US president went by. I listened to the dare, when the rehearsed script was read out. And I saw the news interactions of this teenager — Greta Thunberg.
Normally, it would have be another day gone by. But the issue — the core message that ‘Climate Change is real’ cannot be ignored. Climate is changing — it was an unprecedented monsoon year in Chennai, a coastal city in South East India I live — which was preceded by a 18 month rainless drought. My own city is a classical example of how selfish politicians, apathetic citizens and agnostic industrialists live together. The riot act reads that ‘ Chennai is one of the cities forefront in the climate change impact and would be underwater before the next 100 years’. But you talk to anybody who lives in the city, they would say that there are other priorities. The common man is playing a short term punt, the politician — the next five years, and the industrialist — every quarter.
So why would a kid hollering a script in a far off pedestal from the other side of the world even mean anything? It does — because the message is real. But that kid is now a victim of her own passion, she is now riding the tide of celebrityhood & building her own personality cult. This is the first reason, why, it does not mean much for other players in the climate change field.
Second, a little dig reveals that the vehicle she rides to the podium, is a radical left wing platform — which thrives on fear-mongering. Just because she is a girl and a child, a well chosen identity to establish the locus standi, she cannot fear monger her way into the issue. The choice of words — reading doomsday predictions — and daring the generations, does not make up for a solution that can involve the stakeholders-that-be. If the purpose was to establish a moral high ground, then it failed. If the purpose was to excite people to act, then it failed too.
Third, each protest should have an intended purpose. What is she saying? Stop use of plastics? Stop fossil fuels? Each country in the world is in its own phase of growth. There are developed, developing and under-developed countries. And each country, deserves it chance to climb the ladder. The single biggest need for such growth is energy. And for that, each country is fighting its wars — the Darwinian way. The economics, the politics and geography determine a country’s access to energy and therefore determine its development. And to paint each of these countries with the same brush, is at best, ignorant.
Fourth, what is her solution? That the present generation should suffer out of guilt? When somebody asked this question to her, she passed the mike to an adult. In my world, that is, she is like a turkey trying to become a peacock.
Finally, in a developing country like India, where more than 70% of population is still struggling to get their act together, and add to that, most part of the world — except the G7, the priority is still survival, jobs, growth and the next meal on the table. Energy needs to cook that meal, and light that lamp — the floods may come and go, but the day to day fights are too big for the most of the world’s population to ignore.
And France, considered one of the champions of climate change and the anchor of the Paris agreement — responded thus.
President Macron criticised Greta’s attack, saying: “There are lots of citizen’s actions that are useful. Here, such very radical positions are liable to antagonise our societies.” He denied that the “French or German government” were blocking any green transition, saying they were “stopping our coal activities, our fossil fuel production”.
So, the Greta-Thunberg hollers didn’t fall the anybody’s ears. Very few listened, may be, her sponsors and the high-left-and-privileged from their drawing rooms and meeting rooms in high rises — for them, it was a great act. For us, and the people who really get out and do something about it — it was noise.
~ Ashok Subramanian.
