The climate change generation claims that rulers talk too much, don’t listen enough, and act even less. And they are fed up.
Mitzy Violeta, a 23-year-old indigenous activist from Mexico, denounced that instead of talking about how to solve the climate crisis, the summits are negotiating how to continue polluting. Youth movements, she pointed out, are realizing that the solution is not going to come from international meetings like the one taking place these days in Egypt.
“We are bothered by the lack of action,” said Jasmine Wynn, 18, a member of the environmental group Treeage.
Facing decades of hotter and more extreme weather, young people see a future filled with frustration and anxiety, according to more than 130 activists interviewed by The Associated Press. Most of them said they believe that their strikes and protests are effective. But lately, a handful of activists have gone beyond skipping school to attack works of art or fossil fuel and tire depots in highly publicized actions.
Experts and sponsors expect those more visible actions to increase.
“They will do whatever nonviolent is necessary. They are motivated,” said Margaret Klein Salamon, a clinical psychologist and director of the Climate Emergency Fund, which provides financial support to some of the loudest protests. “They are very passionate. Part of that comes from youth, of course. But it is enhanced by reality, by having a kind of clash with the truth”.
At a more traditional protest in New York City last September, 14-year-old Truly Hort said she is afraid of the future. “I’ve always had all these dreams, and now it’s like, ‘God, I can’t do that.’”
The problem, he noted, is that leaders talk about what they hope to do “but there aren’t a lot of people taking action.”".
At the same protest, 16-year-old Lucia Dec-Prat also mentioned anxiety. “It’s one thing to worry about the future and quite another to go out there and do something about it,” she said.
But the protests only go so far, Dec-Prat said. “I honestly think adults don’t listen.”
When asked about climate conferences, many of those interviewed said that governments and international organizations are moving too slowly against climate change. A large majority of activists agreed with Greta Thunberg, who described the summits as a bunch of talk without action, or “blah blah blah”, as the Swedish activist put it in a speech last year.
“So instead of making noise to contribute to the blah blah blah, make noise to call for action. I think that has to be the crucial thing,” said Jevanic Henry, 25, of Saint Lucia, in the Caribbean. “We drive the actions.”
“The money doesn’t matter because we’re not going to have anywhere to live,” said Aniva Clarke, a 17-year-old activist from Samoa. “And that’s probably the biggest problem that a lot of world leaders are not focusing on.”
Although many young activists do not feel they are being listened to, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has given them credit for urging negotiators to do more. University of Maryland scientist Dana Fisher, who studies the environmental movement and young activists, recalled that they have testified before the United States Congress and spoken before the United Nations and at previous climate summits.
“Young people have had so much more to say than at any other time in my adult life,” Fisher said. “I think a lot of them felt that because they were invited and given those opportunities, that meant the whole world was going to turn around and change their policy.”
And that’s not what happens, he explained, that frustrates them.
Speaking at a cultural event in London, Thunberg said that annual climate conferences like the one organized in Egypt do not bring about significant changes. “Unless, of course, we use them as an opportunity to mobilize,” he said, “and make people realize that this is a scam and realize that these systems are failing us.”
One of the most relevant young climate activists, the Ugandan Vanessa Nakate, has participated both from the outside, as a protester at the beginning of the Rise Up Movement, and later from within, as a UNICEF ambassador on climate change.
“The question should be, what should leaders do? What should governments do? Because all this time that I have dedicated myself to activism, I have realized that young people have done everything,” Nakate told The Associated Press.
And there is little doubt who young activists believe should pay the bills against climate change: the rich, industrialized countries that throughout history have emitted more greenhouse gases than the poor. Rich countries have promised to pay the poor to adapt to hurricanes, droughts and floods exacerbated by climate change, but have so far failed to deliver on their promise of $100 billion.
As investors on Wall Street continue to pour money into funds described as “green,” many young activists blame the very system of free-market capitalism for adding heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere, something analysts and policymakers often ignore as a factor.
Most of those interviewed called for more pressure, protests and denunciations against businesses and corporations, such as a recent demonstration in New York in front of the headquarters of the financial investment firm BlackRock, as an effective tactic against climate change.
Minutes before marching past the famous sculpture of a bull on Wall Street and next to the site where the Occupy Wall Street movement was centered, Oscar Gurbelic, 17, squarely blamed the free market system and big business.
“Climate change and capitalism are naturally intertwined,” Gurbelic said.
Many say they are willing to make changes in their lives to take responsibility for reducing emissions. They fly and drive less, and walk more. Many of the activists interviewed said they would prefer to have fewer children because of climate change. Most said they don’t participate in some activities at least once a week because it’s polluting or wasteful.
Violeta, the Mexican activist, pointed out that young people no longer want to live in a world that is limited to consuming and throwing away used things.
As in other protest movements, there are differences of opinion on whether to work from within or outside the system. Some activists the AP spoke with are working with governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations to raise awareness of the climate risks facing their communities. Others restrict their work to grassroots movements and fight the big institutions.
Experts who study young climate activists say that while they belong to the best-educated generation in history, many want to take a break from their education to focus on climate action. Others, like Jevanic Henry, want to combine their professional lives with climate activism. He has worked with governments and non-profit organizations on climate issues.
“I try to stay as optimistic as I can,” Henry said in an interview, though he said that effort is run up against fears of socioeconomic collapse if action isn’t taken at all levels.
But hope only goes so far.
“More and more people are going to be upset and frustrated and ready to take more aggressive action,” said Fisher, of the University of Maryland. “And the problem is that at some point, that can turn violent.”
New tactics, like throwing soup or mashed potatoes at famous works of art — which have crystals to protect them from damage — are born out of frustration, said Klein Salamon of the Climate Emergency Fund.
“We have tried everything. Marches and pressure campaigns, write letters, make calls,” said Klein Salamon. “We’re just not where we should be.”