"Greta's children": indigenous people in the environment are demanding climate change

In the countryside, they call themselves "the children of Greta". They are part of a global movement of millions of children and teens who, since the beginning of the school day in their country, have decided to join the strike on Friday for demand concrete action against climate change. Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish student, is the world leader in this movement, which is estimated to bring together around two million young people around the world, with the slogan #FridayForFuture (Friday for the future). ). In Buenos Aires, the call is given for this afternoon at 17 o'clock, in front of the National Congress. There will also be events in 19 other cities in the country. Some 10,000 people, most of them high school students, are expected to join the call.

This is not another youth movement with green flags. This time, Greta Clean's complaint embodies a new kind of activism of the so-called indigenous generation of the environment. They are very young, they come to realize that there is only eleven years left to reverse or stop the effects of climate change and they are determined to act now.

At the last World March 15 strike, more than 1,600,000 teenagers took to the streets of major cities around the world to demand from their governments that they immediately join the Paris Agreement. and take concrete action. Do not mortgage your immediate future. In Buenos Aires, there were 5000 teenagers. And this afternoon should be doubled.

With two braids and a horrifying girl's face, Greta became a world-renowned figure just a few months ago. She is the daughter of an actor and opera singer and was born in 2003. In August of last year, she went on strike in front of the Swedish parliament to protest the global warming. Instead of going to school, he sat in front of the Riksdack every day with a banner: "School strike for bad weather". So until the national elections in September. Greta decided to protest in this way after an unforeseen heat wave and forest fires that punished Sweden. At first, this was not noticed, but the local media questioned her and she explained that she had asked the Swedish government to reduce its carbon emissions based on the provisions of the Paris Agreement. After the elections, he decided to continue strikes every Friday. Last November, Greta spoke about her fight during a conference on TEDxEstocolmo.

"It's been thirty years since we discuss and sell positive ideas, and I'm sorry, but it does not work, because if that had been the case, the emissions would have decreased, but they were not," did he declare. And his message became viral. It was the birth of the global teenage movement, which today has it as a guru. So much so that a month later, in December, she was invited to speak at the XIV United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP24) in Poland.

"Just recently, I discovered that we had eleven years left to end climate change and that the data was hitting me, something must be done, I said, and just when I I heard about Greta's movement, started going through the networks and finding Instagram, a group that has been meeting since March in the Plaza de Mayo on Friday at 4:30 pm And I joined the group ", says Ezequiel Martinengo, 19, who graduated from Palermo and began studying political science at the UBA. There are about 30 teenagers, the average age is 16 years old. They are the local version of the Greta movement. "We must demand that the government declare the climate emergency, which is symbolic, but shows that we are in crisis, we demand that measures be taken and that existing laws, such as the budget law, are respected. ", did he declare.

Greta's speech ignited a flame among the younger ones. "The situation is critical, the situation is critical, we must act now, we did not know before, governments must listen to scientists, because we will suffer the consequences," insists Mr. Martinengo.

In just two months, after the first mobilization, on March 15, more than 30 environmental organizations in the country have achieved what would have been unthinkable in another time: join and form the Climate Alliance and utilize the l & # 39; Greta's call as a link. and join "the insolence" of the natives of the environment.

"The new generation is educated through networks and Greta's message has been very harsh: there is no time, when they think about these eleven years, the natives of the environment get indignant without resignation. is not a timeless concern, they are bulldozers, "says Maximoco Maximo, of Eco House, one of the organizations that calls for mobilization.Máximo is 28 years old and he works 12 years as a volunteer in the field of It is now part of this civil badociation dedicated to education in schools, villas, prisons and businesses. "We have 14 year old volunteers who engage in to give you hope, "he says.

"I am Greta, I am 15 years old and I come from Sweden.You only talk about green and eternal economic growth, because they are too scared of not being popular, you say that you like your children foremost, but that you steal your future, their own eyes, "said the Swedish teenager in front of government representatives at COP24.

Those who act and those who see GoT

"Our parents are discussing the end of Game of Thrones, as the planet burns and it's time for adults to also act against climate change," Greta said in a letter published alongside others. leaders of the movement of children and adolescents. The letter includes a petition calling on governments to take concrete action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According to the text, students from more than 2,350 cities in 125 countries will participate in nearly 4,000 events "demanding that governments set a path that ensures that the planet's temperature does not rise more than 1.5 degrees Celsius".

"In Argentina, we have decided to badume the global mandate in the form of an alliance, because many of us are pulling on the same side," say the organizers of the local walk, teenagers from different environmental groups and who formed the "Alliance". for the climate, "to promote the claim together." We are many movements composed of young people aged 14 to 24 years, "they explain on the site.

"What has been developed in Argentina in these months is impressive, we have amalgamated about thirty organizations with which we have been working for a long time and those born to teenagers after the tsunami caused by Greta," said Mazzoco. The Climate Alliance in Argentina, which is an apartidary, already has its own demand and includes a climate emergency declaration, which was presented yesterday in the Senate and to the deputies. They also established a work program between the Secretariat of the Environment and the United Nations and the Climate Alliance.