A little but strong storm

By: Cory Berlekamp

Email: berlekampc@findlay.edu       

Twitter: @Cberlekamp

She stormed the shores of New York in a sailboat. The Swedish 16-year-old, Greta Thunberg, came to the UN Climate Action Summit to make sure that those world leaders would hear her sound and fury.           

I have heard all sorts of opinions on Thunberg; from “what a brave girl, this is what happens when you put your mind to it”, to “she’s too angry for people, and that is not how you get things done”. My opinion is that she is doing something that the students of Parkland High School did after 17 of their fellow classmates were massacred during the school day.

Thunberg is making it very apparent to the powers at be that children are just as aware of the world’s problems as the adults and that their voice should be heard as well.

“For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear,” Thunberg said at the summit. “How dare you continue to look away?”

A feeling that resonates with so many and even with the ability to try and live green, go to marches, or even lobby as an adult, seeing this Swedish high schooler gives me hope for the future. Granted, she came at them with fire and brimstone, but with the a never ending apocalypse style news cycle, how could I feel any different?

Ever since I was a child, we were warned about the icecaps melting and watched as forest fires destroy acres of forest every year. I remember on Arbor Day and Earth Day where they taught us why and how we should protect this beautiful planet. As I grew up I realized that not everyone must have been paying attention that day.

For Thunberg’s sinner’s at the hand of an angry Earth sermon, I am in to it. I want to know that the up and coming generation does care about what is going on instead of seeing it as a fad or clique. I also want those who run the show to know it also, they will be dust long before Thunberg will be.

And though he was not talking about climate change, I feel Henry David Thoreau’s quote from Familiar Letters still fits in today’s day and age.

“What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?”