[London / Brussels 1st Thomson Reuters Foundation]–Young people who have appealed for climate change efforts on the streets increase the effectiveness of their activities by switching their targets to specific “bad guys” such as governments and large corporations. I am trying to do.
Before the coronavirus disease, Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg started a large-scale protest on Friday, “Friday for Future,” which attracted the public’s attention. However, Luisa Neubauer (26 years old), who supported the activity with Mr. Tumberi, said that companies and others “dazzled with pleasant words and promises and stopped us from seeing concrete facts and pointing out. “I will try”, he says, only took action.
In recent years, when the corona has hampered large-scale protests, young activists have sought new ways to accelerate climate change mitigation. One of them is to set the sights on the leaders of governments, businesses and banks who have the power to make policy and money decisions.
“Many climate change activists have become very dissatisfied with the lack of progress,” said Dana Fisher, a sociologist at the University of Maryland. She said she has now come to think of targeted activities as “the only way to move forward.”
According to Neubauer, it’s also a change in activity that has come to point out “greenwashing,” which pretends to deal with climate change but virtually changes behavior.
For example, in the week of the 1st, he and young activist Evelyn Echam from Uganda urged Deutsche Bank to stop lending to fossil fuel development such as the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).
“They (Deutsche Bank) are investing in fossil fuels, but pretending to be doing something else for the masses,” Acham said.
Oscar Bergland, a lecturer at the University of Bristol, says young activists “have become more specific targets for the’bad guys’ about climate change.” They have begun to target specific companies that emit greenhouse gases and the politics, finance, and media that make them possible.
In the UK, one such activity, “Green New Deal Rising,” is headlined. The activity, which began in August last year, has confronted major politicians such as British Treasury Minister Snak and has captured the situation on film.
Recently, when an event for the oil and gas industry was held at the Parliament building, he gave a loud protest speech and disturbed it. The hope is to gain bipartisan support for urgent climate change measures. At a public event, I was surprised to ask the members of the Diet a question. Grassroots activities are an effective way to access politicians and gain “statement,” the activity organizer said.
There are also moves to link topics of high public interest with activities seeking climate change countermeasures.
Polish activist Wiktoria Jędroszkowiak, 20, rushed to the train station to help refugees arriving on the morning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She noticed that she was a little later. She said, “Wait a minute, this is not my job, because we are climate change activists. We know the purpose of this war.”
For Jędroszkowiak and his colleagues, it was natural to unite the protests against Russia, which invaded Ukraine, with climate change activities. Stopping imports of Russian fossil fuels could deplete the resources of the invasion while curbing climate change and thus boost investment in renewable energy.
Jędroszkowiak and colleagues hunted down French President Emmanuel Macron in the European Parliament in May. He asked the French natural gas and oil company TotalEnergies that it did not force them to withdraw from Russia.
Jędroszkowiak points out that politicians seem to be eager to avoid young activists, such as holding a G7 summit at the end of June in a closed castle in the German Alps. But confronting politicians and interrupting speeches is an important way to reach out to politicians and more, he says.
“We want to destroy all the theaters they have created and uncover lies. We are now empowered by being a goddamn death,” he said through a social media message.
(Jack Graham reporters, Joanna Gill reporters)
