Why you should be a climate activist | Luisa Neubauer

Sep 6, 2019

"I dream of a world where geography classes teach about the climate crisis as this one great challenge that was won by people like you and me," says climate activist Luisa Neubauer. With Greta Thunberg, Neubauer helped initiate "Fridays For Future," the momentous international school strike movement that protests the lack of action on the climate crisis. She shares four first steps that anyone, regardless of age, can take to become a climate activist. "This is not a job for a single generation. This is a job for humanity," she says.

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this Ted Talk features climate activists Louis Hanoi Bauer recorded live at tedx youth at Munich 2019

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I never planned to become a climate activists but things have changed at now standing here as a climate activists I ask you all to become one too

here's why and most importantly how

ten years ago when I was 13 years old I first learned about the greenhouse effect

back then we spend 90 minutes on this issue and I remember finding it quite irritating that something so fundamental would be squeezed into a single geography lesson

some of this irritation remained so when I graduated from high school I decided to study geography just to make sure I was on the right track with this whole climate change thing

and this is when everything changed

this was the first time I looked at the data at the science behind the climate crisis and I couldn't believe what I was reading like many like many of you I had thought that the planet wasn't really going to get state

I had no idea that we are rushing into the self-made disaster in such rapid pace

there was also the first time I understood what difference it makes when you consider the bigger picture take the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere for instance the number one driver for global warming and this is just one aspect of the crisis we're seeing

I'm not going to get into details here but let me tell you so much

we are in a point of history that the most destructive force on the planet is Humanity itself we are in a point of history that no scientist could guarantee you that you will survive this

we are in a point of history that humanity is creating an environment that not that's not safe for humans anymore

yeah that was fast you after I got a fee and felt pretty overwhelmed but

there was good news

the very same year I first learned about all this leaders from across the globe came together in Paris to decide on the common Target to limit global warming to below 2 degrees

pictures went around the world and I was told that history was made that day

how relieving right

except

something didn't quite work out about this

after this agreement was signed things didn't really get better actually they got much worse

decision makers and industry's leaders and politicians they went back to business as usual exploiting a livelihood like there's literally no tomorrow building coal power plants again and again even though we know that needs to stop according to the Paris agreement

so why that was a good development of course their installations of wind and solar energy all over the globe yes but these positive changes are slow too slow and fact so since the Paris agreement was signed climate graphs keep racing to the top smashing records every year the five hottest years ever recorded where the previous five years and a No Time have Global emissions been higher than

day

so there I was seeing and understanding the science on the one side but not seeing answers not seeing the action on the other side

at that point I had enough I wanted to go to the UN climate conference myself that very place that was created to bring people together to fix the climate except not really apparently this was last year I traveled to The Climate conference and wanted to find out what this is really like what this is about

for political realists this might be no surprise but I found it hard to bear that fossil fuel Industries and political leaders are doing everything everything to prevent real change from happening they are not keen to set targets that are ambitious enough to put us on a below to degree pathway

after all these are the only ones who benefit from this climate crisis right the fossil fuel industry generates profits and political leaders well they look at the next election at what makes them popular and I guess it's not asking the inconvenient questions

there is no intention for them to change the game there's no country in the world that either companies or political powers are sanctioned for Wrecking the climate

we've won all the strangeness and the sadness about this conference there was one someone who was different someone who seemed to be quite worried and that was gratitude work

I decided right there that everything else seemed hopeless and didn't seem to make sense so I joined her climate strike right there at the conference it was my very first climate strike ever and an incredibly strange setting just me and her sitting there and this conference Hall surrounded by this busyness of the suit-wearing conference crowd who had no idea what to do with us

and yet this felt more powerful than anything I had expected in a very long time

and it was right there that I felt it was maybe start time to start striking in Germany I was now certain that no one else was going to fix this for us and if there was just a slightest chance that this could make a difference it seemed almost foolish not to give it a go

so I

so I traveled back to Berlin I found allies who had the same idea at the same time and together we thought we'd give this Friday's for future thing ago obviously we had no idea what we're getting into before our first strike many of us including me had never organized a public demonstration or any kind of protest before we had no money in a resources and

no idea what climate striking really is so we started doing what we were good in we started texting texting and masses night and day everyone we could reach organizing our first climate strike via WhatsApp the night before First Strike I was so nervous I couldn't sleep I didn't know what to expect but I expected the worst

maybe it was because we weren't the only ones who had been longing to have a voice and then political environment that had seemingly forgotten how to include young people's perspective into decision-making maybe but somehow this worked out and from one day to the other we will over the place

and I from one day to the other become a climate activists usually

and these kind of TED Talks I would now say how it's overly helpful how we young people are going to get this sorted how we're going to save the future and the planet and everything else how we young people stretching for the climate are going to fix this

usually

but this is not how this works this is not how this crisis works

here's a twist

today

three and a half years after that Paris agreement was signed when we look at the science

we find it still possible to keep global warming to below 2 degrees

technically

and we also see it still possible to hold other disastrous developments we're seeing such as mass extinction and side regulation yes technically

it's just incredibly incredibly unlikely

and an any day in any case the world would have to see changes which have never experienced before we'd have to fully decarbonize economies by 2050 and transform the distribution of powers that is currently allowing this fossil fuel Giants and political leaders to stay on top of the game

we are talking of nothing less but the greatest transformation since the Industrial Revolution we are talking if you want to put it that way we're talking of a climate Revolution

in a minimum amount of time we wouldn't have a single further year to lose

and in any case for any of that change to happen

the world needs to stop relying on one or two or three million School Strikers to sort this out yes we are great we are going to keep going and we are going to go to places no one ever expected as yes but we are not the limits we are the start

this is not a job for a single generation this is a job for Humanity

and this is when all eyes on you for this change to happen we will have to get 1 million things sorted is an incredibly complex thing after all

but

there are some things that everyone can get started with bad news first if you thought I would tell you now to cycle more eat less me to fly less or to go secondhand shopping sorry this is not that easy but here comes a good news you are more than consumers and choppers even though the industry would like you to keep yourself limited to that know me and you we are all political beings and we can

will be part of this answer we can all be something that many people call climate activists yay

so what are the first steps for first steps that are essential to get everything else done for first steps and that everyone can get started with full first steps that decides about everything that can happen after

so what's that number one

we need to drastically reframe our understanding of the climate activists I understand have an understanding of who can be the answer to this a climate activists isn't that one person has read every single study and is now spending every afternoon handing out leaflets about vegetarianism and shopping hauls no climate activists can be everyone everyone who wants to join a movement as those who intend to grow old on a

Leonard that prioritises protection of natural environments and happiness and health for the many over the destruction of the planet climate and the wrecking of the planet for the profits of the few

and since the climate crisis is affecting every single part of a social of a political and have a private life weenie climate activists everywhere and every corner not only in every room but also in every city and Country and state and continents

second

I need you to get out of that zone of convenience away from a business as usual it has no tomorrow

all of you here you are either a friend or family member you are a worker a colleague a student a teacher or in many cases of voter all of this comes along with her responsibility that this crisis requires you to grow up to

there's the company that employs you all that sponsors you is on track of meeting the Paris agreement there's your local parliamentarian know that you care about this that you want this to be in priority and every election there's your friend best friend know about this do you read a newspaper or write a newspaper great then let them know you want them to report on this and every issue and that you want them to challenge a decision makers and every single interview

if you are a singer sing about this if you at each at each about this and if you have a bank account tell your bank you're going to leave if they're keep investing in fossil fuels and of course on Fridays you should all know what to do

thirdly leaving the Darren of convenience works best when you join forces

one person asking for inconvenient change is mostly inconvenient to 5 10 100 people asking for inconvenient change are hard to ignore the more you are the harder it gets for people to justify a system that has no future

power is not something that you either have or don't have power is something you either take or leave to other and it grows once you share it

we're young people on the streets we School Strikers we are showing how this can work out one thing is go Striker will always be one thing as go Striker or gratitude Berg to 510 1,000 people striking School our movement and that's what we need everywhere no pressure

and number four finally and this is probably the most important aspect of all of this

I need you to start taking yourselves more seriously

if there's one thing I've learned during seven months of organizing climate action is that if you don't go for something chances are high that no one else were

the most powerful institutions of this world have no intention of changing the game they're profiting from most so there's no point in further relying on them

that's scary I know that's a huge responsibility a huge burden on everyone shoulders yes

but this also means if we want to

we can say I have a say in this

we can be part of the change we can be part of that answer and that's quite beautiful right

so let's give it a try let's rock and roll let's flat the world of climate activists let's get out of the zones of convenience and join forces and start taking ourselves more seriously

imagine what this world would look like where children would grow up knowing their future was this one great adventure to look forward to and nothing to be scared of

what this world would look like where the next climate conference is this great happening of people who come together who had heard the voices of millions who would then roll up their sleeves ready to create real change

you know

I dream of this world

we're drug Fe classes teach about the climate crisis as this one greatest challenge that was won by people like you and me who had started acting in time because that understood they had nothing to lose and everything to win

so why not give it a go no one else will save the future for us this is more than an invitation spread the word thank you

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