“There was no student strike in Mozambique; on March 15, the day of the global walkouts, the whole country was bracing for the impact of Cyclone Idai, one of the worst storms in African history, which drove people to take refuge at the top of trees as the waters rose and would eventually kill more than one thousand people. And then, just six weeks later, while it was still clearing the rubble, Mozambique would be hit by Cyclone Kenneth, yet another record-breaking storm.”
The impending cyclone would not allow the Mozambique people to engage in a walkout like other countries because they would most probably die in the course of walking out. The time of the occurrence bids evidence concerning the reality of climate change in Africa. The trees are safe havens; hence, people run there to avoid drowning. Furthermore, the Cyclone Kenneth occurs soon after Idai meaning that the series of destruction attributed to the tow cyclones is extreme. The storms devastate Mozambique which justifies the ongoing walkouts.
“Like many of her peers, Greta started learning about climate change when she was around eight years old. She read books and watched documentaries about species collapse and melting glaciers. She became obsessed. She learned that burning fossil fuels and eating a meat-based diet were major contributors to planetary destabilization. She discovered that there was a delay between our actions and the planet’s reactions, which means that more warming is already locked in, no matter what we do. As she grew up and learned more, she focused on the scientific predictions about how radically the earth is on track to change by 2040, 2060, and 2080 if we stay on our current course.”
Greta Thunberg is the face of climate change activism. The sources which she consults to gain knowledge concerning climate change convince her that the changes are a reality. Understanding the primary triggers of climate change guides on how to campaign for changes which would avert the impending climate-change linked devastation. Moreover, scientific forecasts bid evidence on the dire situation across the globe due to sequential global warming. Scientists provide her with data that outlines the link between the current human actions and the future effects. Delays between the cause and the effects surmise that the future generations will be vulnerable to the detrimental effects of climate change due to the current human activities which promote warming of the globe.
“The most important change Thunberg made, however had nothing to do with eating and flying. It had to do with finding a way to show the rest of the world that it was time to stop acting like everything was normal when normal would lead straight to catastrophe. If she desperately wanted powerful politicians to put themselves on emergency footing to fight climate change, then she needed to reflect that state of emergency in her own life. That’s how, at age fifteen, she decided to stop doing the one thing all kids are supposed to do when everything is normal: go to school to prepare for their future as adults.”
Thunberg's approach focuses on increasing awareness concerning the abnormal actions which are inputs of climate change. She wants all to realize that the climate is changing. According to Thunberg, assuming that all is well in terms of climate is dangerous; hence, there would be a need for politicians to recognize the emergency and devote resources to tackle it. Thunberg’s resolution not to school infers that she is convinced that schooling would not be beneficial to her existence if the climate change crisis persists. She devotes her life to the campaign about climate change instead of attending school; because for her, an unchanged climate is mandatory for a safe future.
