“There is no Love on a Dead Planet”

The saying is that children are the future. But what if this future is in grave danger? What if this future is becoming devoid of life, love, hope, and dreams? The voices of today’s youth are louder than ever, they are speaking truth to power, and are filled with anger and grief.

Photos by Ariane Hosemann, words by Dörte de Jesus

For more than 30 years, scientists have outlined and starkly warned of the threat of global heating, and since the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued the Global Warming of 1,5°C report* in October last year, the intense severity of the global climate breakdown has been made crystal clear: To attempt the survival of humanity, we have to cut global emissions in half by 2030. Nonetheless, this only gives us a 50% chance to stay below 1.5 degrees and avoid the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions. We are in a state of planetary emergency.

In reaction to this, school children have been boldly stepping into action, taking on responsibilities beyond their young age, and we’ve seen youth-led climate movements arise and shine world-wide. Yet, on a political and economic level, close to nothing has been done to stop climate breakdown and mass extinction – in fact, emissions have been going up, “the concentration of climate-heating greenhouse gases has hit a record high,” and the world “may already have crossed a series of climate tipping points.”

This paradox of “seeing and understanding the science on one side but not seeing the actions on the other side,” as in the words of #FridaysForFuture activist Luisa Neubauer, is deeply disturbing. It’s more than surreal when life and business go on as usual even though 97% of global climate scientists have told us that we have no time to lose. Nonetheless, it’s become increasingly normal to shift from emotions of deep anxiety and distress to consistently having to pinch oneself to remember that we are living in the midst of a global climate breakdown and global mass extinction.

“Around the year 2030 (…), we will be in a position where we set off an irreversible chain reaction beyond human control, that will most likely lead to the end of civilisation as we know it. That is unless, in that time, permanent and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society have taken place (…),” urges Greta Thunberg. And she continues: “We children are doing this to wake the adults up. We children are doing this for you to put your differences aside and start acting as you would in a crisis. We children are doing this because we want our hopes and dreams back.”

We are only a few days away from the UN Climate Change Conference COP 25 that is opening on December 2nd in Madrid. And tomorrow, on November 29, 2019, we will see another Global Climate Strike organised by #FridaysForFuture. So, how many more climate conferences and strikes is it going to take? We have no more excuses. We are facing an existential threat to civilisation. The time for all of us to act is now.