Greta Thunberg is right, you know?

I have finished reading The Climate Book, compiled by one of the young heroines of the 21st Century, Greta Thunberg [ˈɡrêːta ˈtʉ̂ːnbærj]. The essays by scientists, journalists, and climate activists included therein provide ample evidence of the Climate Crisis and our state of emergency. Greta introduces each section with her characteristic no-BS bluntness. I will be reading this book again and referring back to it often. This book will be the eco-Bible going forward.

But let's step back, who is Greta Thunberg? She is a now 20-year-old young woman who courageously took on the status quo regarding Climate Change when she was 15. She started a "School Strike for Climate" where she sat outside Parliament in Stockholm, Sweden, everyday for a full three weeks until the Swedish national election in 2018. Alone at first, she became the face of a generation whose futures are jeopardized by mine and previous generations' actions impacting the Earth and all life on it. If you want to know more about her, watch the I Am Greta documentary about her on Hulu, or read the book Our House Is on Fire by her family.

The refreshing thing about Greta's perspective is that she sees the world as a child wondering about her future might see it: What kind of world is my parents' and my grandparents' generation leaving me? What future do I have in a world such as this? She determines that she's been swindled. If we humans continue spewing CO2, methane, and other emissions into the atmosphere; cutting down forests and jungles, thereby displacing indigenous peoples, to raise beef and mono-crops; dumping plastics into the ocean; and the list goes on; if we continue doing what we've been doing and talking about the baby steps we're taking instead of making systematic change, then she's absolutely right. The future we're leaving our children and grandchildren is a broken planet. Many people will be displaced. Many will die. And mostly it will be those who contributed but little to the crisis to begin with.

What needs to be done

Greta has a gift for "telling it like it is." She does not mince words. It's refreshing, amusing, and it hits you in the gut. Her basic argument is that while individual actions (e.g., living zero-waste) are important, they're not enough. We must have a ground-swelling support for system change.

The climate crisis cannot be solved within today's systems. But that must not stop us from taking whatever action we can, right now.

What does "system change" mean? What does it look like? Here are some of her suggestions at the end of The Climate Book:

• Start treating the crisis like a crisis: If there is an emergency, you respond with action. You don't deliberate in meetings on the bumper of the ambulance while the injured person is bleeding out on the pavement.
• Face the emergency: We need to get as close to net-zero emissions as is physically possible and as fast as possible. This means no more fossil fuel subsidies, fining the companies that mess up the environment, and no more oil and gas leases. (Biden was supposed to be the environmental president, but his administration still green-lit the Willow project up in Alaska, which when active will eviscerate any progress we have made in the US to cut emissions.)
• Include all the figures: Did you know that current emissions estimates may be short of the actual figures? Most countries fail to include emissions from the consumption of imported goods, international aviation and shipping, military exports, etc. Before we can fix the problem, we need to understand the breadth of the problem.
• Reparations to developing countries: I have never really considered how my cush life in the Global North affected people elsewhere, but Greta has opened my eyes. I can see that we want to lift the developing countries up, but do it in a way that is sustainable at the same time. We in the Global North should help them leap frog to renewable energy.
• Media need to sound the alarm: Most people have no idea how dire the situation is. The media is currently complicit in suppressing the gravity of the situation so as not to cause panic, or to give people hope. What we need are just the facts, and then let us self-govern. If the media would unite with the science regarding the climate crisis, science that has been established for 30 years now, then people would change their behaviors en masse. Just look what happened with COVID.
• It's not an eco-fascist, one-world government: Some believe that those who acknowledge that Climate Change is real and that it is caused by humans want to set up a world government to force people to change their behaviors to save the planet. Greta has said repeatedly that democracy must be and is at the heart of the climate movement. Individual people must recognize for themselves how climate change impacts their lives and then make the choice to change their behaviors to live within the bounds of nature, in harmony with nature. But recognizing the severity of the crisis goes back to the need for the alarm to sound so that people have the facts needed to propel them to change their behavior.
• Divest from fossil fuels: Keep it in the ground and let the consequences follow. Banks need to stop funding oil and gas projects. And as mentioned above, governments must stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industries. It boggles my mind that an industry that makes billions of dollars would need subsidies. Instead, those subsidies should be redirected to wind and solar power projects.
• Invest in wind and solar power: Solar power especially is an energy source that allows individual citizens to break free of the energy monopolies of the oil and gas industry. Wind too is a good source. These methods, combined with battery backup, can be a game changer.

But what about ...?

In The Climate Book, Greta uses the analogy of a bathtub overflowing:

When your bathtub is about to overflow, you don't go looking for buckets — you start by turning off the tap.

Greta is right, of course, but I look around me here in Utah and think that to divest ourselves from fossil fuels right now without having a viable alternative energy source in place first would cause a panic, and a lot of pain, economic and otherwise. Oil and gas has a stranglehold on our standard of living. Fortunately, I have the capacity to invest in renewable energy sources over the next few years, and I hope to do so, but the bigger picture is that our local, state, and federal governments need to get behind transforming how we live to be more sustainable. Having more affluent Americans invest in a renewable-energy-source lifestyle will help cut national emissions, but will not achieve the goals of net-zero. Not only that, but the price points of solar and wind and electric vehicles exclude a large portion of the population. The subsidies taken from the oil and gas industries could be transferred to building the infrastructure of the green energy revolution. Another idea is to mandate solar panels with battery backup on all new residential and commercial developments. We need to offer incentives to bring about a transformation that benefits the poor as well.

In the end, I recognize that what is required will be an adjustment to the way we Americans live, and for some, myself included, may be uncomfortable, even painful. But does "being American" mean that our prosperity and standard of living must come at the expense of developing countries, and even the planet? Is there not a way to live at or near our current standard of living with renewable energy sources and a less consumerist lifestyle? I keep thinking of the scripture in Doctrine & Covenants 104:16 that says that the Lord's way is for the "poor [to] be exalted, in that the rich are made low." Is it too much for the Global North to live more modestly so that, with renewable energy, the Global South can enjoy a similar standard of living?

Greta Thunberg is a hero

I am inspired by what Greta did and is doing. She overcame her own internal conflicts to be able to put herself out to the world and go up against the world on Climate Change. That is a profile in courage. In conservative media, she has been vilified, but I see her as brave and sincere and willing to do what it takes to awaken the world to our state of emergency. She has sacrificed energy, time, and money to get the message out. Her family has modified their lifestyle to be as sustainable as possible. (Instead of flying, she sailed across the Atlantic to give her speech at the UN.) I hope that if humanity survives the 21st century, history will look back on August 20, 2018, with fondness and respect for a little girl who sat alone in the courtyard of the Swedish Parliament and began her "School Strike for Climate" with the hope of saving her generation's future on this planet.

What are you willing to sacrifice to save the planet?