Doing Something About Doing Nothing
my dad used to sing me the song when i
was just two months old
the iceberg
the iceberg
[Music]
the rough english translation of the
song is basically saying
that there’s a small polar bear who
doesn’t have any ice left due to climate
change
and now has to walk through a desert and
this is becoming reality right this
second
and that’s what i’m here to talk to you
about today talk to you about doing
something about doing nothing
because to be frank i am terrified of
the current situation of our planet
i am truly scared but when i started
researching and learning more and more
about the effects and the impacts of our
climate change
i realized that we’ve known about this
issue far longer than my dad has sang
this song to me
so why do i still have to be scared why
are still millions of children’s futures
at risk
because we’ve done nothing generations
before mine have lived in ignorance of
what is happening to our planet
and even continued the destructions of
our ecosystem
and now my generation the one that will
experience a climate meltdown
will have to take measures into their
own hands and try to change what
should have been sung about years ago
but let’s start with the basics
i am no climate scientist or expert but
it is common knowledge that the earth’s
greenhouse gas effect is the main
contributor to global warming and
temperature changes
emitting gases into our atmosphere such
as co2 or methane gas
have caused their earth temperatures to
rise
nasa has recorded co2 levels in our
atmosphere ever since the beginning of
time
and as you can see they have been
fluctuating
but only ever since the 1950s have they
really skyrocketed
and that these numbers have a strong
correlation to the global temperature
increases
has been known for over a hundred years
more specifically in the 1860s
when physicist john titonal discovered
the earth’s greenhouse gas effect
where he also added the strong impacts a
small change in the composition of our
atmosphere could have on our planet
additionally that a swedish scientist in
1896
added that if too much co2 enters our
atmosphere
our earth’s surface temperatures could
be significantly altered
and if we put one and one together we
can evidently see that the rising co2
levels
next to the evidence that too much co2
in our atmosphere causes our earth to
warm up
then we are we can see the change and we
know why it’s happening
but these changes don’t stimulate
everyone’s minds
climate change scenarios are still at
large and even hold powerful positions
in our world of politics today
the common argument to deny a changing
climate or at least remove the
responsibility away from oneself
is to say that’s not human made it’s
just a natural process
what if the sun just decided to get a
little hotter today
well i got it covered nasa has also
recorded solar irradiance
next to global temperature increases for
the past hundred years or so what this
basically means is the heat energy
gained from the sun
compared to temperature increases as you
can evidently see by the yellow line
solar radiance has been fluctuating yes
but it has not gone up
whereas temperatures have increased
steeply
another counter argument is simply that
these numbers are so rapidly changing
if you look at this graph as well as the
graph before even to the uneducated eye
the slopes look unnatural
the kurd the national research council
of the united states
found the current global warming to be
10 times faster
than in the ancient pre-human climate
the last
50 years of humanity have caused their
planet to warm and change
as it was found by the intergovernmental
panel on climate change
which found that with more than 95
certainty
that this was the case but even if it
all does turn out to be a gigantic hoax
what is so bad about preserving our
earth stable environment
far longer than we have reserves of oil
and coal
some might say that it would be a waste
of money but if you compare the amount
of money
needed to switch to renewable energies
compared when 50 percent of the world is
uninhabitable
i’d say we bend on the 95 and restore
our earth for the future the question
also is what do these effects do to our
planet
what are the effects well they’ve been
studied for a long time and are quite
clear
one thing that will evidently happen is
the increase in extreme weather events
such as floods
droughts or even hurricanes which will
destroy large parts of human habitat and
ecosystems
additionally to that the polar ice caps
will melt
and rising sea levels will flood coastal
regions on all continents
these things combined will create
extreme food and water shortages which
will spark conflict all across the globe
as well as migration waves but perhaps
the scariest of all at least to me
is the melting of the permafrost grounds
these grounds have been frozen for over
a million years and hold biodegradable
soil
if a temperature increases reach so that
these grounds
start to melt the grounds in them will
start to biodegrade
and emit an amount of gas far beyond
anything that we as humanity could ever
emit in the same amount of time
the issue with all these things is
something called a tipping point
this is best explained with the example
of coral reef bleaching
a tipping point is when a temperature
increases reach so that the change in
the ecosystem is non-reversible
so if we take coral reef bleaching if a
tipping point in this ecosystem is
reached
the coral reefs will never go back to
its original color
and original duty and function
the problem is that all these different
ecosystems have different tipping points
that’s what makes it so hard to see when
all these
effects will take place and when we will
have ecosystem collapse such as the
coral reefs
and the great barrier reef in australia
now that you know all of this well i
realize that we’ve only start actually
acting on when we see these things
that’s when we see them with our own
eyes not just hear them
but these effects might come far sooner
than you actually think
i also brought you the u-e-u-n-e-p
emissions gap report of 2019.
they evaluate the amount of co2 we are
emitting
compared to the amount of co2 we need to
be emitting to reach your temperature
goals
i hope all of you have heard of the
paris ii uh climate agreement of 2015
where the global temperature increase
was set to 1.5 degree limit
but if we go by a current policy we will
go
far beyond a four degree increase where
we have many tipping points be reached
and even if we reduce our current global
missions
which are around 54 global gigatons per
year
to around 41 giga tons per year in just
10 years
we will still reach a temperature
increase of 2 degrees
we need to reduce our our global
emissions
by 32 giga tons of co2 per year
to reach her temperature limit goal of
1.5 degrees
well now that you know all of this you
might seriously wonder why we haven’t
done anything
if a change in climate is so soon why
haven’t we done
everything in our power to save
ourselves well that’s my question too
the main issue is is that taking these
things into consideration and trying to
reach
these goals requires all of us
to change or completely change all our
daily habits
especially in the industrialized world
but we’re comfortable creatures
and that’s why i also understand why
past generations haven’t really done
enough
towards this issue because we don’t like
to make ourselves uncomfortable
because well it makes us uncomfortable
50 years ago the way to save the world
was to throw your trash
in a trash can and not on the street 30
years ago people were told to recycle
that trash
and then 15 years ago people were told
to ride their bikes more
well today we’re at a point where all of
these things seem
close to him relevant to do them because
the issue
has become so large and the impact so
small of the individual
a friend once told me that they find it
somewhat irrelevant to do things such as
recycling or eating less meat
because as an individual person the
impact seems really small
and i partially agree with them
because politicians are the only ones
that can truly change something anymore
they need to decide things such as
shutting off coal power plants or
reducing the amount of money given to
the automobile industry
and instead reducing the cost of
electric cars
but we live in a democratic country we
are the voters of our future leaders
if we’re big of enough of a group to be
heard politicians have no other choice
but to listen
fridays for future is a youth-led
demonstration against climate change and
for more political action from the
government
they’re doing exactly what i just
mentioned greta tunberg the founder of
the movement
gave my generation the voice we need to
fight for her future
she was able to start an outcry from
young people all across the world
demanding action and the impacts can
already be seen
such as in germany deciding that in
tooth by 2035 they want to shut off all
coal power plants
the impact can also be seen by the
rising popularity of the green party in
germany
who are estimated to get around 30
percent pre-covet 19 in the 2021
elections
but even if you’re not that political if
you don’t want to join political debates
i truly believe that changing your own
daily habits
can have an impact one and a half years
ago
i decided to become a pescetarian what
this means is that i only consume
fish and no other meats i did this
purely for
climate because one kilogram of beef
emits the same amount of co2 such as
burning
six liters of petrol around 13 kilograms
of co2
this includes things like cutting off
our natural rainforest
refrigerating and transporting the food
we eat
only that we can eat that slice of
salami on our toast in the morning
the average european eats around 80 to
100 kilograms of meat per year
we’ll take a hundred kilograms for
simple city stakes for all the math
we’re going to do
if assuming we’re around 100 people in
this room tonight
everyone here reduces their amount of
meat consumption to once a week
before having consumed it almost every
day we alone here in this room tonight
would save up to 800 000 kilograms
of co2 in just one year
and the impact also starts with you
being a role model
if you change yourselves others around
you will notice
many of my friends in the past year have
decided to go on vegetarian
maybe not just because of me but i might
have at least given them the idea to do
so
and you’ve already started making the
first
change you’ve come here and listened to
me and started to become aware of the
issue we’re facing
you started learning more and more or
have hopefully learned something new
because that’s the first step towards
making a change in yourself
to make that simpler i’ve made you a
list of things that you can do
to start to change your own daily habits
towards a better future and to become
more carbon friendly
my first step is to eat less meat
it doesn’t mean you have to go
completely vegetarian even vegan
you can reduce your meat consumption to
maybe once or twice a week
which as i said before already has a
large impact
secondly consuming less fast fashion
fast fashion requires so much waste
water and co2 to be emitted just for the
clothes you wear
instead you can buy secondhand clothing
or even ask your grandparents if they
have old clothes lying around because
these are really in trend right now as
well
my third tip is to reduce the use of
cars
and planes maybe take the bike to school
or to work
and if you live too far away take public
transport it’s not that hard
and reducing your use of planes is
essentially important
take the train to go to madrid that
might take a lot longer but
the train ride is worth it
and then my fourth tip is the thing i
mentioned about becoming aware
researching your carbon footprint which
is basically the amount of co2
you emit per year as an individual will
help you to become aware
of what you’re doing all the things
you’re putting out there and how
much co2 you’re emitting where from that
information you can now start to change
and see
where you can work on and then my last
tip is maybe considering switching to
renewable energies
that includes things like switching to
renewable energies to heat your houses
or driving an electric car or even
lighting the light bulbs in your houses
with renewable energy
because that’s his way forward and
that’s what we need
we might not have the ability to stop
global warming
but we have the ability to create a
world that can face and conquer the
challenges that lie before us
i cannot force you to start making your
life more sustainable
i cannot ban meat or plastic from your
life but i can at least try to convince
you to take these things that i
mentioned today into consideration
when going through your week and that’s
why i don’t feel so bad for talking so
much
about our climate and the future because
our voice is the biggest weapon we have
and we need to start using it towards
making a change
because today a young 17 year old girl
was given the chance to voice
how terrified she is of the future and
how truly frustrated she is
with people doing nothing
because we are the future so we better
start acting so there is one for us
thank you
you