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