How are We Still Not Acting on Climate Change

[Music]

hi

my name is sandra gutsy i’m 17 years old

and i’m a student and a climate justice

activist

and i’m just going to jump right into it

and be completely honest and blunt

i am really really angry

we have had so many people young old

scientists students indigenous elders

stand on a stage or a platform and talk

about how

bad climate change is and how urgently

we need to act and how we’re running out

of time and how severe and dying this is

and how much is affecting us

you know over the past two years we’ve

seen the emergence of the school strike

movement

we’ve seen millions of people students

teachers

workers striking from their workplace

and their schools to protest a lack of

action on this issue

and still we are not seeing the

appropriate action we need to combat

this issue

i just don’t understand how

at first i thought the reason that we

weren’t reacting at the level we needed

to be

was because of a lack of education and i

definitely think that that is a part of

it

but the only problem with that is that

climate change is not a secret

you know maybe five ten years ago we

could argue that a lot of people just

don’t know that this is happening

but at least up until october 19 like i

said we were seeing millions of people

out on the street striking you know

against this issue

climate change deniers do exist but they

are a really really small minority

the majority of the population they know

what climate change is and they

acknowledge that it’s happening

and still you know most of us aren’t

seriously freaking out about a lack of

action

how are we not there yet

you know i considered it but

i think it’s very incorrect to say that

it is because

humans are the disease and we’re you

know

inherently selfish people and as a

society we

only care about ourselves and we don’t

care about each other and the planet and

that’s the reason we’re in the position

that we’re in i don’t think that is true

i think that’s completely incorrect

so i’ve come to the conclusion that the

reason on an individual level

we aren’t all seriously freaking out

about climate change yet is because

there’s a difference between

knowing what climate change is and then

actually comprehending what is happening

like there’s some kind of disconnect

there i think we’re massively

desensitized

and you know i think it’s really easy to

look at climate change

as a political issue or a scientific

issue or an economic issue or a social

issue but

i don’t think we’re at a point here

where we’re feeling what is happening on

an emotional level

you know as put by climate scientist

joel gurkas we need to

feel the devastation that is the impacts

of climate change on our planet it’s a

really sad thing that we’re living

through right now

the fact that our human activity is

leading to threats to our own

livelihoods that is ending lives that is

killing off species and ecosystems that

is devastating

and i think that

reading the facts and statistics it’s

really hard to feel it on an emotional

level and i think that’s one of the main

reasons that

we’re not reacting with the energy that

we need to be yet

also you know especially for the people

who

aren’t experiencing the effects of the

effects of climate change anymore people

living in urbanized areas in

you know developed nations i think

because

right now we’re not feeling the effects

of climate change yet

i think it’s really hard to visualize

and comprehend what is happening

it is really difficult to comprehend the

fact that 50 of vietnam is going to be

underwater by 2050.

it’s really difficult to comprehend what

it will look like seeing

bushfires more frequently seeing natural

disasters more frequently and linking

that back to our own human activity that

is such a difficult thing to visualize

and comprehend but that is the reality

i got involved with climate activism

myself about two years ago but before

then

i was exactly like what i’m describing

i knew the definition of climate change

i knew what it meant i knew that was

happening i

learned a bit about it in school i would

never deny it but

i don’t know i never could comprehend

how bad it was i hadn’t had that

realization yet

the realization of how bad climate

change is that is

massive privilege and that comes to the

people who are not living through its

effects

first nations people people living in

rural and farming communities

people living in desertified regions

like the sahel where they can’t grow

their food

people living on coastal areas or island

nations where their land is threatened

by rising sea levels

people whose houses have been burned

down by the bushfires

they don’t get to have this shocking

realization

of how bad climate change is and how

devastating what we’re experiencing

actually is on an emotional level

they are experiencing its effects

through their everyday life you know

like i said i

live in a urbanized area my life is

completely free from the effects of

climate change

and because the education in my school

on climate change is not completely

comprehensive just yet

there’s nothing in my life that would

allow me to have that comprehension

of how bad climate change is through my

own experiences that had to be a

realization to me

now i don’t plan on talking too much

about the actual science or statistics

of climate change today just because

everything i’ve learned i’ve learned

from another person you know i’m

not a researcher or a scientist myself

i’m not at that stage yet

also the internet could provide you with

far more facts and resources than i ever

could especially

in one talk so you know i’ll allow you

to do that research yourself

um but i just will say this like most

people i would assume

i was really sad in grade 2 when i

learned how turtles they eat plastic

bags when they die because they think

they’re jelly fish

i felt a little sad in grade five when i

learned how drought you know

caused by changes in our weather

patterns from the smoke from our cars

and our factories that’s

you know making it really hard for

farmers to grow their crops and that

might lead to food shortages in the

future

i remember in year 7 when i learned

about curabis and how their government

is really planning to evacuate

because they know that there is no hope

it is inevitable that land that they’ve

been living on for thousands of years

that will be submerged by rising sea

levels and there’s nothing they can do

about it

throughout my education i have you know

read these stories in my textbooks and

heard these facts and figures

and you know when i’m in class i’m able

to feel wow like

that’s sad that’s scary that’s shocking

but i don’t know there’s always been

some kind of disconnect between what i

was learning and actually picturing that

that is happening in real life

that these are real people that i’m

reading about not just a story in my

textbook

as i started to get older though i

started to look closer

i learned about the issue of climate

injustice as opposed to just climate

change how

you know this issue is affecting people

disproportionately it really does

discriminate i learned

how the people who are doing the least

to cause climate change are being

affected the most and the people who are

causing climate change are benefiting

from it you know the ceos of the mining

companies

i learned about transnational

corporations and their greed and the

extent to which they exploit countries

for their labor and their land for their

own financial gain

you know i learned more about the

science of climate change i learned

about how we have all the solutions and

we’re just not implementing them

i learned about how dire and pressing

that this actually is

you know this is going to affect my

grandchildren and my great-grandchildren

but it’s not just about them this is

going to affect my life this is about me

and then i learned that this actually

isn’t even about me because there are

people dead and dying today

because of climate change i don’t know

when it was or where i was or what the

specific fact or figure was but at one

point something changed and i went from

just

you know knowing climate change that it

was happening and knowing that as a fact

to

feeling that emotionally what it meant

what was happening and how dire and

scary it actually is

and i just became so devastated and i

still am so devastated

because when you realize what we’re

going through and how bad it is there is

just so little else to feel

that realization of how bad climate

change is it

changes you it changed my life

completely and until as a society

we start taking climate change into

account with every decision we make and

everything we

we do until our governments start to

implement climate solutions and consider

that

as a part of every single decision they

make it proves that we haven’t had the

realization of how bad climate change is

here we haven’t comprehended that yet

the tricky thing about climate action is

though

is that it’s a bit of a paradox because

the truth is

you know as great it is when individuals

choose to purchase a keep cup or a metal

straw so that they can live their lives

in a more environmentally friendly way

all those small minor consumer

eco-friendly changes that we can make in

our lives

one they’re not affordable to everyone

so we can’t expect everyone to partake

in that

and two they have a very very small

impact

and to take on this crisis we don’t have

time for a movement as gradual as

telling all our friends to start op

shopping

also blaming and shaming individual

actions

is completely wrong because as

individuals even though some of

our actions do perpetrate climate change

for example if you have a car and you

drive anywhere

yes that does have an effect on climate

change but it is not any individual’s

fault

that this is the way our society is

structured and this is the way that we

live

it is the fault of the governments who

are choosing not to act on this

and the transnational corporations who

continue to act like this for their own

financial benefit

and so it’s completely wrong to blame

individuals and shame individuals and

say that it’s the individual’s

responsibility to

make a change on this but those

governments and those transnational

corporations

they didn’t change their actions when we

started learning about climate change

and how bad it was and what was

happening

and they didn’t change their actions two

years ago when the school strike

movement began and we started seeing

mass protests against climate change on

a global scale

transnational corporations and

governments they continue to acknowledge

climate change on their website but they

continue not to act

and that’s one of the biggest problems

we have you know for me the scariest

thing is

when my government they acknowledge that

climate change is happening they don’t

even try to deny it but they justify

not even bare minimum action by talking

about the economy

i could go into the benefits that you

know renewable energy will have on the

economy but i won’t even go there i’ll

just say this

yes it’s okay to be concerned about the

economy you know that

it is valid is okay to have that concern

but if we are letting our concerns about

the economy stop us from acting on

climate change

it is just proof that we have no idea

how bad climate change is at all we

don’t have a clue

you know if we look back in history at

world war one and world war ii

when we were threatened with war our

governments

encouraged people to run out of their

workplaces and onto the front line and

we turned our car making factories into

weapon making factories

and we didn’t for a second think but

what about the economy because we knew

we had a threat to our livelihoods and

livelihoods of others that far

outweighed the economy it made talking

about that you know compared to the loss

of life and that experience completely

immeasurable

it’s kind of the same thing with covert

19 like the governments that kept trying

to keep people out on the street avoided

doing lockdowns trying to keep people

consuming and keeping the economy

turning

those are the countries that had the

most people sick and the most people

dead and are struggling the most right

now

and the economy has crashed anyway the

economy can recover he always has but we

can’t get lives back

we can’t get extinct species back we

can’t get ecosystems back once land goes

under water there’s no getting that back

so why do we not react to climate change

with the same energy that

we reacted to war that some governments

reacted to krovet 19.

part of it is probably because of how

gradual it is like it doesn’t spread

like a pandemic

the effects that we’re seeing now of

climate change were caused by our

actions

so many years ago thing is though it’s

not because it’s not bad enough yet

i think so many people believe that

we’re not at a point in climate change

where

you know it’s so bad that we need to

start acting we’re there now it is bad

right now

you know in australia you think that the

bushfires we experienced this summer

would be a massive wake-up call to so

many people but

we’re still using the economy to justify

a lack of action on climate change and

that just proves that we have no idea

what’s going on

and the thing is the nature of climate

change is that

our actions today they affect what’s

going to happen

in the future so when we get to a point

where we decide that we want to act it’s

already going to be too late

in the bushfires this summer so many

people lost their lives and their houses

it was absolutely devastating it was not

nothing

but it’s only the beginning it is going

to get so much worse from there and the

longer we wait to act the worse it’s

going to be

so unjust as it is that it has fallen on

the people

to act when it’s not our fault it

is our responsibility to act now because

we’re not going to get that change from

anywhere else

individuals especially those from our

community who

you know mostly live in working or

middle class suburban areas

you know our lives are currently not

directly impacted by climate change so

it is our responsibility to start making

the changes that need to be made

i think firstly many of us still need to

wake up to the severity of this crisis

if you are not severely stressed out

about climate change if you don’t think

about it pretty often if it’s not

something that concerns you deeply

then you probably we probably haven’t

realized how bad climate change is just

yet

so researching education taking it upon

yourself to go online and learn more

about this issue is a massive part of it

and then once we have that knowledge

then we can truly start to act as we

need to

we have the ability to vote we have the

ability to boycott to protest to use our

time to use our money if we have it to

use our voice

you know we can get involved in local

groups at the moment it is easier than

ever there are so

many climate change writing

organizations and right now

you can go on their facebook and find

the zoom link to their weekly meeting

and you can get involved and start

making a difference

we’re more than consumers this isn’t

just about buying key cups and op

shopping like i said

there is so much more you can do as a

political person that can make far more

of a change

if you’re living on stolen land like i

am

it is so important to acknowledge your

country acknowledge the full history

of your land you know as a person living

on stolen land i acknowledge that

everything that i have has come from

a violent colonial history that’s the

reality

and that you know invasion was preceded

by one of the richest oldest cultures to

ever exist who cared for this land with

wisdom

and spirituality so much of which was

lost that can never be restored

first nations people are leading the

fight against climate injustice

and they’ve been fighting for the

protection of this land since the

beginning of time

you know we should go without saying

that black lives more than matter they

are vital so we need to be turning to

first nations people and their knowledge

if we are going to have a chance at

taking on this crisis

we can change our banks we can change

our energy providers

and we can buy solar panels if we can

afford them we can change our

supermarkets we can take down newspapers

and the

news reporters that we choose to watch

we can highlight the voices of the

people who are talking about climate

change because that is the most

important issue at the moment

you know

when i say we need to be thinking about

climate change all the time it’s not to

say that

there’s not other things going on in our

lives that matter

and that are important good or bad and

it’s also not to say that there aren’t

other humanitarian issues that need to

take up our time and our thought and our

energy

it’s just that the exploitation of land

and life and people

climate change is linked to everything

and it is the

issue that defines our generation

i am getting really restless

i’m a young person i’m educated on the

matters at hand

how am i supposed to keep staying

positive and staying hopeful and

going about my life when right now i

look at my future and it is not very

bright at all

and i keep seeing the people who have

the power to make the changes that could

be made

like the last few opportunities we have

to make those changes slip between their

fingers

you know i have moments where i’m really

really devastated and i just lose all

hope for the day

i’m grieving my future and that is a

privilege because so many people are

grieving their today’s

but when i say all this and i tell you

that it’s dire and it’s pressing and you

need to be freaking out that’s not to

say that we need to lose hope

because although these moments

inherently i am an optimist you know i

do believe that we can solve this crisis

and that we can achieve justice

it’s just that will take a lot of work

and this hope is going to fade pretty

quickly if it’s not met by action

and you know we’ve seen millions of

people out on the street and it’s hardly

made a dent

so i just don’t know what it’s going to

take anymore to make these changes

and we are running out of time

know this isn’t the most happy

comfortable conversation and talk to

listen to but this is the reality

now say it again we are running out of

time

thank you

you