Thoughts from Linda:
It is ALL about our climate. In truth, we are all ‘unsheltered.’
Our general theme for the bookshelf is ‘something old & something new’ but the urgency of the moment in our collective history calls for a larger ‘frame’ on this one.
As we in the US enter an October with some of the worst outbreaks of heat and fires in our history and have witnessed two hurricanes hitting our Gulf Coast States in the same week along with only the 2nd time in recorded history we have had 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic at the same time, the climate news is rather dramatically calling out to us to pay attention.
The loss of life from these tragedies along with the COVID numbers of deaths in the US now surpassing the 200,000 mark make it even more obvious that we are all connected…for better and for worse on our planet.
First is the most profound of small books I have ever read: Greta Thunberg’s No One is Too Small to Make a Difference. It is a collection of her speeches over the past 2 years. You can also link into her TEDX talk in Sweden by clicking here:
No One is Too Small to Make a Difference
Speeches of Greta Thunberg
By now, her face is widely recognized. She was born in 2003 and began her own strike in August of 2018 when she refused to go to school and instead, began a strike for the climate by sitting outside the Swedish Parliament.
This little book contains 16 of Greta Thunberg’s speeches, including those delivered to the UN, to Parliament in London, the World Economic Forum in Davos, the French National Assembly and the US Congress.
All of these are also available via YouTube, but there is something different as one reads the words on the page.
Letting the facts simmer and marinate and grasping the clarity of this young girl’s assessment of our current state on the planet has had profound consequences for me and for so many others.
She has been ‘a spark’ that has set off a movement that has been a long time coming. It may be that the world has had to reach a certain point of visibility into this existential crisis before a voice such as hers could be heard in the way it is being heard today.
Her message is clear. As these speech-titles reflect: “Our Lives Are in Your Hands,” “Almost Everything is Black & White,” “Prove Me Wrong,” “You’re Acting Like Spoiled, Irresponsible Children.”
From the speech entitled “Our House Is on Fire” delivered in Davos, in January of 2019:
“Our house is on fire.
I am here to say, our house is on fire.
According to the IPCC, we are less than 12 years away from not being able to undo our mistakes.
In that time, unprecedented changes in all aspects of society need to have taken place—including a reduction of our CO2 emissions by at least 50%. And please note that those numbers do not include the aspect of equity, which is absolutely necessary to make the Paris Agreement work on a global scale. Nor does it include tipping points or feedback loops like the extremely powerful methane gas released from the thawing Arctic permafrost.
At places like Davos, people like to tell success stories.
But their financial success has come with an unthinkable price-tag.
And on climate change, we have to acknowledge that we have failed. All political movements in their present form have done so. And the media has failed to create broad public awareness.
But homo sapiens have not yet failed. Yes, we are failing, but there is still time to turn everything around. We can still fix this. We still have everything in our own hands.
The main solution is so simple that even a small child can understand it.
We have to stop our emissions of greenhouses gases. And either we do that, or we don’t. “
Named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in 2019, she has become the global catalyst for our climate crisis. Today, tens of thousands of school children are striking for climate action in Brussels, Boston, Berlin and Bogota.
As Margaret Mead once said: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
Check out the website: https://fridaysforfuture.org to become a part of this global movement.