Greta and the Convention on Climate Change

Yesterday 16-year-old Swede Greta Thunberg was in New York City for a FridaysforFuture protest outside the UN headquarters which involved thousands of teens. It was actually week 54 of her strike against climate change inaction which she began on her own and has grown to a global movement. Apparently a senior official emerged to spontaneously invite Greta and two others in for a meeting where he was  "very supportive." On Friday afternoon, Thunberg and two young activists were spontaneously invited inside the UN for a meeting with a senior leader, described as “very supportive”.

Thunberg arrived in New York to considerable fanfare after sailing across the Atlantic in a supposedly carbon neutral vessel. She has travelled all over Europe in the past year, speaking truth to power at various conferences and gatherings, and she avoids air travel because of its contribution to greenhouse gases.



I see Greta as a prophetic figure, although many adults, a lot of them aging white males like me, hate her. They demean her as naive and criticize her background as a child of an actor and opera singer (huh?) and tell her she should go back to school. One media idiot joked that the world would be better off if her sailing vessel sank, and another, a white woman, crowed that she was booking her family on a long-haul vacation flight.It's interesting that they scoff at her immaturity even though she seems preternaturally mature while they are childish. 

What is really fascinating is that some Christians dismiss this movement as a false religion. They are often the same people who refuse to engage in conversation about the scientific evidence about climate change because of strange notions that it isn't Christian to care about the world which God, the Creator, made and sustains. 

Thunberg will participate in the United Nations Climate Action Summit in September, and continuing in November, when world leaders will gather in Chile for United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. “This has to be a tipping point and I think, I hope it will be, because it must. I, and many people with me, are going to try to do everything we can to make sure that world leaders have all eyes on them during these conferences so that they cannot continue to ignore this.” 

It has been a year since Greta Thunberg attended school and we have to wonder how long she can continue in what must be an exhausting role and spotlight. Again, I thank God for the way in which she has challenged world leaders, many of whom are listening.