SOUTH NEWFANE — Greta Thunberg was magnificent at the United Nations. Hers was the heartfelt cry of a new generation, one betrayed by the industrial growth society. And we in Brattleboro were inspired by brave young voices at our recent Climate Strike.
And then, after Greta's cry, it was, shockingly, business as usual at the UN. Too little, too late: no, capitalist economics would not yield an inch, preferring to continue on a march over the cliff. The contrast was breathtaking.
I then read David Wallace-Wells' “The Uninhabitable Earth” from New York Magazine. My experience of seeing - juxtaposed with the magnificent new youth movement, the lack of effect it had on the world's leaders, and then the details of just how bad the annihilation of life on Earth will be if/as nothing is done - hit me like a cannonball.
I grieved for all the children, all the animals, this beautiful Earth. I heard Greta's plea at the UN as the proud cry of an animal doomed to die, along with all the other species, the polar bears, penguins, and on and on. It broke my heart.
Tomorrow, I will get up and try to offer words of encouragement, keep our values alive, be grateful for the beautiful Earth we still have, who nurtures us still. But tonight, let me just grieve: after the magnificent protests, I see only doom coming.
Unless...unless...unless the children continue to rise up, and we finally have the revolution I have worked for, longed for ever since I was Greta's age, but had given up on. There is in youth the life force and the dreaming, and we must be there for them, with them, no matter what.
Tomorrow. Tonight, I grieve.