Should Greta Thunberg stop her climate change strikes

Azzah Abdoalrhman, Co-Editor in Chief

The debate of climate change and how to approach a solution has recently been a hot topic for politicians, news outlets, and students.

There have been hundreds of school protests, strikes, and demands from young people to politicians demanding change. The most recent event was a climate strike held on March 20 in which a million students skipped school on Friday to protest government inaction.

At the head of all the protests is 16-year-old Greta Thunberg from Switzerland. On August 20, 2018, Thunberg did not attend school as she sat outside the Swiss parliament doors demanding they reduce carbon emissions as was stated in the Paris Agreement. She was prompted to do something about climate change because of the heat waves and countless wildfires in Switzerland.

Recently, Thunberg gave a speech that criticized European Union leaders in Strasbourg, France, for not taking climate change seriously. She told the leaders to “forget about Brexit, and focus on climate change.”

Many people criticize Thunberg as they believe a 16-year-old girl should not be missing school to protest outside parliament. At first, her parents tried to dissuade her from missing school and her classmates did not join her.

Many people thought what Thunberg was trying to accomplish was foolish, as she was the only one who protested in the rain, snow, or sunshine.

However, the amount of people criticizing Thunberg are dwindling, as we all live on this Earth, and no one can deny the facts: our planet’s carbon emissions, temperatures, and sea levels are rising.

Support for Thunberg flooded in from all over the country. When she first started, no one was with her, but then journalists started coming to where she was sitting and her campaign started gaining worldwide attention.

“I handed out fliers with a long list of facts about the climate crisis and explanations on why I was striking. The first thing I did was to post on Twitter and Instagram what I was doing and it soon went viral,” Thunberg said according to Common Dreams, a nonprofit news website.

Thunberg has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and plans on continuing to strike until her demands are heard by all world leaders.

Change must occur in order to help repair the damage that humans have caused over the centuries. If countries continue their lack of action, the world is looking at catastrophic consequences.