There is an interesting story in The Times today (November 30, 2023) about the lady who is the forerunner of Greta Thunberg. This lady came before Greta and may have inspired Greta. Her name is Severn Cullis-Suzuki. She is based in Canada. She is referred to as the “original Greta”.
She believes that today’s environmental campaigners face a lot more hate, potential and actual violence than they did in the past about three decades ago.
Cullis-Suzuki made the news when she was 12 years of age. She admonished countries at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. This was the forerunner of today’s Cop conference meetings by world leaders.
Cullis-Suzuki is worried about Greta Thunberg and fellow climate change activists. She said: “Greta came into being in the era of social media, it’s another level than anything I experienced when young. The level of intensity and violence around her is extreme.”
She remembers a man screaming at Thunberg after he had launched himself over her shoulder when the pair marched together in Vancouver in 2019. She described that moment as “the moment before the dawn when things are really dark. I worry for Greta. I worry for our young activists today.”
She believes that the Cop28 conference in Dubai is worthwhile despite the fact that the president of this forthcoming conference is operating under an alleged conflict of interest which to many severely undermined his position. There are calls for him to resign immediately. You can read about that by clicking on this link.
The Earth is heading for about 3°C of warming because of a failure over all the earlier Cop conferences to walk the walk rather than simply talk about the problem.
Cullis-Suzuki remarked on the conflict of interest that I mention above. She said: “I mean, it’s being hosted by the CEO of an all company. Hollywood has been pumping out all these movies [Marvel movies] about an unlikely cast of heroes that don’t want to play together and the world is disintegrating in front of their eyes. [At Cop28] we are at the 11th hour and it’s up to these unlikely protagonists to save the world.”
As mentioned, she lives in Canada where they too have a conflict of interest about preventing climate change. Canadian politicians are trying to have it both ways. They want to keep on producing oil from their vast reserves while claiming at the same time to be climate change leaders. The Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, is due to speak at the forthcoming conference.
Cullis-Suzuki describes the current moment: “It’s the last gasp of this fossil fuel supremacy era. And it’s no wonder that they are not going to go down without a fight.”
She sees the current global warming picture is bleak as carbon dioxide and other global warming emissions are still increasing and the atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide are at an all-time high with this year being the hottest on record.
Climate activists probably won’t be present in Dubai because of the strict laws they have. Cullis-Suzuki also believes that there might be a revolution in the future because of climate change and the failure of leaders to do enough about it.
