The climate crisis calls for action

If the climate rally that took place on October 25th in the capital of Spain demonstrates anything, it is that climate change is no longer the belief of a few individuals who fight for the cause to the rhythm of The Beatles and with the peace symbol as their mantra. Climate change has become a global emergency that seeks to turn around consumption habits and the way of life of an entire planet.

Over the past months, this issue has been gaining momentum and leading thousands of people, especially young people, to demonstrate around the world to demand immediate action from their government leaders to combat climate change. But despite what many may think, the sustainable company acciona explains on its website that climate change is not a problem that arose in the 19th century, but has its beginnings in the Industrial Revolution that arose around 180 years ago and that brought with it the increase in greenhouse gases such as CO₂ or methane and the increase in population and therefore the excessive consumption of resources.
However, the emergency situation in which we are currently living due to the little margin for action has meant that now, more than eve,r social movements are emerging trying to stop a catastrophe.

Unfinished solutions

Before the great repercussion that this issue has today, the Earth Summit organized by the UN took place in 1992, and society was able to take a small step that led to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, where 197 countries pledged to curb the impact of humanity on the environment, and which in 1995 were adapted to the Kyoto Protocol, which aimed to curb emissions of greenhouse gases.
These attempts to curb climate change were a huge failure that future generations had and will have to face, as not only were emissions not ended, but they increased by more than 50% and led to major consequences of climate change that are now irreversible. This is not entirely due to non-compliance with the agreement, but as El Español already told in a 2018 article, “of the 36 countries that adopted this commitment, only 9 – including Spain – failed to fulfill their commitment (…) But the signatory countries did not include either the United States or Canada, countries that notably increased their emissions”.

Another attempt to curb climate change is the Paris Agreement, signed in 2015 by 195 countries and which we can also read about on the UN website, which set the goal of not increasing the planet’s temperature more than 2 degrees, as scientists warn that once this limit has been exceeded, the consequences will lead to a series of catastrophes that are impossible to manage. Despite this, since it was signed, the planet has already risen by 1.2 degrees and we are living in an increasingly uncertain situation.

Youth rebellion

After all these failed attempts in searching for a solution, and after witnessing the inaction of the governments, society reached a point of no return that began to raise its voice through Greta Thunberg, a student who in August 2018, at the age of 15, began demonstrating in front of the Swedish parliament to demand real measures against climate change.

Today she has become the spokesperson for the Fridays for Future movement, and despite her young age and the questionable circle of people who have decided to make her this symbol of the climate struggle, it is undeniable that the media impact she is having around the world is making it possible for the message of young people to reach the highest echelons of society, as demonstrated during the COP26 week, where different organisations around Spain organised non-violent protests demanding a real change in the Government’s actions.

Although Fridays for Future is the most widespread movement across the planet, October 2018 saw the creation of Extinction Rebellion, a movement created by a group of young British people who through non-violent direct action seek to rebel against the extinction of species and the ecological crisis. This group has gradually managed to gain a foothold among the people and become an increasingly recognized movement, especially after getting the British Parliament to declare a state of climate emergency in 2019, as the activist Jack Harries explains on his Youtube channel. Now, Extinction Rebellion has spread through different countries and is one of the leaders in Spain alongside Fridays for Future and Greenpeace.

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These groups were the organizers of the massive demonstration on September 27th of 2018, which was also carried out in other countries, in which they demanded government action once again to get Spain and the rest of Europe to declare a state of climate emergency and agree on solutions that lead to climate change being reduced as much as possible before it is too late. This types of demonstrations have been repeated through the years, and now, in 2021, with the COP26 in the spotlight, the last demonstration on November 13th brought together people of all ages, from children to the elderly, including the protagonists and organizers of the demonstration, the young people who took to the streets of several Spanish cities such as Madrid, where chants such as “if the planet were a bank they would have rescued it by now” or “not one degree more, not one species less” were heard. During the journey from Atocha to Puerta del Sol, there was an atmosphere of protest, but also of emotion for being heard, “We have been learning all our lives that we must take care of the planet, that there is only one and we must respect it, while we see how every day there is more garbage in the street and more pollution in the air, so we are glad to be able to go out on the street and draw the attention of all who are watching us,” said María, a law student at the URJC who is also an active member of Fridays for Future in Madrid.

Seeking an end to a global crisis

After all these attempts to put an end to the crisis, we can only assume that we have reached a point where climate change is inevitable, and as Emilio Cuevas, director of the Izaña Atmospheric Research Center at the Tenerife Summit, explains, the political and economic measures to be taken in the near future will not do much for the planet, which has suffered the emission of too many harmful gases into the atmosphere, but the initiatives to reverse these effects will be fundamental. Thus, we see how despite having 180 years to stop a catastrophe, humanity once again avoids learning from its mistakes and during this time has continued to ignore the problem until the last moment, where the commitment of the most developed countries and their reaction to the polluting acts of others in the poorest places can decide the future of all species on the planet.