This was the first question that came to mind, when I heard about the demonstration and the fight of the 16-year-old Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg, against climate change. These demonstrations appeared to have a worldwide impact, as well as her message that Earth, probably in the not too distant future, may not be the next generations’ planet. Thousands of people took to the streets to enrich Greta’s voice, in order to reach out to those who are responsible (for our planet’s future), the irresponsible politicians.
Since I learnt about the fight against climate change, I kept looking for an answer to my question. The question torturing my mind was, if all this blood shedding on earth, will make the planet warmer. To make this more clear, in my country sometimes we describe people as warm blooded and cold blooded. Maybe the ignorant politicians think that the thousands of people that are being killed in embattled areas are cold blooded, hence their blood is necessary for keeping planet’s temperature at low levels! I know this a terrible thought, but with this wave of violence and homicide, such horrifying imagery comes to my mind – even though I know very well that blood is a red, warm liquid that runs in our veins.
When we want to solve a problem, first we have to think what caused it. Why though we spend so much time talking about climate change, when we spend so little talking about war? Wars are going on all over the world right now. Why any measures have not been taken by now? Why are there no solutions? I want to scream with all of my heart, like Greta Tunberg: “How dare you?”. What I mean is that, if young people from other countries are talking about planting trees and reducing the use of plastic in order to protect the planet, young people from war zones are talking about ending the war and banning chemical weapons, that affect not only their health, but also that of future generations.
In my opinion, whatever other measures are going to be taken, wars must end, so as the weapon construction, especially this of the chemical ones, in order for the fight against climate change to have a meaning. Wars cause migration. Sometimes I think how much migration has affected Aegean’s marine ecosystem alone, since 2015. I am talking about the thousands of life jackets, but also the thousands of human lives that got lost in the sea and their bodies ended up to be food for the fish. I am also talking about the trees that have been cut to keep refugees warm during the cold winter. I am talking about all those changes that forests and marine ecosystem have been through, due to the refugee flows.
Consider how terrifying our world has become, that we don’t think about dying people, about those who have no future. I am not against looking towards the future, but I am opposed to ignoring the present.
*This article has been published in issue #16 of “Migratory Birds” newspaper, which was released as an annex with “Efimerida ton Syntakton” newspaper (Newspaper of the Editors), on December 28th 2019.
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