• Green New Deal
• Politics

European Commission Agrees To Green Deal Stimulus, But Is It Green Enough?

• #GreenDeal
• conservation
• EU
• Europe
• European Commission
• Greta Thunberg

The Guardian and S&P Global reported that after days of haggling, the European Commission settled on an $864 billion USD recovery fund for the next 3 years, plus a five year budget with a target of spending 30% of that to support the EU’s climate commitments.  

Why This Matters:  Activist leader Greta Thunberg immediately criticized the deal as not being good enough.

• People

One Amazing Thing: Inspired by Greta, a Centenarian Vows to Fight Climate Change

• climate change
• Greta Thunberg

Inspired by Greta Thunberg, 101-year-old Marian Sachs has vowed to take a stand against climate change in her own Los Angeles retirement community. After having read about Greta’s movement, Sachs tried to think of a way that she could make a difference and along with fellow resident Marion Marx, decided to push her community to […]

• Politics

One Cringey Thing: Prophets of Doom Unite 

• Davos
• Greta Thunberg
• Trump

Donald Trump’s totally bizarre climate speech at the World Economic Forum this week was supposed to appease business leaders, but even the ones who are still slow-walking climate change were totally put off by it. Cartoon by ODP cartoonist, Alex Bowman. 

• Climate Change

At COP 25, Young People Had the Force With Them

• #FridaysForTheFuture
• climate change
• COP25
• Greta Thunberg

Resembling fearless and determined Jedi warriors, the young participants at the UN Climate Conference on Wednesday took over the meeting briefly, flooding the COP stage, to deliver a message about the need for the Parties to have a greater sense of urgency in their work to reach consensus on the implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

Why This Matters:  The students are a constant reminder to the leaders here that the future is literally watching them.  The young people have masterfully used a simple and clear set of messages — that the countries here are failing and must be more ambitious, the countries must act with a greater sense of urgency, and the young people will not be ignored.

• Climate Change

“How Dare You,” Greta Thunberg Schools the UN

• climate action
• Greta Thunberg
• UN

Greta Thunberg’s speech to the UN Climate Action Summit sent shockwaves through the Twittersphere. Her candor, anger, and deep frustration summed up the reason that we’ve gotten to this point in terms of climate change quite simply: the fossil fuel industry has for 30 years–since the science became available–thwarted political action to significantly curb greenhouse […]

• People

UN Holds Summit for Young Climate Leaders

• climate change
• climate crisis
• Greta Thunberg
• United Nations

Why This Matters:  The student activists have clearly gotten the attention of the adults in the room.  But have they helped us to reach beyond those who were already listening?  Will these protests lead to tangible political action?  These are important questions and the success of the entire movement lies in building political support among current skeptics, and in pressuring politicians to take action.  And if anyone can get to those adults who have not been paying attention or who still don’t believe the scientific evidence of a warming planet, it is their own children.