Why you should be a climate activist

"I dream of a world where geography classes teach about the climate crisis as this one great challenge that was won by people like you and me," says climate activist Luisa Neubauer. With Greta Thunberg, Neubauer helped initiate "Fridays For Future," the momentous international school strike movement that protests the lack of action on the climate crisis. She shares four first steps that anyone, regardless of age, can take to become a climate activist. "This is not a job for a single generation. This is a job for humanity," she says.

I never planned to become
a climate activist.

But things have changed,

and now, standing here
as a climate activist,

I ask you all to become one, too.

Here's why,

and most importantly, how.

Ten years ago, when I was 13 years old,

I first learned about
the greenhouse effect.

Back then, we spent
90 minutes on this issue,

and I remember finding it quite irritating

that something so fundamental

would be squeezed into
a single geography lesson.

Some of this irritation remained,
so when I graduated from high school,

I decided to study geography,

just to make sure I was on the right track
with this whole climate change thing.

And this is when everything changed.

This was the first time
I looked at the data,

at the science behind the climate crisis,

and I couldn't believe what I was reading.

Like many of you,

I thought that the planet
wasn't really in a good state.

I had no idea that we are rushing
into this self-made disaster

in such a rapid pace.

There was also the first time
I understood what difference it makes

when you consider the bigger picture.

Take the CO2 concentration
in the atmosphere, for instance,

the number one driver for global warming.

Yes, this looks bad.

This looks like we are on
a pretty bad track.

But it's only once you don't
just consider the last 60 years

but the last 10,000 years

that you understand
how terrifying this really is.

And this is just one aspect
of the crisis we're seeing.

I'm not going to get into details here,
but let me tell you so much:

we are in a point of history

that the most destructive force
on the planet is humanity itself.

We are in a point of history

that no scientist could guarantee you
that you will survive this.

We are in a point of history

that humanity is creating an environment

that's not safe for humans anymore.

Yeah, there I was,

first year of geography,

and felt pretty overwhelmed.

But ...

there was good news.

The very same year
I first learned about all this,

leaders from across the globe
came together in Paris

to decide on the common target to limit
global warming to below two degrees.

Pictures went around the world,

and I was told that history
was made that day.

How relieving, right?

Except ...

something didn't quite
work out about this.

After this agreement was signed,

things didn't really get better.

Actually, they got much worse.

Decision makers and industries,
leaders and politicians,

they went back to business as usual,

exploiting our livelihoods
like there is literally no tomorrow,

building coal power plants
again and again,

even though we know that needs to stop,

according to the Paris Agreement.

So while there are also
good developments, of course --

there are installations of wind and solar
energy all over the globe, yes --

but these positive changes
are slow -- too slow, in fact.

So since the Paris Agreement was signed,

climate graphs keep racing to the top,

smashing records every year.

The five hottest years ever recorded

were the previous five years,

and at no time have global emissions
been higher than today.

So there I was,

seeing and understanding
the science on the one side,

but not seeing answers,
not seeing the action, on the other side.

At that point, I had enough.

I wanted to go to the UN
Climate Conference myself,

that very place that was created
to bring people together

to fix the climate --

except not really, apparently.

This was last year.

I traveled to the Climate Conference
and wanted to find out

what this is really like,
what this is about.

For political realists,
this might be no surprise,

but I found it hard to bear:

that fossil fuel industries
and political leaders

are doing everything, everything
to prevent real change from happening.

They are not keen to set targets
that are ambitious enough

to put us on a below-two-degree pathway.

After all, these are the only ones who
benefit from this climate crisis, right?

The fossil fuel industry
generates profits,

and political leaders, well,
they look at the next election,

at what makes them popular,

and I guess that's not asking
the inconvenient questions.

There is no intention for them
to change the game.

There is no country in the world
where either companies or political powers

are sanctioned for wrecking the climate.

With all the strangeness
and the sadness about this conference,

there was one someone who was different,

someone who seemed to be quite worried,

and that was Greta Thunberg.

I decided right there
that everything else seemed hopeless

and didn't seem to make sense,

so I joined her climate strike
right there at the conference.

It was my very first climate strike ever

and an incredibly strange setting,

just me and her sitting there
at this conference hall,

surrounded by this busyness
of the suit-wearing conference crowd

who had no idea what to do with us.

And yet, this felt more powerful

than anything I had expected
in a very long time.

And it was right there
that I felt it was maybe time

to start striking in Germany.

I was now certain that no one else
was going to fix this for us,

and if there was just the slightest chance
that this could make a difference,

it seemed almost foolish
not to give it a go.

So I --

(Applause)

So I traveled back to Berlin.

I found allies who had
the same idea at the same time,

and together we thought we'd give
this "Fridays For Future" thing a go.

Obviously, we had no idea
what we were getting into.

Before our first strike,
many of us, including me,

had never organized a public demonstration
or any kind of protest before.

We had no money, no resources

and absolutely no idea
what climate striking really is.

So we started doing what we were good at:

we started texting,

texting en masse, night and day,
everyone we could reach,

organizing our first
climate strike via WhatsApp.

The night before our first strike,
I was so nervous I couldn't sleep.

I didn't know what to expect,
but I expected the worst.

Maybe it was because
we weren't the only ones

who had been longing to have a voice
in a political environment

that had seemingly forgotten
how to include young people's perspective

into decision-making, maybe.

But somehow this worked out.

And from one day to the other,

we were all over the place.

And I, from one day to the other,

became a climate activist.

Usually,

in these kind of TED Talks,

I would now say how it's overly hopeful,

how we young people
are going to get this sorted,

how we're going to save the future
and the planet and everything else,

how we young people
striking for the climate

are going to fix this.

Usually.

But this is not how this works.

This is not how this crisis works.

Here's a twist:

today, three and a half years
after that Paris Agreement was signed,

when we look at the science,

we find it's still possible
to keep global warming

to below two degrees --

technically.

And we also see it's still possible
to hold other disastrous developments

we're seeing, such as mass
extinction and soil degradation --

yes, technically.

It's just incredibly, incredibly unlikely.

And in any case,

the world would have to see changes

which we have never experienced before.

We'd have to fully decarbonize
our economies by 2050

and transform the distribution of powers

that is currently allowing those fossil
fuel giants and political leaders

to stay on top of the game.

We are talking of nothing less
than the greatest transformation

since the Industrial Revolution.

We are talking, if you want
to put it that way,

we are talking of a climate revolution

in a minimum amount of time.

We wouldn't have a single
further year to lose.

And in any case, for any
of that change to happen,

the world needs to stop relying on

one or two or three million school
strikers to sort this out.

Yes, we are great,
we are going to keep going,

and we are going to go to places
no one ever expected us, yes.

But we are not the limit;

we are the start.

This is not a job for a single generation.

This is a job for humanity.

And this is when all eyes are on you.

For this change to happen,

we will have to get
one million things sorted.

It's an incredibly
complex thing, after all.

But ...

there are some things that everyone
can get started with.

Bad news first: if you thought
I would tell you now to cycle more

or eat less meat, to fly less,
or to go secondhand shopping,

sorry, this is not that easy.

But here comes the good news:

you are more than consumers and shoppers,

even though the industry would like you
to keep yourselves limited to that.

No; me and you --
we are all political beings,

and we can all be part of this answer.

We can all be something
that many people call climate activists.

Yay?

(Laughter)

So what are the first steps?

Four first steps that are essential
to get everything else done,

four first steps that everyone
can get started with,

four first steps that decide
about everything that can happen after.

So what's that?

Number one:

we need to drastically reframe
our understanding of a climate activist,

our understanding of who
can be the answer to this.

A climate activist isn't that one person
that's read every single study

and is now spending every afternoon
handing out leaflets about vegetarianism

in shopping malls.

No.

A climate activist can be everyone,

everyone who wants to join a movement
of those who intend to grow old

on a planet that prioritizes
protection of natural environments

and happiness and health for the many

over the destruction of the climate
and the wrecking of the planet

for the profits of the few.

And since the climate crisis is affecting
every single part of our social,

of our political and of our private life,

we need climate activists
everywhere on every corner,

not only in every room,

but also in every city and country
and state and continent.

Second:

I need you to get out of
that zone of convenience,

away from a business as usual
that has no tomorrow.

All of you here, you are
either a friend or a family member,

you are a worker, a colleague,
a student, a teacher

or, in many cases, a voter.

All of this comes along
with a responsibility

that this crisis requires you
to grow up to.

There's the company that employs you

or that sponsors you.

Is it on track of meeting
the Paris Agreement?

Does your local parliamentarian know
that you care about this,

that you want this to be a priority
in every election?

Does your best friend know about this?

Do you read a newspaper
or write a newspaper? Great.

Then let them know you want them
to report on this in every issue,

and that you want them to challenge
decision makers in every single interview.

If you're a singer, sing about this.
If you're a teacher, teach about this.

And if you have a bank account,
tell your bank you're going to leave

if they keep investing in fossil fuels.

And, of course, on Fridays,
you should all know what to do.

Thirdly:

leaving that zone of convenience
works best when you join forces.

One person asking for inconvenient change

is mostly inconvenient.

Two, five, ten, one hundred people
asking for inconvenient change

are hard to ignore.

The more you are, the harder it gets
for people to justify

a system that has no future.

Power is not something
that you either have or don't have.

Power is something you either take
or leave to others,

and it grows once you share it.

We young people on the streets,
we school strikers,

we are showing how this can work out.

One single school striker will always be
one single school striker --

well, Greta Thunberg.

Two, five, ten, one thousand people
striking school are a movement,

and that's what we need everywhere.

No pressure.

(Laughter)

And number four, finally --

and this is probably the most
important aspect of all of this --

I need you to start taking
yourselves more seriously.

If there's one thing I've learned

during seven months
of organizing climate action,

it's that if you don't go for something,

chances are high that no one else will.

The most powerful
institutions of this world

have no intention of changing the game
they're profiting from most,

so there's no point
in further relying on them.

That's scary, I know.

That's a huge responsibility, a huge
burden on everyone's shoulders, yes.

But this also means,

if we want to,

we can have a say in this.

We can be part of that change.
We can be part of that answer.

And that's quite beautiful, right?

So let's give it a try,
let's rock and roll,

let's flood the world
with climate activists.

Let's get out of the zones of convenience

and join forces and start
taking ourselves more seriously.

Imagine what this world would look like,

where children would grow up,

knowing their future was this one
great adventure to look forward to

and nothing to be scared of,

what this world would look like
when the next climate conference

is this great happening of people
who come together,

who had heard the voices of millions,

who would then roll up their sleeves,
ready to create real change.

You know,

I dream of this world

where geography classes
teach about the climate crisis

as this one greatest challenge

that was won by people like you and me,

who had started acting in time

because they understood
they had nothing to lose

and everything to win.

So why not give it a go?

No one else will save the future for us.

This is more than an invitation.
Spread the word.

Thank you.

(Applause)