No More Empty Words — Earthjustice
I am tired of empty words, empty promises, empty praise. I’ve been in the climate movement since I was 14-years-old, and now I’m 20. Throughout my whole time in the movement I’ve heard empty promises, empty praise, but at the beginning it didn’t feel empty.
When people said “the youth are so inspiring” I thought that meant we were on track to make a real difference.
When leaders met with youth organizers and the streets were full of people marching for climate justice I thought for sure there was no way our cries for action would be ignored. In high school I thought it was sincere, all of the promises, all of these leaders and companies saying that they cared.
It’s only recently that I realized there was something much more insidious going on. The Youth Climate Movement ᵀᴹ began to feel less like a movement for progress and more like a game show at the end of the world. Who are the child stars giving their hot takes while the world burns? Brands scrambling to cash in on what was clearly becoming a lucrative enterprise, leaders posing for their photos with The Youth Activistsᵀᴹ while they continue to worsen the climate crisis and our governments pour billions into fossil fuel subsidies.
The Youth Climate Kidsᵀᴹ became a poster child for hope — but what if the ones who are supposed to give hope run out of it? What if they’re tired of being the hope because they never were?
Hope comes through action. Hope comes through tangible steps taken in the right direction, and right now our governments are taking steps in the exact opposite direction than we need to be.
According to the EESI’s Fossil Fuel Subsidies Fact Sheet, “Conservative estimates put U.S. direct subsidies to the fossil fuel industry at roughly $20 billion per year; with 20 percent currently allocated to coal and 80 percent to natural gas and crude oil. European Union subsidies are estimated to total 55 billion euros annually.”
Leaders might be talking the talk on the climate crisis, but when it comes to putting their money where their mouth is, the investment is in the destruction of our planet.
I’m tired of empty words. I’m sickened by what the movement of youth has been turned into, and I’m not here to give hope where I don’t see any.
If leaders are serious about their support for a livable planet, if they really are choosing life and their children over the fossil fuel industry, then the money needs to be saying that, not just their mouths.
It’s time to end Fossil Fuel Subsidies, end the funding of our own destruction. Earthjustice is working hard to do just that.
Earthjustice takes legal action against the fossil fuel industry to defend our planet and only home in the courts. I care deeply about our planet having people going to court for it — someone has to stand up to the fossil fuel, big agriculture and chemical industries wreaking havoc on our planet and communities.
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