Climate change not ending any time soon

Back in 1971, when I was 16, I was an anxious girl who could foresee little hope for my own future. Having grown up during the height of the Cold War era, still haunted by the Cuban Missile Crisis, still reeling from memories of the paralyzing shriek of air raid siren tests that once echoed off the modest brick homes on our central Etobicoke street, I always lived in fear of nuclear annihilation.

In the fall of 1971, all the doomsday talk focused on the Amchitka Island underground nuclear weapons tests by the United States Atomic Energy Commission. There were fears that the tests could possibly trigger earthquakes and tsunamis. There were protests and demonstrations across Canada. And my young anxious mind and fast-beating heart concluded that when the five-megaton explosion took place, the world as we knew it would instantly cease to exist. I even mentioned to my mom, “I guess I’ll never get to experience having sex.” And she just laughed and told me not to worry about it. “Nothing will happen, you’ll see.”

And she was right. And I could smile again. But I was always apprehensive. Always. And then the Cold War ended years later, by which time I’d developed some perspective, but nevertheless I still breathed a sigh of relief.

Climate change is NOT ending anytime soon. If ever. And we need Greta Thunberg to keep on reminding us. Day after day. Yes, the kids are anxious, and for good reason. They need to nurture feelings of ardent optimism and to applaud every “how dare you” that Thunberg utters to the world. We all need it! Particularly in this era of mean-spirited negativity and online trolling.

Thunberg and her fiery activist spirit, is bringing it to all of us in spades. Deb Loughead, Toronto Thanks for the thorough coverage of Greta Thunberg.

She delivered a message to world leaders which registered strongly with young people. It is highly likely that many of today’s youth have already decided not to bring kids into a world so clearly heading for disaster. Although Thunberg talked to the old, it will be the decisions of the young that will have the most lasting effect. The world has only one pollutant … us.

Until we reduce our numbers, there is little hope of any significant, permanent improvement for the environment.