If Greta Thunberg were my child HARVARD VERITAS

THE past months have seen the unprecedented rise of Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who is now the voice of the youth on climate and environmental issues. In an effort to

from Sweden to the United States. Instead, she opted to take a twoweek boat ride to cross the Atlantic via the zero-emission race boat,

After her electrifying speech at the United Nations in September, she has been touring North America and had planned to attend the UN climate summit (COP 25), originally to be held in Santiago, Chile. But just recently, she found herself with a logistical problem. She is now in urgent need of a carbon-free ride back to Europe, since the UN changed the talk’s venue to Madrid, Spain, at the last minute.

With the impact that she making across the world, she is is across the pond. But her intercontinental transport predicament is only symptomatic of the extent of the lifestyle change that humanity has to orchestrate to save ourselves from going beyond the climatic point of no return.

- cally accused world leaders and, in effect, the adult world of doing almost nothing in the face of the planet’s impending doom. I don’t disagree with her.

But as a member of the adult community, I would like to respond to these allegations, like how I would to my own child. First, I doubt that I am the only adult who has spent at least 10 years thinking about how the planet can achieve zero emissions by 2050. I assure you, it was not the pleasure of problem solving that fueled these efforts but actual concern, worry and near panic attack for the future of my daughters, my nieces and my friends’ children. Because once you have read the science of climate change, you will understand that we are on a planetary suicide track.

So, what does it take to end the use of fossil fuels, to stop burning our forests, and stop polluting the environment? If we heed Einstein’s advice, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” But sadly, this is what’s happening right now. In the advent of COP 25 in Madrid, I’m afraid it’s going to be more of the same: legally nonbinding, nationally determined contributions (NDCs), perhaps updated and repackaged. Rephrased, NDCs mean best-effort promises to reduce carbon emissions with no consequences for non- compliance. And, I guess, Thunberg hit the nail on the head. The adult world is not mature enough to tell it like it is, because we are sugarcoating empty promises as actual solutions to our biggest crisis.

COP 25 stands for the 25th Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), meaning we have been doing this for 25 years! After all this time, 85 percent of the world’s energy still comes from fossil fuels. I dare say, that 25 years would have been enough time to develop a commercial zero-carbon transatlantic boat ride. Yet most likely, all intercontinental delegates but Thunberg are contributing at least 0.8 metric tons of carbon directly into the atmosphere by taking a

So, back to her question, why can’t the adult world get their act together? The answer is simply because reality gets in the way. Parents have bills to pay, CEOs have growth targets and government leaders have political positions to defend; and no one wants to make

we live on this planet.

There is no dearth of talent in creating zero-carbon technologies. There are countless new technologies to develop into full-scale power generation, from nuclear fusion, Saser (sound version of lasers), to using crystals to produce zero-emission electricity. We can even look to the past for solutions. In 1896, Nikola Tesla discovered how to harvest energy from the planet and transmit free wireless electricity. So, where’s the hitch?

Money and power. No one wants to change the status quo because doing so changes the economic dynamics. The energy industry will continue to use fossil fuels as long as it is legal. Government leaders will never make it illegal because they will lose their power. A new paradigm will have to come from beyond the mainstream.

All I’m sure of is that the Earth’s accounts are now all almost overdrawn. A near- bankrupt family will be stupid to carry on vacationing, albeit in budget hotels. A smart parent knows that if we have to scale down, we will do it for the family’s survival and future. We have to accept that solving the climate crisis is a painful process, and we need to muster the courage to change the course.