Environment champion Greta Thunberg a latter-day Joan of Arc

AS DEVASTATING fires in Australia continue to blaze away (to date, at least 24 people have died, nearly 18 million hectares of land have been burnt and millions of animals killed), environmentalist movements – mostly under the banner of the 17-year-old Swede, Greta Thunberg – blame governments’ inaction for this catastrophe.

For decades, environmentalists have urged governments to drastically reduce fossil fuel output and make a concerted effort regarding alternative energy and conservation strategies.

Of course this is easier said than done.

But in the same breath there can be no denying that the global climate is changing. In a country where drought is bringing the agricultural sector to its knees, we South Africans should know something about that.

For Thunberg, a teenager, the issue of climate change is simple and her cause just. She first heard about climate change when she was 8 years old, and could not understand why so little was being done to combat it.

At age 15, she spent school days outside the Swedish parliament to call for stronger action on global warming. After Thunberg addressed the 2018 UN Climate Change Conference, student strikes took place around the world.

In 2019, there were at least two co-ordinated multi-city protests involving over 1 million students each. Thunberg’s sudden rise to world fame has made her an icon as well as a target. She and her campaign have been criticised by most world leaders, including Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who, ironically, responded to one of Thunberg’s speeches, claiming that the climate change debate is subjecting Australian children to “needless anxiety”.

For these politicians, Thunberg is a hysterical and disturbed little girl, a description almost identical to that given to another famous teenager almost six centuries ago: January 9 was the anniversary of the trial of Joan of Arc.

Like Thunberg, Joan knew her mission from an early age. When she was 12, she claimed to have received visions from heavenly beings instructing her to support Charles VII and retake France from English domination.

Charles VII (reluctantly) sent Joan to Orléans to relieve the siege that was happening there. She gained prominence after the siege was lifted, earning the nickname “the Maid of Orléans”.

Joan became a symbol of fortitude in the face of overwhelming force, boosting the morale of French troops.

Joan was captured on May 23, 1430 and put on trial on January 9 the next year. It was a farce from the beginning. Her accuser, the pro-English Bishop Pierre Cauchon, was also the presiding judge. She was found guilty of the apparently serious charge of dressing in men’s clothing. Joan agreed to wear women’s clothing as part of a pleabargain agreement, but when she wore men’s clothing again to avoid rape (an action that will resonate with many young women today) she was condemned for heresy and burned at the stake on May 30, 1431. She was 19 years old.

A retrial less than 25 years later found her innocent of all charges. Today she is considered to be a heroine of France and an icon of resistance to tyranny.

Greta Thunberg, just like Joan of Arc, is not a strategist. She knows very little of budget debates or policy-making. But, like Joan, she believes wholeheartedly in her cause. As such, both are an inspiration to youth all around the world. To recognise the mistakes of the previous generation and to attempt to fix them by action, not words.

I may not agree with Greta’s methodologies, but I respect her will to do something.

Whether or not it’s the right thing, history will be the judge of that. JAKO BEZUIDENHOUT | Kenton-on-Sea