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Perspective: She Has Done Her Homework

European Parliament (edited with Pixlr)
Greta Thunberg, April 16, 2019

Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old who spoke recently at the United Nations summit on climate change, couldn’t hide her sadness and frustration. “We are in the beginning of a mass extinction,” she said, “and all you can talk about is the money and fairy tales about eternal economic growth. How dare you!”

Some people say that she is too emotional about all this. But maybe they should listen to her speeches to the European Parliament and the U.S. Congress -- and think again.

Time after time she has explained why we should PAY MORE ATTENTION to young people as well as the geologists, physicists, biologists, physicians, meteorologists, and public health officials who are doing the research about climate change. Some politicians and corporate leaders write off those experts by calling them “environmentalists,” as if scientists were some sort of esoteric cult of chicken littles.

Maybe the cynics simply have not personally experienced the extremes that are already occurring--the fires, the floods, the hurricanes, the rising sea levels. Glaciers the size of entire countries that are melting. The hottest temperatures on record...ever.

It may seem easier to believe that all this scary stuff is just the natural cycles of the earth, hot and cold. But we are fools to believe that 7.7 billion human beings with power plants and jets and vehicles belching smoke and gas have nothing do with it.

16 year old Greta Thunberg knows better. She’s done her homework. Now we should do ours and grow up.

I’m Rick Brooks, and that’s my perspective.

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