No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference

I saw two social media posts about Greta Thunberg while I was reading through this Penguin collection of her inspirational speeches. One post on Facebook was sneering because there was apparently a single plastic bottle visible in a photograph of Greta on the famous sailboat journey. Another post, this time on Twitter, was a vicious attack ridiculing her as a disturbed child. Both posts sought to dismiss Greta out of hand and neither actually engaged with the climate message she so fervently wants to share. That so many (mostly) men are desperate to undermine Greta is encouraging! It shows she is hitting a nerve, that the points she so clearly makes are valid, and that the money-making echelons of society are worried about the effects of her words on their profits.

Such responses recalled to me my review of We Need New Stories by Nesrine Malik. Nesrine talks about the traditional ways in which inconvenient voices are silenced and the backlash against Greta ticks every box! Fortunately now though, I think there are enough of us inspired by Greta's words, supporting her and promoting her message, that her generation might still have the chance of a good future. Our society is changing and every single one of us needs to step up and take responsibility for our personal resource consumption. As Greta reminds us, it is already too late for baby steps.