Opinion: I’m 12, And I Don’t Understand Why Adults Vote To Destroy The Planet
That teenagers are far more involved politically may be more a matter of necessity than just the normal spirit of energy and enthusiasm we have always found in young folks. When people of any age feel backed into a corner, they fight back hard. Kids who lose whole classrooms of friends to mass shooters and see the future of environmental quality falling off a cliff rightfully feel compelled to take matters in their own hands.
My name is Clem. I am twelve years old and I live in a small town in Far North Queensland, Australia. Where I live is so beautiful and so precious. It is the home of the largest living structure on Earth – the Great Barrier Reef. Vast mountains surround me and there is bright red dirt under my feet. It is almost always lovely and quiet here. All I can hear is the distant chirping of birds and the rustle of leaves. And that’s how I like it. We had an election in Australia last weekend, and it did not go well. I feel angry and disappointed, because our government doesn’t take the climate emergency seriously. We don’t have a vote, but school students like me have been going on strike and working so incredibly hard to get them to listen.
Clem: Let me try to explain why adults vote to destroy the planet. It’s that taking action against climate change and in favor of environmental responsibility generally requires a bunch of things that adults don’t do at all well:
• Understanding and accepting how the findings of our scientists are going to affect our world
• Caring about things that aren’t bothering them right this minute
• Sharing things
• Teaming up with people who look different and speak other languages
• Making even small sacrifices on the behalf of others
• Turning off the voice of loud politicians who are causing distractions in order to stay in power
• Understanding that the richest industry in human history is purposefully causing confusion so as to delay actions that will make them less wealthy
• Feeling safe even without a personal arsenal of guns and ammunition. (This may sound weird to you, since you live in Australia, which banned guns in 1996, 11 years before you were born, and hasn’t had a single mass shooting since—but here in the U.S., we have had 288 of them here in the last 10 years.)
Clem, I believe that if we took a dozen kids from your school, gave them the facts and asked what we should do, you guys would decide on exactly what at least a few adults have already identified as a solid path forward: lots of green jobs, taxes on pollution, and investment in cleantech. You’d also want a ban on assault rifles, and demand universal background checks for perspective gun owners.
Let me close with this, young man: We’re with you. We’re fighting for you, and along side you. We appreciate everything that you’re saying and doing. And I have faith that we’ll get through this, together.
Craig,
Oh good grief ! Do you ever wonder why the vast majority of people don’t take you seriously ?
Mawkish, emotive, manipulation of precocious small school children is the act of a faith based movement. Children lack the knowledge or experience to properly assess information and trust to what their parents, teachers and media espouse.
Children are capable of parroting vast amounts of propaganda and learning to absorb ideas without any analytical ability.
The hysterical 12 year old screaming devotion at the last Pop Star, is exactly the same as the earnest pubescent prodigy passionately advocating environmentalism, or any other ‘ism’.
The child is seeking attention, approval, acceptance and acclaim. This doesn’t mean the child has any real knowledge of the complexities of any issue, simply a desire for approval.
Those who encourage children to participate in political and ideological “action” at the expense of education, should be charged with Child Abuse and dealt with accordingly.
Incidentally, the 2019 Australian General Election saw the largest percentage of young voters in decades. Contrary to popular belief, the youth vote for “green” or Socialist candidates was only fractionally higher than the average across all age groups.
In a surprise result the Green-left parties were easily defeated by an unpopular conservative government despite a history of bitter internal conflict and internecine warfare.
The Prime Minister shrewdly kept the focus during the campaign on the policies offered by Green- Left parties, forcing voters to carefully examining those policies in detail.
The results speak for themselves. Once the voters understood the complete impact of Green-Left policies, the Australian voters rejected the message and voted for the status quo in the hope the conservatives may settle their difference and concentrate on stable governance.
The Conservatives responded by installing a rather dull, but hard working, competent Prime Minister, Cabinet and united parliamentary team, who are unlikely to repeat the mistakes of the past.