#fridaysforfuture

Climate Justice

On a sunny day of March 15^th, 2019, my friends from college and I went to Connought Palace, New Delhi, to protest for the rising #Fridaysforfuture ; a climate change protest started by the Swedish Greta Thunberg.

We held banners that our juniors made for us. We watched as the media took videos of young school students speaking their mind about climate change and how to reduce it. Many adults also came to support the event.

We were given refreshments like water in bottles and biscuits of different flavours. Later, some school students entertained us with gymnastic shows.

Now, let me speak about what I felt throughout this.

I did not find any connection with the environment. I, a person who lives nature did not feel an iota of enhanced motivation after participating for this protest. I did not feel like it reached out to anyone.

Above that, my friends and I ended up collecting the waste that these students, teachers and all protest-participants dropped on the ground instead of in the waste-bins. We went and told people to not litter, but no one cared after the event was over. They only came for the media hype.

Now, let’s talk in terms of unnecessary materials wasted for this.  Every participant was given refreshments like biscuits and packaged water. It was not necessary and further, the wrappers and the bottles just end up as garbage dumped in the water bodies. Isn’t this ironic to what the event was held for?

Instead of this, the campaign would have made an impact if we planted trees or cleaned wastes or water bodies. Making placards and banners from fresh paper and cardboard does not make any difference but only makes it worse for the environment as after its use, it’s simply discarded; not even recycled.

We need activism. We need youth. We need passion. But most importantly, we need a direction and an aim to create a long term impact.