Can Climate Activism Cure The Problems Of Teenagehood?
When I’m on my way to meet 16-year old Małgosia Andruszkiewicz — the main organiser of the 15th March School Strike for Climate in Białystok, Poland — I am not sure what to expect. It’s been a while since I last hung out with teens. But based on what I read and hear, it seems like being an adolescent is not a piece of cake these days.
I mean — all of that social media-based culture and self-absorption it encourages. The anxiety and depression that seem to be teenage epidemics. The loss of interpersonal skills and falling out of touch with the real world. These are the things that immediately come to mind when I think of teenagers.
But when I start talking to Małgosia, my whole image of “how teens are these days” collapses within minutes. In front of me, I have an intelligent, empathetic and open-minded young woman. I immediately realize how much I can learn from her at my “adult” age of 28.
Where is this self-obsessed, insecure kiddo with a smartphone glued to her hand that I was somehow expecting to see?
When I share these thoughts with her, Małgosia says that her view of herself and her peers is a completely different one:
“I think that we are the first generation raised in awareness of how big of an impact we can have in the globalized society. Although school education doesn’t teach us that, we have access to all the information online. This is where we learn about the climate crisis and other current issues.”
No: “this is where we spend our waking hours obsessing about Instagram selfies or watching porn.”
Talking to her further filled me with the kind of hope I was not expecting at all.
Skipping school was never as noble as it is these days. Joining the global school strike for climate is something every girl and every boy on this planet can take pride in.
The 15th March took global climate activism to the next level. According to Greta Thunberg’s recent Facebook post, over 1,5 million students in 125 countries on all continents didn’t go to school that day to join their local protest. 350.org says it was “the biggest day of climate action ever.”
