It’s Getting Hot In Here

If there is anything I’ve learnt is if you want to achieve anything one day, then you are going to have to make that day today.

Many people talk about one day when we’ve stopped dangerous climate change, however again I’m not sure if people realise what it will take politically, technologically, infrastructure wise, values wise. It will require a whole new type of thinking, a whole new heart, a whole new world.

That one day needs to start today.

We will only make these changes if we start living our day to day lives in the way we want to change the world. Through our physical actions, our values, our choices as active consumers, citizens and community members. If we start this today, then one day our children and grandchildren will look to us with gratitude. Just as young Indians today honour the generation that struggled for our independence, and Westerners pay their respects to the enormous sacrifices made during the great wars, one day we too will be thanked, for doing whatever it took to ensure that our descendants on this earth could have dreams of their own.

However I know that to achieve extraordinary results, we must be willing to do extraordinary things. To inspire a generation, we ourselves must be inspirational. We cannot afford to wait around for miracles. We must be the change we need to see.

The question is what will you do?

No one has faced an issue like climate change before that binds the whole world and all stakeholders together. Hence the solution isn’t so simple. Will you be the engineer who designs and implements clean technology and infrastructure? Or the architects who designs a city’s green buildings. Will you be the farmer that feeds the country with sustainably produced food, or the student who activates their education institution to become a hub of environmental inspiration?

Or will you be the person who locks themselves to coal fired power stations, blockades coal ports, or goes on hunger strike to make their government understand the importance of their decisions on their future?

This November, people all over the world will be taking part in Climate Justice Fast!, the world’s first internationally networked hunger strike for climate action. Many of them are my friends and colleagues, and I will be supporting them in any way I can. If you get a chance, please visit their website and find out how to support them as well. These people will epitomize the dedication and sincerity our world needs.

But whatever actions one chooses to do, they are all important and necessary. Our generation has been handed an unprecedented challenge. But together, we can overcome it. As long as we don’t start one day, but start today.