“Fair winds and calm seas” is a wish sailors exchange when saying goodbye. And so we want to wish Greta Thunberg all the best on the journey she has decided to undertake to cross the ocean and continue fighting for the climate.
She's really going through with it. Greta Thunberg, the Swedish girl who since 20 August of last year has been giving everything she has to demand action on the climate, has decided to be there, to not give up, to raise the bar of good example at a time when it's fashionable to raise (and sharpen) the bar of hatred, verbal violence and insult.
Thunberg will depart in mid-August from the United Kingdom to reach the United States by sea — meaning she will not fly, one of the most polluting actions a human being can choose to take.
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The United States. A key country in the fight against global warming, a wavering country where the electoral campaign of the century is under way — the one that will decide the next president, one of the few, very few men (or, one hopes, women) who will have the power to decide the fate of the Earth. A country — New York, to be precise — where on 23 September the United Nations Climate Action Summit will be held. Defining moments for our planet.
After that she will go to Santiago, in Chile, because the next climate conference, Cop 25, allows for no delays and no mistakes. The time still available to cut greenhouse gas emissions and halt global warming at 1.5 degrees, as the scientific community hopes, is contained within a handful of months. Already by the end of 2020 it will be clear whether the plan put in place by the international community will be enough. Or not.
After all, as Thunberg herself has reminded us, this challenge admits no shades of grey: the world is saved. Or it is not.
Heatwaves, hurricanes, desertification, rising sea levels, wildfires, the melting of ice sheets and glaciers — either they are kept in check in terms of frequency and intensity. Or they are not.
This summer is still under way, yet there is no counting the temperature records above 40 degrees set in dozens of cities across the world, from North America to India, passing through Europe. Through Paris. The Paris of the famous agreement.
There is no counting the victims and the damage caused by floods. One even occurred not because of abnormal rainfall, but because of a glacier collapse. It happened in Zermatt, a Swiss town at 1,600 metres above sea level, on the slopes of the Matterhorn (4,478 metres).
The many words spoken over these twelve months must now be followed by action. And Thunberg is there. More than that, she acts. Because she is not a politician, let alone a political operator. Greta is a girl who will become a woman, who believes in what she does and knows what needs to be done simply because she listens. She listens to those with expertise and studies, thanks to the determination and humility typical of her age. Through her simple gift for oratory she has marshalled an "army" of young people who have decided to challenge power and the status quo in order to secure a future for themselves and for everyone.
And now she wants to take this capacity for positive inspiration across the ocean, to where much of the battle for the climate is being fought, between the United States and Brazil. Trump and Bolsonaro — a man who is pushing the Amazon to the brink of collapse — cannot behave as though the hectares of land and territory they control were private property. Given the power they hold, they ought to act as if every decision looked not only to the citizens of today, but above all to those of tomorrow. To the Americans and Brazilians yet to come, who have not yet been conceived, who are not even in their parents' thoughts.
For all of this, I wish you — we wish you — fair winds, Greta. And know that when you arrive, after your long voyage, you will find a new "army" waiting to welcome you, while we, on this side of the ocean, will continue to follow and recount your endeavours. Because they are the endeavours that anyone who cares about the Earth would want to undertake. Because the climate is saved together. Or it is not.
