The UK sure wouldn’t have seen such a thought-out civil disobedience as the Extinction Rebellion in few years. Protesters held Oxford Circus, Waterloo Bridge, Parliament Square, and Marble Arch in solidarity with the mother earth. The message was tidy: Do something about Climate Change, now. This piece is, without doubts, in respect to the rebels who fought without raising a finger on the streets of London and across the world, even in the face of police brutality. ‘To the Mild Rebels’ would have made a nice heading, but on seeing the placard of one of the protesters read “Your apathy towards my future scares me”, I decided to take it personally, too.
My future scares me. I see a Nigeria without the coastal city of Lagos. A significant rise in sea level will sweep a good portion of Lagos underwater and it’ll be a harvest of dead bodies. My future scares me. I see aircraft not flying anymore, owing to flickery wind patterns. Jet Streams go wild, too. My future scares me. I see Africa without bees and other beautiful insects, some of which children long to play with in the farms. My future scares me. I see land without trees, trees without fruits, and farms without harvests. My future scares me. I see herds of cattle starve and thirst.
My future scares me. I see fishes suffocate in seas and oceans, few survivors live deep down the waters and some others migrate up north and down south. My future scares me. I see the world cry for rain to no end. My future scares me. I see lakes vanish and large rivers dry out. My future scares me. I see ice sheets melt at the Greenland; and Glaciers of the Alps, Himalayas, Rockies, Alaska, etc., retreat. My future scares me. I see Mount Everest lose its glory and the entire earth lose her beauty. My future scares me. I see floods and wildfires sweep thousands out; heatwaves, hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones wipe out a portion.
My future scares me. I see so many homeless people roam the streets, so many IDP camps. My future scares me. I see conflicts. I see tears. I see the whole world in confusion. My future really so scares me.
These, and many more, were the concerns of the guys that held London and some other places in the past few weeks. Their future scared them! We’ve emmited too much carbon. The blowback was in the form of global warming and, now, Climate Change, which is already hitting hard on some parts of the world, say Africa. We can’t afford to fold our arms while the authorities do nothing. We can’t run on with the same actions that are bent on destroying us. We’ve angered the earth enough.
“I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act”, said Greta Thumberg. My future really so scares me. Kudos! Extinction Rebellion. Kudos! The mild rebells across the world.
Ayeni Faith Damilola, Green Global Environmental Network
([email protected])
(Twitter: @AF_Damilola @GreenGlobalEnv2)