Climate Activism | Jonathan Hiep | TEDxYouth@Haarlem

foreign [Applause] the first big climate protest is taking place because people are seeing that without immediate concrete action there will be no credible future but now in 2023 when 1973 is exactly 19 404 days ago still no credible action has been taken to mitigate the effects of climate change 50 years ago people said we needed to change 50 years ago people said we can't continue on like this but still we are fighting the same fight four years ago the Eep the ipbes released a report about climate change a shocking report in this report they stated that since 1900 the sea has risen by at least 16 to 25 centimeters and that's since 1900 219 million hectares of native forests have been cut down and maybe the most shocking of all that the extinction rate is between 1 000 and 10 000 times higher than normal but still no action and those were just three of the shocking facts presented in this report and I yonaton Heap 17 years old cannot ignore those facts I can't stand by while big corporations destroy my and my children their children's future that is why I am a climate activist four years ago I went to my first climate protest organized by the Environmental Group Fridays for the future in the hate we marched through the streets chanting it was amazing I was immediately grasped by the power and energy of the movement so logically many other protests followed but then in the march of 2020 the covet lockdown hit the Netherlands I couldn't go to school anymore so also no climate protests so now in January of 2023 I went to my first Extinction rebellion action this this action was to protest the 30 billion euros in subsidies the Dutch government gives to fossil fuels companies and the industry we were going to block the a12 a highway in The Hague exactly between two Minister Ministries but before I went and did this action I took a ction training a training to learn about the the risks the tactics signals who those come with an action I also learned how to talk to the police speak to the Press and how to react to angry bystanders in this action training I was welcomed with open and warm arms and it really felt like coming home after a long time gone it was so amazing just like the action every part was even more amazing than the previous firstly we walked from the station to a field next to the a12 on the way to the station we walked in Paris of two as Stone to not be spotted by police but to be honest Paris of thickly clothed people with huge backpacks on and those mountain climbing shoes were not really that inconspicuous so we stood there on the field next to the highway waiting for the signal and then in the distance you could hear drums and in what felt like a second the whole highway was flooded with thousands of people and I just stood there in all being surrounded by people we marched into the tunnel of the a12 chanting the drums echoing loudly throughout the tunnel and then it was like the sky broke open we walked into the open and people from the streets above us were cheering us on the colors the flags it was amazing I will never forget that moment after this beautiful action I went to many more small and big last last month I went to an action with 7 500 people but also to an action with 15. just to show the diversity in numbers when I went to this um sorry um I also started the protest this process of organizing my own climate action this process I learned a lot of things from I learned how to speak to the Press even better than I could ever learn at the action training talk to the police decide on what place you should choose for an action and how to deal with backlash from the community but next I was also invited to speak to the head of climate of North Holland he wanted to talk to me about my concerns about my future and the problem that I pointed out with my action I also was invited to come and speak here which I'm extremely thankful for but next to these amazing experiences you also come to realize what a world we live in a world a world where we see police violence learned about the horrors of climate change but I truly believe that if you have to face this absolutely horrific facts XR Extinction Rebellion is the best community to have behind you for example I went to London with a train not a plane to go to one of the biggest climate protests in history the big one in London I went alone without a parent or an adult and I'm still alive I was provided with food I was invited into people's home for breakfast I was I was invited into churches to sleep and all just because I was part of Extinction rebellion and just because we were we are all fighting the same fight so believe me when I say XR is the best community to have behind you if you're fighting the climate crisis but still after years of action I'm sorry Decades of action peaceful protests still no concrete action has been taken there is still no future and still climate activists are being arrested abused prosecuted but not convicted because the higher courts almost always decide that no crime has been committed but still the normal result of an action is that you get arrested and prosecuted and I find that absolutely just in imaginable if if I talk about the action and I think about what my state of mind is like when I go into the action it's it's like I want to make a point but I can't make that point because police will drag me from the street silence me as the as the President of the United Nations once said climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals but the truly dangerous radicals are the governments that are increasing the production of fossil fuels this was set by the president of the United Nations as I said before so think so we need to make a change and it needs and it needs to happen fast but what do we need to change well firstly we should stop by we should stop consuming and producing fossil fuels we should stop cutting down forests and killing entire ecosystems we should stop the killing of species but wouldn't that cause chaos I hear you ask no more fossil fuels that would be a disaster for the population right but do you know what would really cause chaos in this population billions of climate immigrants because their cities are flooded burned down into ashes because of extreme weather houses being ripped apart by tornadoes or the entire collapse of an ecosystem that the air would become so unbreakable because toxic admissions are not properly regulated penalized and stopped that would cause chaos we need to make changes that our skin that seem scary are scary but are also needed so if we ever make the change to a truly sustainable form of food and energy production this world would become a better place maybe a great place even well I mean except for problems like racism sexism capitalism discrimination on minorities and all the other terrible things on this Earth but we'll discuss those issues another time thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 903

Keywords: Climate Change, Consciousness, Earth, English, Global Issues, TEDxTalks, [TEDxEID:53619]

Id: uklJssRTcm8

Length: 11min 27sec (687 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 08 2023