lue Planet, Extinction Rebellion and Greta Thunberg are all household names bringing information about serious environmental issues to the masses. They’ve helped green issues shoot up the agenda for this year’s general election, with a poll last month revealing that more than half of voters said that the climate emergency would influence how they cast their vote. If it wasn’t for the media these scientific messages wouldn’t be heard or understood by millions of people. And Greta Thunberg’s extraordinary global impact demonstrates her mastery of skills that have little to do with what we usually think of as science. Her speech to the UN Climate Action summit was utterly different from what we have heard before. In fewer than 500 words, she reduced many in the audience to tears when she said: “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!” Meanwhile, on her trip to the COP25 climate summit in Madrid she sailed with YouTube influencers Sailing La Vagabonde, who have more than 1m subscribers to their channel. Greta is still listening to the science, but she’s using creativity to bring her message to a global audience – and as a result, we’re listening. So isn’t it odd that the arts, and creativity in general, are in freefall in our schools? To view the full article visit the Guardian.
