Dear Strikers: Why I’m Not Taking to the Streets Today

I’m part of a climate action organization, I live in London, and yet I’m not going to join the people at Parliament. Why not?

The global climate strike is monumental. Greta Thunberg has done a remarkable job at getting people to finally recognize the urgency of the situation. Even my partner, who is deep in the traditional corporate mindset, is now paying attention. He is impressed by her words.

Today, the strike officially began in the Philippines, where I’m from. How proud I am that my home — where the peaceful People Power EDSA revolution culminated in changing the political system when I was five — kicked off the movement.

The strike is about getting the attention of world leaders to act, get their heads out of the sand. Powerful people — the ones who have the ability to direct resources and agendas — they need to do something!

If my baby daughter could walk well and talk, and if she said to me, “Mommy, I’m striking today for what I believe in,” I would join her in an instant. Protesting is recourse. It’s recourse especially for people who feel powerless in a system in which they feel they have no agency or avenue for change, where others decide their fate. Peaceful protest to wake governments up is a privilege most of us have and cherish.

Governments need to wake up, yes, but climate action — the kind of earth- shaking cataclysmic flowering of caring for the planet that we need — must start with you and me. It’s not the government’s responsibility, it’s ours.

Students may feel like they must strike because they’re the CEOs, CFOs, policymakers, and influencers of tomorrow, not today. But most of us are the the CEOs, CFOs, policymakers, and influencers of today.

Why do we strike from work to demand governments to stop burning fossil fuels when its is us that make decisions to burn fossil fuels? When it is us who are the government in democracies? Why don’t we at work strike to make decisions that lead to a fossil fuel free future?

Maybe because we think it’s too big a problem, that our incentives aren’t aligned, or we’re waiting for a regulatory agency to tell us what to do.

But I’m not a CEO. That’s okay. I’m the COO of my household. I’m the boss of me. I’m a customer! In the dynamics of supply and demand, I can demand. I’m not talking about the consumer-as-usual demand of using recycled plastic and recycling. This is necessary but we need something more.

We need to demand that every economic decision maker take emissions into account when they decide what to buy and what to invest in. And we need to make that demand with love and respect, not accusation.

Striking on the streets in front of Parliament is necessary, but it risks abdicating our power as people deciding how to spend our lives and resources, and whether fossil fuels are involved in that.

Students: I work. Ask anyone who works what they’re doing to make better decisions about our climate at work. Especially if your elders are actual CEOs, CFOs, influencers, or policymakers.

It doesn’t matter how old we are — young people, you are influencers.

Workers: Let’s ask ourselves what we’re doing to make better decisions in our jobs for a fossil fuel free future.

But it’s impossible, we’ve tried. We don’t have the right information, we don’t know what’s true, and anyway everything is doom and gloom.

I’ve got good news. With climate innovations and advances in climate science, there may be better ways forward. And these ways forward that are consistent with climate science don’t need ever last person to ride bikes, become vegan, and recycle everything. It simply requires us to dial ourselves down, and act imaginatively.

But that’s for another post.

I believe that workers who are striking from their jobs can do more — if they want to and if they get the right information in the right way.

Why do we, who have great power, need to strike along with students? Why not spend today striking against climate inaction at work?

Because by marching with our children — whether we have birthed or cared for children or not, they are all our children — we show that we care. That we recognize this is important, that their future is important, and that we’re doing what we can to make big changes. Together, we can strike against climate inaction at work every day.

Climate is about the planet, but let’s not forget that as human animals, we belong to that planet too. We’re not separate, and in most ways, we’re not special. To exist we, like all animals, must emit. But we can emit just enough, not way too much like we’re doing now. We are special animals in one way: because we have the power, together, to do something.

I’m not taking to the streets today because my baby is sick and on antibiotics. But I strike for the climate at work and in my life, every single day.

My daughter and I are with you all in spirit — may the Force be with you!

(PS — sorrynotsorry for the clickbaity title, I couldn’t resist. Let’s call it what it is.)