Recently, I noticed a Tweet that was about the difference between Greta Thunberg and Boyan Slat. The former is a sixteen-year-old girl who shares her fears about the climate with the world, with no real-life practical solutions nor anything else (according to the tweet). The latter is a Dutch boy who invented a solution to clean the oceans of plastic already at the age of 16. He is now 25 and working to make his plans and solutions turn real as they work to clean the oceans. And what about Christian Kroll? He is the man who invented Ecosia, a search engine that spends all its income on planting trees all around the world. So far, more than 60,000,000 trees have been planted because of this.
But, what’s the thing? The Tweet portrays Greta Thunberg as a great opposition to Boyan Slat, and everyone else who actually do something for the climate. Is that really so? Is it only those people who invent something who has worth? And can we speak poorly and criticize Greta Thunberg, because she doesn’t do a thing (the way some people see it)? Stop being stupid!
The army example…
Imagine your country being at war… there is an army present at the border to protect you! I guess those soldiers are worthy of all praise and attention. But, have you forgotten about the fact that there was someone working to make soldiers join the army? Should we consider the man on the street who warned us about the dangers ahead and encouraged us to join the army stupid? Should we throw him down the toilet and criticize him for not doing anything, or write blog posts about his looks and his failures and maybe even make fun of him because he has Aspbergers (if that is the case)? The day the country is invaded and you are taken captive because of the lack of protection at the border, you will regret your deeds…
The body example…
Not all the parts of our body get the same attention. Some parts are clearly visible and easy to see, while others are hidden. But they might be way more important than the visible parts. If you like to run, it might be tempting to get four legs in order to run faster, but our body isn’t meant to work like that. The different parts of the body help the body stay healthy. We cannot all be one body-part, but the body can work at its full potential when all the parts do their very own job. It is complete stupidity to compare Christian Kroll, Boyan Slat, and Greta Thunberg? How come? They can really be compared to one body, in which the different parts do different jobs. They are all needed for the goal to be achieved.
Imagine if everyone worked on gathering plastic in the oceans? What would happen to the trees then? And what if everyone went around planting trees? Who would gather the plastic then? And what if there was no Greta Thunberg? Nobody would care about the climate, and thus, they wouldn’t install Ecosia, give money to the work of Boyan Slat, and they wouldn’t do their own part in the important work of fighting for our environment.
Instead of criticizing…
So instead of criticizing, I guess a much more important task is to find out what you are doing in the body… You don’t have to be Boyan Slat, Greta Thunberg, or Christian Kroll… you have to be yourself and do what you can and use your skills and talents to make a difference! Maybe you have technical insights that you can use for research, or maybe you can keep the pressure upon the politicians by protesting and lobbying. Maybe you can just use Ecosia every time you search and thus help plant trees worldwide. There are so many tasks and so many ways to help and work for our environment, just find your place in the body, instead of criticizing those already busy doing their part!
Come on… we need more people!
The question isn’t whether or not Greta Thunberg deserves to have more followers on Twitter than Christian Kroll or Boyan Slat. In the end, that doesn’t really matter. What is important, is that we all find our role in the big game and start using what we have to make a difference. You don’t have to like every part of the body (I am not very fond of the smells coming from my rectum, but I still appreciate the task it is doing), but we have to understand and see the importance of what they are doing.
