Millennials Have Declared An All-Out War On Climate Change

Last week, the Venta Maersk, a container freighter belonging to the Danish shipping company Moller Maersk, left Vladivostok en route to Saint Petersburg. The novelty lies in the fact that, for the first time, a loaded container vessel is taking the Northeastern route along the Russian Arctic coast.

The company says it's just a test, and analysts think the route wouldn't be commercially viable yet, but there is a clear message here: Maersk believes the Arctic will soon be ice-free. Climate change will not be reverted.

Or, at least, it won't be if we keep doing the same.

That's exactly what the protagonists of this story think. The article, written by Grist's star climate reporter Eric Holthaus, is a reflection of the current state of the battle against global warming from a Millennial's point of view. The main points are that Millennials don't really have much to lose, and that this is not a struggle for Earth: It's a struggle for their own survival.

Incremental change is not going to help on a planet that’s accelerating toward a carbon-fueled nightmare within our lifetimes. It’s not about “saving the planet,” [...] it’s about saving all of us.

From those main premises emerges an inevitable conclusion: Radical action (in the sense of targeting the root of the issue) is not just necessary. It's the only way ahead.

The author presents a series of characters, including activists and academics, and an abundance of external links, to support the thesis that individual action is almost futile without a deep system shake-up. The central idea is that a society built around a free market will always send cargo ships through the Arctic, and that young people are ready to push for change, even if that means putting their lives on the line.

Eric Holthaus's Twitter account is a must-have resource for readers interested in climate change. You can find it here.