Mixed Feelings About Taking My Baby to a Climate Demonstration

A few dozen parents and children were gathered in a circle outside the local library, holding placards and singing.

“Mothers gonna rise like the water, gonna face this crisis now.
Hear the voices of my sons and daughters, singing climate justice now!”

It was the day between International Women’s Day and Mother’s Day and I was taking my baby daughter to a climate demo. The event was organised by Mothers’ Rebellion, Frome Families for the Future and Parents for Future. This one was tiny as it’s a small town, but there were sister events happening in 60 cities across 20 countries.

As I joined in the songs and chants and listened to the speakers, holding my precious baby in my arms, my mind wandered to my own childhood.

I hazily remember my parents taking me to similar events (and some much more rowdy ones!). Some of my earliest memories are of protests and marches, waving placards, people chanting into megaphones, being raised up on shoulders to ogle at the crowds…

I felt a thread of continuity linking generations of people fighting for justice, again and again.

And I have mixed feelings about it…

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The good: Passing on a passion for climate justice

On the one hand, I feel this continuity is quite beautiful.

My memories of attending protest marches and rallies as a kid are positive cornerstone memories that had a powerful impact on me. As a teenager and young adult I continued to attend events like these, and I always loved the feeling of marching along with like-minded people all calling for action and believing in the same cause. It’s inspiring. The energy is electric.

I learned a lot about the world and my place in it from these experiences.

I want to pass on my values to my child and give her a positive example of citizenship, political action, community and agency.

And events like these are also a great way to meet like-minded people.

The bad: But so much time has been lost

But I also feel kind of sad and angry because this continuity highlights how much time has been lost.

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When I was a child, adults were campaigning for action on climate change and the environmental crisis to protect their children’s future.

And I was one of the children to be saved and protected in that scenario.

But here we are three decades later and I’m now a grown woman taking my own child to the same kind of events where we do the same chants about saving the world for our children.

It’s still going on. 30 years have gone by. Carbon emissions are still going up. Scientists are still issuing dire warnings.

How is this still happening?

…

Will the cycle continue?

Will my daughter one day take her own child to similar climate rallies?

My initial thought was — I hope not.

But then I realised that is probably naïve. I don’t mean that there will be no progress and the climate movement will be the same then. I’m not that pessimistic.

I choose to believe that humanity will have the self preservation to turn the creaking supertanker of the economy and societal hegemony just in time to avoid the worst climate breakdown.

I think we will make it.

But it’s not a binary thing. Some measure of climate change is already baked in, is already happening now. And even a successful climate transition that brings carbon emissions down to zero within my lifetime has countless possible ways of playing out.

In some way or other, climate change (and our response to it) is set to dominate our world for generations to come.

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Martin Luther King, Jr

So maybe my child will be taking her own to a climate demo one day — but hopefully they will be living in a largely post-carbon world, making political demands that we could only dream about now.

…

Did this resonate with you? Follow me @TeganTallullah for more stories about living and working in the climate transition.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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