Dr Kim Lasky is Research Associate in Global Studies at the University of Sussex and a poet with an interest in ecology and science, modern and ancient. She uses creative approaches to help researchers share their work on global justice and climate and environmental change. https://kimlasky.com
As protesters take to the streets and beaches of Cornwall during the G7 summit, Kim Lasky asks what role has language played in recent environmental campaigns.
When Greta Thunberg went to the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2019 and told them 'our house is on fire', she was using one of language's most powerful devices: metaphor.
'Our house is on fire.
I am here to say our house is on fire.'
Whether you're a schoolgirl from Sweden or an economist from Switzerland, you know, viscerally, the threat of a house-fire. But this metaphor goes further, it says we live together, you and I, on this one shared Earth; this is our house that's threatened.
Metaphor creates rapport between speaker and listener, opening up common ground. In sharing our experience with others, metaphor allows us to move quickly into a shared imaginative space.
In asking what makes a protest powerful, surely the first thing is to get others on board, as many as possible: what you can't do alone, you might achieve together. Reaching a wide audience, and persuading them of your position, means speaking across perceived barriers of culture, gender, race, age, etc.
When Greta spoke to the European Parliament in Strasburg in April 2019, she told them:
'I want you to act as if your house was on fire… It will take a far-reaching vision…In other words, it will take cathedral thinking.'
Just the day before, images of Notre Dame burning were broadcast worldwide. A powerful link to the idea of your house being threatened.
'Cathedral thinking' is a term that dates back to medieval times and has come to mean long-term projects or goals realised for the sake of future generations.
The Fridays for Future climate marches started with Greta sitting outside Sweden's parliament during school hours in August 2018 with a sign that read "Skolstrejk för klimatet", 'school strike for climate', demanding the Swedish government reduce carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement.
On 20 September 2019, what's been called the largest series of climate strikes in history saw 4 million protesters take to the streets worldwide. The following Friday, an estimated two million people took part in demonstrations worldwide, including over one million protesters in Italy and several hundred thousand in Canada.
That year, the UK government was the first to declare a climate emergency. Worldwide, 15 national governments and over 1,900 local government jurisdictions in 34 countries have passed binding motions recognising the need to act on the climate emergency. The UK's declaration is not included in that figure, however, as it's not a binding motion.
As world leaders gather in Cornwall for the G7 summit, protesters are there reminding them of the need to act on the Paris Agreement's target to limit temperature rise to well below 2, and preferably to 1.5, degrees Celsius. Chanting 'sound the alarm', they're echoing Greta's metaphor:
'Our house is on fire.
I am here to say our house is on fire.'
