The climate crisis is an existential crisis. Depressingly, our world leaders continue to placate the vested interests responsible for the crisis. In Canada, our quisling Prime Minister was so dedicated to fighting climate change that he bailed out oil and gas infrastructure giant Kinder Morgan at the behest of Alberta tar sands producers. Thankfully, young people are refusing this status quo.

The Extinction Rebellion is an umbrella movement led by young people. The primary demand of the group is for governments to simply tell the truth. That truth is that our current economic system is not only unsustainable, it is actively destructive. Thankfully, our extinction is not a foregone conclusion but ensuring our survival will require radical transformation of our systems of production and consumption.

Our entire global economy is shaped by our use of fossil fuels. Addressing the climate crisis will require both prevention and mitigation. To prevent the crisis from becoming much, much worse we have to drastically reduce the amounts of carbon in our atmosphere. Carbon capture technology may have a role to play, although it is likely that none will approach the efficiency of forests. More important will be drastic reductions in the production of emissions. This will mean systems of production and consumption wildly different in both scale and scope. It will mean sacrifices. Most of our leaders leverage the scale of the problem to defend half-measures, in action and policies that actively worsen our predicament.

Responsibility for the climate crisis is directly proportional to age and wealth. The older you are and the wealthier you are the more responsibility you bear. But the older you are, and the wealthier you are, the more you are vested in the status quo. Meanwhile, the consequences of the climate crisis are inversely proportional to age and wealth. The younger and poorer you are the more you will suffer. Understandably, the young people are rebelling against this system.