A new world, one that no one alive today has seen. A social-media-started movement to find this new world and its secrets. Millions of teenagers, young adults, and other earthlings rallying behind the cause and yearning to attend its culminating event. 

 The date September 20th is a scapegoat to a memory for everybody. Everyone knows what went down on September 20th, and some people were even a part of it. A part of something grand. A part of something life-altering. 

On September 20th, a unique and captivating campaign stormed through America—an event with the attention of the government, one that will go down in the history books as the last of its kind—hopefully. People from across the globe unifying to fight for a single extraterrestrial cause.

Climate change. 

While the Area 51 Raid may have rivaled for attention, it’s clear that the Global Climate Strike was the event to participate in on September 20th, 2019. One event had less than one thousand attendees; the other had seven million—globally. Despite all the social media hype, the Area 51 Raid paled in comparison. 

The 20th’s Climate Strikes were a representation of the younger generations’ rage at the lack of attention their future was receiving and continues to receive; their future is being spearheaded by those that destroyed the past.

Greta Thunberg, a Swedish sixteen-year-old, is the figurehead and grand marshal of the march towards a carbon-neutral, green world—not only a future but a paradise. Thunberg’s global movement started with three words: skolstrejk för klimatet.

Abstaining from attending school for sixteen days, Thunberg protested the Swedish government’s failure to take necessary action against the climate crisis until the date of the 2018 Swedish general election. The date had come, and Greta protested until she finally retired her picket sign for the day.

However, Greta Thunberg didn’t stop fighting. 

“Fridays for Future” became a global phenomenon due to Thunberg continuing to fight for the future every single Friday while others her age sat in classrooms. Soon, Thunberg wasn’t alone anymore. The press caught on, and Thunberg’s legacy grew and grew, peaking on September 20th: the day people across the globe partook in a massive “Friday for Future.” 

On the day itself, Thunberg was marching alongside other future fighters and global guardians in the Climate Strike in Montreal. Just three short days later, Thunberg stood in front of the United Nations and delivered a speech to world leaders and other crucial global leaders. 

“This is all wrong.

You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. 

For more than thirty years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away…

How dare you.

How dare you!”

Thunberg’s presence at the UN garnered superlative attention due to the advertisement of her emotional speech. Emotional should not be the forefront description of her speech. Emotional doesn’t incorporate the power behind her words. Emotional doesn’t include the incalculable time and energy devoted by Thunberg in the name of a better future. Emotional doesn’t describe the millions of people following in Thunberg’s footsteps.

‘Powerful,’ ‘extraordinary,’ ‘genius’ all describe Thunberg’s speech; don’t be part of the reason ‘fruitless,’ ‘unsuccessful,’ and ‘in vain’ become acceptable, factual modifiers as well.

 September 20th, 2019 should be a day that goes down in history; don’t let it be known as the mark of the beginning of mankind’s downfall.

No one alive today has seen a carbon-neutral world, but you can be the first.