“Yeah, so first of all, I just want to give a little context. So Shell and Siccar Point Energy are trying to push a new oil field on the UK Parliament, the Cambo oil field, which is gonna be off the coast of Scotland, which obviously is my home. I just wanna start off by saying you should be absolutely ashamed of yourself …”
With that, climate youth activist Lauren MacDonald named the tension in the room and laid it bare for the watching world. The rumbling I felt behind my row of chairs turned into the youth activists in attendance lining up in solidarity with MacDonald, which turned into chants for us to join them. MacDonald demanded climate justice not just for her hometown of Scotland, but also for the adults to pay close attention to the world they were leaving for future generations. Until that point, many of us in the room knew we were coming to TED Countdown to learn more about the most consequential issue in the world: climate change. But, within the room, we also recognized people came in from all walks of life and potentially different approaches to how we get the planet to net-zero carbon emissions and a global mean temperature of at least 1.5° C.
Some attendees had openly questioned the youth activists’ tactics, wondering if these disruptions were even necessary given the ostensible mission of the summit. (Yes, I’m being generous.) Others hoped she hadn’t walked off stage so Mr. van Beurden wouldn’t be left to drive his own narrative for the remaining part of the conversations. I, on the other hand, wish we didn’t have to have youth activists to begin with.
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