First Followers

What was the situation in Europe five years ago when Greta Thunberg, then 11 years old, was first introduced to climate change science?

About the same time, I attended a Summer Institute educational program put on by, “Climate Generation” in St. Paul. Simultaneously, St. Paul was hosting an international industrial energy symposium. There, I met two Swedish Engineers who represented a Heat Exchanger/Pump company.

We chatted at length. They noted in Europe, about ten years earlier, (now 15) conservative political parties denied climate science. Now, they noted, no political parties deny climate science, world-wide, except the United States Republican Party.

It follows at 15 years of age, Greta Thunberg and the whole of the European Continent understood climate change. All knew it is a huge threat. Additionally, despite the widespread acceptance of the science, nothing was being done. Greta decided she would, despite her parent’s misgivings, strike from school and petition the Swedish politicians in Stockholm to ACT.

She would be a picket-line of one. What is the chance one admittedly, slightly odd kid, striking from school could get any attention at all?

I have my theory. To further my understanding, Teri and I took the train to New York to participate in the NYC Climate March. I wanted to see and listen to this kid.

She is not Abraham Lincoln. She will never be tall. She does not have a booming voice. There is, though, a quality of hers that seems unflappable. At the beginning of her speech, two people in the audience fainted from the heat. She calmly called for and directed first responders to their aid.

When the mini crisis was solved, she dove into the climate crisis with zeal. Her bearing and speech exude what observers of human nature from Aristotle to Mark Twain call moral courage.

She started her first school strike alone with no schoolmates or friends by her side. Her parents were only reluctant supporters. It is hard for me to believe she has persevered. Maybe it is because I cannot imagine myself having the “stick to it” force of character required.  The dramatic rise of Greta and her generation leaves me scratching my head.

There is a short entertaining program on You-Tube called the importance of first followers. On the second day of her first strike a stranger showed up and spent the day with her. “This was a big step, from one to two.” She notes, “This is not me striking; this is now us striking from school.” Some say there is no leader without a first follower.

With a follower, the leader is no longer the odd ball but gains stature in the marketplace of ideas. The leader also gets the strength of affirmation as she welcomes a first supporter into what has become a movement of millions.

In retrospect, I think a pool of public frustration has rocketed the movement upwards. Most people are sick of the baseless attacks on science, the continuous assault on the sovereignty of facts, and the general moral ambiguity of man, especially at the highest levels of government. 

There is, at our core, a fierce need to adopt the change our kids need to thrive. The natural reluctance to become first followers bedevils us still. But Greta and the first follower give us the pretension that we can, and we will, empower the young on their quest for the common good.

This time of year, we reflect on a birth and events 2000 years ago. We remember first followers with reverence. Some, the very first, we will only know as shepherds. Then there were wisemen. And some, only a few very brave men, became the our most famous first followers, the Apostles.