In this day and age there is no doubt that marching is necessary, and that showing support for ‘highly-debatable’ issues such as climate change is important. The only way, however, to create and sustain change is rather to alter the way we as individuals live as opposed to changing governments through protest.

In the last few decades or so recycling has become extremely popular in Europe and is starting to take hold in my home country, the United States, as has organic food, carpooling and choosing mass transit and walking instead of cars.  However, understandably, such topics have become a pillar of the so-called ‘liberal elites’ – the only people who, on paper, can really afford to change their lifestyle.

The trend of anti-climate change movements in right-wing governments can be addressed by considering the way we talk about climate change overall. Thanks to alt-right-wing media, climate change is often seen by folks in ‘coal country’ – places like West Virginia and other parts of Appalachia – as an ‘elitist cause.’

In that regard, perhaps they aren’t totally incorrect. The people who can comfortably afford to buy organic food are somewhat few and far between. And though more and more grocery stores provide the option, the chicken stuffed with rBST is better value for money than the 90 per cent lean beef grown on a beautiful farm somewhere in California. Anyone who has strolled through Sainsbury’s recently knows what I mean.  

Is it ethical to want to live forever?

What about power generation? Take solar panels, for example: for someone who can barely afford to feed their children the last thing they are inclined to do is spend $200 on panels which may not work when the sun goes in. The key, then, I argue, is to make the discussion regarding climate change an economic one – not only changing the way people view the debate but illustrating how they can actually benefit from it. In coal mining towns why not invest in natural gas or in Wyoming, near Yellowstone, what about the geothermal potential – not to mention the wind that sweeps over the Great Plains and on shorelines in Alaska?

“The people who can comfortably afford to buy organic food are somewhat few and far between.”

A true climate revolution will only come with a revolution in the technology that is available to us, not only in its use but also managing the people left behind by the regulations and change that can only hold back progress as a society. The climate revolution is also practising what we preach, right down to asking ourselves what to do with the signs left over from the march