These young people had enough ingenuity to organize a global internet conference mocking the failure to act on the issue to get attention on the issue, while you sit at a computer and bitch at them.
Here is the issue I have with these conferences and the desire to be safe. In many parts of the world, being an environmentalist is not safe. Last year the climate strikes in Canada marched under police escort. In many countries, they would have been met with police violence. Environmentalists in many parts of the world are targeted, harassed, kindapped, and even assassinated. Less than a day's drive away from where I live, water protectors also faced police and state violence to try and block the Dakota Access Pipeline. In many cases, environmentalists understand the risks they are taking, and yet willingly accept those risks because they believe in what they are doing. And the risks of protesting in many of these places greatly exceed the risks of the coronavirus. That's what makes me angry about this, because the idea that we have to be "covid safe" smacks of elite priviledge which is disrespectful of the actual sacrifices people have made in order to defend the natural world. There was actuallly a local march planned in solidarity with First Nations fishers on the east coast that local organizers cancelled because of covid restrictions. Let's just set aside the fact that the odds of outdoor transmission of covid is slim to none. These fishers faced physical violence, and yet we're too afraid to meet for an hour because of a virus or because restrictions prevent us from meeting? Some solidarity there.
Instead of bitching about what these young people have done about climate change, why don't you organize a climate change protest of all of your gung-ho friends who feel their rights have been violated by Covid-19 restrictions. Or is all you are going to do is complain about your rights being violated by Covid restrictions as the world continues to bake in the global warming oven?
I'm afraid this trend is going to continue unfortunately. The ruling class simply does not care how many webinars these activists have, because these webinars do not challenge anyone's power. The other problem with being "covid safe" is that they have just taught the fossil fuel industry exactly how to neutralize their movement. The second you agree to play by someone else's rules, they have control over you. We are very familiar with the idea that the ruling class likes to use crises for power. Why do you think a health crisis will be different? What is it about medical and health authorities that their motivations are pure and that a health crisis would never be manipulated by the ruling class to its own ends? All the fossil fuel industry has to do now is to try and use a health emergency in order to control people's movements.
Contrast this approach with the BLM protests earlier this year. Remember, the rule was no large gatherings. Well, BLM broke that rule in a big way. They understand how power works, unlike many environmentalists. BLM broke those rules and marched. They demonstrated. They made their voices heard. Most importantly, they got results. Minneapolis took steps towards dismantling its police department, and cops were kicked out of schools. The idea to "defund the police" made it into mainstream discourse. Has the environmental movement accomplished anything of such significance? Instead of playing within the rules, environmentalists need to be out in the streets as if our lives depend on this, because they do.