Today, europe-wide protests including school strike happened against uninterested attitude of politicians towards global warming. I knew it is gonna happen, but I was surprised by the size of protests. I am from Czech Republic and it is usual, major protest happen in only about three major cities. Not most of the important ones.
The movement will not disband soon. It was founded by Greta Thunber months ago and it has only grown since. Scientist are on the side of children and even though, some schools banned this activity in my country, pupils and students from these schools took part anyway. Note, it is probably illegal to prevent them from going, head masters bet exclusively on their authority and have no way of punishing this.
Anyway, I do not think, the protests will stop until politicians promise them some action. Something, that will be convincing enough for them to stop. Remember, that these protests are happening in the shadow of Yellow Vests movement in France. Their stamina and example may help young protesters endure longer too.
My question is what possibly could politicians offer. Global warming is caused by burning certain sources of energies. Oil and coal are probably major culprits in their eyes.
It will be interesting to watch the protests and if they gain on size, they might trigger some series of events leading to interesting, but partly predictable ups and downs on the markets. I would watch stocks, which produce green energy. From commodities, oil and some particular metals may react to these news.
If I consider what could possibly politicians give them to release tension, first thing coming on my mind are solar panels. True, they are not as ecological as nuclear power plants. But they are perceived as if they are. Solar panels are build of something and there are companies producing them.
EU has already created difficult times to automobile industry pushing it towards less ecologicaly-impactful engines. Will electric cars rise?
Another possible development is when pupils will be joined by adults? Organizers will have some room in medias now. If they put there clever scientists, they may persuade bigger masses. It would probably cause decline in EU's everything.
We are in the stage, when nobody can predict how exactly it will continue. But it is clear it will continue somehow. And I hope it will get to some succesfull endings. Yet, if we make good investing choices on the market, we will have money we can use to further influence and help our environment.
The only one thing making me sad is the people who organize protests. You would not believe me, what Czech Greenpeace Facebook page wrote in its past. Claims like "the energy simply is, we don't have to pay any power plants" are personal failure, not failure of the organization as whole. What I see is, there are many people making stupid unbacked claims like that in charge of the protests. Hopefully, unbiased scientists will take over and educate the masses leading to progressive solutions improving our environment.
Your thoughts?