Björn Wiman: the Young people's movement can be the social tipping point needed

Miss Prysselius was not in reality. Nor, actually, in Astrid Lindgren's books. It was the first film of the Pippi Longstocking in the 1960s as ”Prussiluskan” – in the millions of people's imagination – appeared as an incarnation of community legalism and narrow-minded förmynderifasoner.

In any case, Sweden's all prussiluskor had a feast in a week. Not only in the shape of the formers that have hött with the index fingers to the tens of thousands of young people in sweden as of last Friday chose to skolstrejka for the climate, but also in the form of the school leaders who are in the age directive has stressed the inappropriateness of this. Greta Thunberg and the movement she has started – may have been nominated for the Nobel peace prize and the support of climate scientists and political leaders throughout the world, but from the Swedish deans of schools response was amazing rather than cheap slogans if skolpliktens unconditional holiness.

. How meaningful had it otherwise been to strike? Now established tens of thousands of Swedish youth a balance sheet – and found that they put a higher value on their hope about their own future than on a couple of missed hours in a school system that otherwise both save money on lärarlösa lessons and in the quiet to accept the absence of long Thailandssemestrar. The demonstration in Stockholm last Friday was among the most powerful and the most hopeful I have experienced, and globally, part of one of the most extensive manifestations in the history of mankind.

Read more: Greta Thunberg nominated for the Nobel peace prize

But what mattered it? the , The Norwegian psychologist Per Espen Stoknes said in the Swedish Radio environmental program ”Globe” in the week that the new youth movement for climate can be an example of a so-called ”social tipping point” – a moment when society takes a large and unexpected leap. Greta Thunberg worldwide skolstrejk, said the Norwegian researcher, may be one of those times in history when a social movement makes contact with the policy and achieves lasting change. Stoksnes mentioned as an example how public opinion against the Vietnam war finally tipped over in connection with the photo of the naked napalmbombade girl during a bombing raid north of Saigon in 1972.

Greta Thunberg another girl who overturned the social system of the right? And what is required in this case to the powerful protest movement that she has initiated to lead to the policy responses so far have failed? How are we going to change the fact that the only thing that has increased more than the number of klimatkonferenser during the last 30 years, emissions of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere?

Greta Thunberg skolstrejk may have created the ’critical mass’ necessary to an irreversible movement, which in turn forces the politicians to push through the necessary decisions.

In the ”Globe” speaking of the political scientist Sverker Jagers that the main effect of this type of intense campaigning is indirect: the more stakeholders get bigger muscles in order to exert pressure on decision-makers in politics and business. Greta Thunberg skolstrejk may have created a ”critical mass” necessary to an irreversible movement, which in turn forces the politicians to push through the necessary decisions. In which case it is to strike while the iron is hot.

how the actual smidesarbetet to go to. A few years ago, an interdisciplinary research programme at Lund University conclusions about how it should be done in practice for Sweden to switch to a zero carbon society in 2050: What is the role of the state and how can the policy governance look like? What organizational and institutional changes, in regulations and social norms, becomes important? What are the goals and conflicts of interest may arise and how can they be managed?

One of their reports, ”In the light of the future”, is in its aim objectivity one of the most hopeful you can read when you have doubts on the possibility of the huge samhällsomställning that the climate crisis requires. ”A large number of studies show that it is energiresursmässigt and technically fully possible to do such a conversion”, say the researchers, soberly.

, it will not be enough to talk about the threats. It will also require a cohesive vision for a low carbon society: ”A transition could probably not be justified solely to avoid climate change. The social contract needs to include a broader idea of sustainable development, including a better life with good health and the environment, welfare, labor, justice and other things associated with a good society.”

In it, I think they have the right. We will not be able to scare ourselves to full-scale change. If the political governance on the other hand, can interact with and reinforce the ”social tipping points” that arise can the transition be a relatively easy process, where technology and consumption evolve together with changes in norms and behaviors. ”Future generations of the standards and expectations of life are shaped by the time they grow up and live in, and there is nothing that says that the near-zero emissions is incompatible with a good life,” the researchers write. More than anything else, calls for a belief in the social planning power.

had the förhånade miss Prysselius in Pippi Longstocking” still an important function to fill. Maybe she wanted to, in his zealous care for a cranky child, just remind you of the potential of strong institutions. Maybe she knew that a society's development is always a tension between individual freedom and the political power governance.

Adequate urban planning? It sounds really terrible skolboksmässigt. But only so can the necessary vision become a reality.

Read more by Björn Wimans chronicles of the climate crisis – and about the book ”Late on earth. 33 thoughts on the world's biggest news” .