【我對Greta獲選為時代雜誌風雲人物的想法】
https://twitter.com/gretathunberg/status/1206159412571889664?s=21
瑞典環保少女通貝里（Greta Thunberg）獲選2019年美國《時代》雜誌風雲人物，成為《時代》以來最年輕的當選者。她以「周五為未來而戰」運動（Fridays for Future），吸引全球數百萬人對抗氣候暖化問題，所代表的正是全球年輕社運一代的化身，影響及感動各地年輕抗爭者，而我便是其中一員。
猶記得通貝里說過：「我們不能猶如沒有明天地活著，因為明天是存在的。」我們與通貝里這一代，正正見證這個未來的出現，而我們亦有責任將之塑造成理想的明天。當世人為年青人站出來對抗氣候變化和獨裁威脅而驚歎歡呼時，這些呼聲實質地化作對各地抗爭運動的支持。在這場為理想明天的戰鬥中，無人是孤島，只要我們仍然活在世上，在戰場站着的，不會只是年輕人或一些人物，而是任何人。
無私，為着偉大的事情而努力，為全球人類探索可能性，在歐洲帶領整場對抗氣候變化運動，願意為基本人權付上自己的前程及生命，這些都是抗爭者贏得尊重的特質。這不止是通貝里，而是在各地為理想、為自由、為人權而奮鬥的人，他們啟發更多人為着信念從沒退後，因為改變需要匯聚眾人之志、齊上齊落去達成。
氣候變化和香港民主運動貌似兩回事，卻有不少共同之處：兩者不能單靠一個地方的努力便能解決，需要世界關注及努力，而且中國在兩大議題上負有無可推卸的責任，但同樣地，中國對兩大問題的回應相當相似，便是拒絕兌現當時許下的承諾。
眾所周知，中國是全球最大溫室氣體排放國，有科學家指出，一旦全球平均氣溫升逾攝氏2度，全球暖化有機會無法逆轉，已有研究指出，若要避免這個最壞情況發生，必須要求中國大幅減少排放溫室氣體。現時中國每年二氧化碳排放量超過120億噸，佔全球排放總量超過三成。在2018至2019年，中國排放量呈上升趨勢，這與中國在《哥本哈根協議》和《巴黎協定》中所作的承諾背道而馳。每當中國被問到這個問題時，便以「中國是發展中國家，經濟急需發展」開脫，充份顯示中國沒有兌現自己向國際社會所許下的承諾。
中國在1984年與英國簽訂《中英聯合聲明》，並承諾在香港實現「一國兩制」和普選，而《聯合聲明》是受規管國家之間協議的《維也納條約法公約》所規限。然而，中國現在顯然拒絕履行承諾，更嚴重的是，中國近年單方面宣稱《聯合聲明》已經失效，指其已經是一份歷史文件，不具實際意義。
以上兩個例子皆證明中國並不可信，只會為求目的、無視所有應當遵守的規例而行事。這個問題不可能只靠年青人去解決，正如單靠Greta和罷課參與者，無法向違反減排承諾的中國問責；單靠香港年青人，亦無法向違反《聯合聲明》的中國問責。各國領導及人民必須團結一致，才能迫使中國遵守他應當遵守的遊戲規則。
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This week, Greta Thunberg was named Person of the Year by the TIME magazine. She is a Swedish Schoolgirl that inspired the “Friday for Future” campaign against climate change. Greta is regarded as the figure of the power of the youth, and inspired many, including me.
I applaud for her statement “We can’t just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow.” There is a future where Greta and I will live long enough to see, and we are responsible to shape it into a desirable one. When the world cheer and appalled for the youth standing up against threats of climate change or dictatorship, we actually all play a role in the fights. No man is an island. We are all living here today, and we will be living here tomorrow as well. It is not only up to the youngsters or the figures to fight for a better future.
Some people are respectable because they indeed did something great and conquered the limitations of humanity— being selfless, leading an Europe-wide climate change campaign, sacrificing their future and even their lived for the sake of fundamental human rights. These figures hope to encourage more people to do the same to really address the issues. It is not up to a few people to resolve problems that requires collective effort.
Climate Change and the fight for democracy in Hong Kong share some similarities. Both of them cannot be resolved simply by the handwork of one place, and China has to be held responsible for both issues, and China’s response to them appears to be similar as well.
Greenhouse gas emissions by China are the largest in the world. It is found by scientific research that global warming cannot be kept below 2 °C unless the emission of greenhouse gas in China falls sharply. China emitted over 12 gigatonnes CO2eq of greenhouse gases and makes up almost 30% of the world total. And in 2018-2019, the emissions shows an increasing trend, contrary to the promise China made in the Copenhagen Accord and Paris Agreement. However, when China were asked publicly about this, its response is simply “China is a developing countries and it is in desperate needs of economic development”. This clearly shows China does not take the pledge it made in the global arena as promises it has to fulfil.
China made a Joint-Declaration together with Britain before the Handover of Hong Kong to promised “One Country, Two System” and universal suffrage for Hong Kong in 1984. The Joint-Declaration is bounded Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which is an international agreement governing treaties between states. Now it is clear that China is unwilling to keep its promise, and worse still, China has recently declared the Joint-Declaration to be invalid on its own. The Joint-Declaration was a historical document that no longer had any practical significance, China said.
The two examples illustrate that China is never trustworthy and do not take any rules into consideration. It will simply do anything it wants, no matter what are the norms and regulations that it should follow. It takes more than just the youth to address the problem. Greta and the participants of the strike alone can never hold China responsible for breaking its promise. Hong Kong’s youth along can never hold China responsible for violating international treaties. The world has to stand in solidarity to be able to achieve results and forces China to comply to the norms that all players in the world ought to.
