"Dad, you knew, didn’t you?"

"Dad, you knew, didn’t you?"

Youth for Climate activists Charlier Adelaide and Louise Vanden Abeele react Thursday to Le Soir in response to what are considered to be disdainful judgmental messages showing on social networks for the last several days. "It is a contemptuous response to thousands of citizens who are determined to pay attention to the planet’s degradation and its impact on climate," they say in an open forum.

Ten thousand people are expected in Leuven on Thursday for another students’ march initiated by Youth for Climate. 

Since late January, a sarcastic tweet has been shared over 1,300 times and "liked" more than 5,000 times, including by former Secretary of State N-VA Theo Francken. "Dad, where's my mobile? Gone. When are we going skiing? Never again. Where are we going for our vacation this summer? Home. Does the heater work? Yes, on 18. Wear a jumper. ( ...) Sorry son, you have got me convinced that we had to act differently for climate" the message written in Dutch said.

"This tweet shows a father who is unable to explain to his son the meaning of our everyday actions, a father who cringes when told to set limits," Adelaïde Charlier and Louise Vanden Abeele say. "It depicts a disgusting father who makes his son believe that changing our consumption habits is a punishment."

"Poor son, not because he has to take the train, but because he has a father who does not encourage environmentally responsible actions," they continue, before replying: 

"Dad, you knew about the droughts and floods, didn’t you? Dad, you knew about the disappearance of many living species, didn’t you? Dad, you knew that the climate migrant could be me now, didn’t you? Dad, why didn’t you do something?"

The Brussels Times


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