MMA Architect Inc. Celebrates Female Change Maker and #IWD2019 (International Women’s Day 2019)
International Women’s Day gives us the opportunity to reflect on women’s and girl’s achievements. We also take this time each March to affirm core positive beliefs about women’s roles and take actions in support of women and women’s organizations fostering positive change in our local and global communities. We attend events, celebrate with those who have chosen to assist in the advancement of women, and hashtag – #WomensDay #ThinkEqual #Build Smart #Innovate4Change and #BalanceForBetter. Like our firm, you may also choose a particular woman or girl whose work has inspired you.
No Longer “The Invisible Girl.”
When I reflected on last year and the women that caught my attention and inspired me, I couldn’t help but notice Greta Thunberg. Thunberg is a 16-year-old Swedish student who, as of September 9, 2018, decided to go on strike, in front of Sweden’s parliament building. Inspired by United States student gun control activists, every day for three weeks during school hours Thunberg would sit outside the Swedish Parliament to raise awareness about climate change. Her parents, Swedish Government Officials and many across the globe, including myself, were concerned about her education and Greta missing school. Thunberg is not only a climate change activist, but she is also a special needs student facing a variety of challenges and neurological differences. In spite of her challenges, she persisted to address what she felt to be the largest and most relevant concern for her and for the planet. She was quoted as once saying that she was, “feeling like the invisible girl.”* That is clearly no longer the case.
“In diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” ~Maya Angelou
Thunberg’s devotion to the topic of climate change began when she was eight. Since then, she has made several lifestyle changes to ‘green her life’ and the lives of her father and her mother, Swedish opera star Malena Thunberg, who support her green values. They also support the Swedish Government’s concrete commitment to enact progressive climate legislation that hopefully will make Sweden fossil-free and assist the EU in doing their part to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, in compliance with the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement.
Concrete Action
Thunberg insists that the first world will need to cut their emissions by 15% a year to have an impact on climate change. Global leaders such as Trump and other rich countries will need to acknowledge and address the “climate catastrophe.” Thunberg also feels that the politics needed to change the current system does not exist. She states that “we need to change the system as if there was a war going on.”**
Most recently, Thunberg was asked to address EU politicians in Brussels and to support the EU Youth Climate March on February 21, 2019. At that time the EU announced a spending increase on actions to mitigate climate change. Thunberg also spoke at the 24th UN Climate conference in Poland in December of 2018. Please take the time to listen to this Youtube video sharing her concerns for our planet.
“The secret message communicated to most young people today by the society around them is that they are not needed, that the society will run itself quite nicely until they – at some distant point in the future – will take over the reigns. Yet the fact is that the society is not running itself nicely… because the rest of us need all the energy, brains, imagination and talent that young people can bring to bear down on our difficulties. For society to attempt to solve its desperate problems without the full participation of even very young people is imbecile.”
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Honouring Other’s Achievements
Our architectural firm has chosen Greta Thunberg as our 2019 International Woman’s Day Female Change Maker of the Year, because of her steadfast desire to clarify one of our civilization’s most important issues and her courage to be a visible minority as a young woman confronting neurological differences. Clearly, her life challenges have made her stronger, wise beyond her age, and have brought attention to our global community’s climate crisis. Thank you, Greta.
Our Goals and Requests
MMA Architect Inc. encourages and supports all our Clients, Consultants and Contractors utilizing our designs to strive to use sustainable products in the creation of our built environment. We also encourage the readers of this blog to assist in greening our planet by protecting and cleaning lands and waters in need of conservation. Please also consider participating in reforesting projects, and minimizing your footprint on the Earth by reducing, reusing and recycling on a daily basis in Essex County, Ontario, Canada and in your corner of the globe. Although we very much admire our vegetarian friends, were raised as meat eaters and continue to eat a limited amount of meat. However, we are proud to say that we have reduced our meat consumption by half or more over the last several years since attending the first People’s Climate March in New York, New York in the fall of 2014.
MMA Architect Inc. and Windsor Ontario Architect, Stuart Miller hope you enjoy our blog. We take a fresh approach to business blogging, highlighting a variety of topics.
MMA Architect Inc. and, Windsor Ontario Architect Stuart Miller, B. Arch., OAA enjoy working with Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent and Ontario businesses and homeowners to create efficiencies that promote business growth and improve lifestyles. MMA Architect Inc. looks forward to serving clients with a variety of quality services.
MMA Architect Inc. licensed professional architect, Windsor, Ontario aka @YQGArchitect, MMAarchBlog ~ ©MMA Architect Inc., March 8, 2019, Blog 33. Sources: 1) * “Greta Thunberg: All My Life I’ve Been the Invisible Girl;” Financial Times; Leslie Hook, February 21, 2019. 2) ** “The Fifteen-Year-Old Climate Activist Who is Demanding a New Kind of Politics;” The New Yorker; Masha Gessen; October 2, 2018.