Towards the end of each year columnists such as myself find ourselves handing out our best of the year awards. We do it partly because rating people is our stock in trade, and partly because for writers distracted by the thought of a seaside holiday best-of pieces are relatively undemanding. So readers are presented with namings of the best sportspersons, the most significant public figures, writers, actors and even people in the street.
This exercise is of interest less for the people who are chosen than for the criteria by which they are chosen. For some commentators the deciding factor is clearly how much money the chosen ones have earned or have made for their promoters. Understandably the bankers, business moguls and property holders of this world feature regularly.
For other publications the criterion is the size of the effect, good or bad, that the person chosen has had on the world. Pope Francis might win the award one year, Donald Trump the next. Sometimes, too, the standard of judgment is which person represents the cultural spirit of the year. One year might be assigned to Pauline Hansen, and another to Jacinda Ardern.
The people chosen by these criteria rarely surprise. They may delight, horrify or bore, but once we understand why they were chosen they become fairly predictable. The criteria match the expectations of society.
The exercise becomes much more interesting however, if the criterion is how far candidates behave in ways that cut against conventional wisdom. Preference then is given to people who are direct and not diplomatic, avoid weasel words when speaking of their principles, prize being good over looking good, do not tolerate a large gap between professed ideals and way of living, and are consumed by a cause that matters deeply for society. People who meet those criteria will certainly provoke dissent, and perhaps even lively conversation.
From that countercultural perspective the stand-out person during 2019 was surely Greta Thunberg. The cause she represents is the most pressing for the future of the world as we know it, namely the need to take seriously the reality of climate change and to respond to it with corresponding seriousness
The ways she addresses this issue are simple. She speaks uncompromisingly about it, mobilises young people of her own age to take it equally seriously and to organise in support of their convictions, addresses political leaders and world gatherings with stern judgment and not flattery. In carrying out this program she has been extraordinarily successful.
"The power of her message derives largely from her integrity. Such integrity often makes her seem the only adult in a room full of politicians and of her critics."
Her work is striking particularly because it so flouts conventional wisdom and practice. She does not deploy charm and deference but lectures world leaders, cutting through the abstractions and ambiguous language used to hide inaction in dealing with climate change. Like Joan of Arc she is the voice of conscience calling to conversion.
The power of her message derives largely from her integrity: the tight fit between what she believes and how she acts. Most strikingly her commitment to reducing emissions leads her to avoid travel by air. She travelled by ship to a climate conference in Chile and, when it was transferred to Spain, hitched a ride on a yacht to arrive in time. She is willing to bear the discomfort of her convictions. Such integrity often makes her seem the only adult in a room full of politicians and of her critics.
To nominate Greta Thunberg the most significant person of 2019 is not to canonise her, still less to say that her way of pressing for action to address climate change is the only way. She has her own life to grow into and her own battleground to struggle on. If climate change is to be addressed it will also require persuasion, negotiation, concessions and personal trust between national leaders.
These more urbane qualities, however, are too often the false smile on the face of the political decision to place votes over the national good, and the corporate determination to continue to profit from exploiting the environment. Thunberg's intransigence and her single-minded focus on the urgency of addressing climate change are needed to mobilise the support necessary to make politicians act responsibly.
As a young woman Thunberg will have to live in the world older generations have left her. If she seems serious and weighed down with care, the state of the world that she and her contemporaries will inherit is more than sufficient reason.
Andrew Hamilton is consulting editor of Eureka Street.
Main image: Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg (front) stands with British professional yachtswoman Nicola Henderson and yacht owners Elayna Carausu and Riley Whitelum at Santo Amaro Recreation dock in Lisbon, Portugal, on 3 December 2019. Thunberg sailed from Norfolk, Virginia, USA on the catamaran La Vagabonde on her way to attend COP25 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Horacio Villalobos/Getty Images)