Reply to Willie Colón
Machine translation from the original, not yet reviewed by the author.
Original in Spanish
Maestro Willie Colón, with all the respect you deserve from me, this fable is a reductio ad absurdum of what is in reality a very serious and complex problem.
It is not about the whim of a princess who suddenly no longer wants oil in her kingdom. It is about the fact that we are putting the noose around our own necks, we ourselves as a species, with our indiscriminate and unsustainable use of plastics and other petroleum derivatives, and with our emissions into the atmosphere of gases that overheat the planet.
And it is not about Greta, who, being young, a woman, and autistic, is an easy target for cowardly attacks, not only from those with economic interests in the status quo, but also from their useful idiots, and even from well-intentioned and intelligent people like you who have not understood the seriousness and urgency of the problem.
It is not Greta: it is thousands of scientists specialized in these subjects, it is the consensus of the international scientific community, which has spent decades saying, warning, shouting, and finally—in the face of our deafness—begging that we stop poisoning the seas and heating up the only planet our grandchildren will have.
We are already late, and our response to this crisis is insufficient to the point that it is causing a new crisis of anxiety and despair in the new generations who will have to live with the consequences of our apathy and complacency. That is why the young are crying out, because we are stealing their world. Attacking and ridiculing them for it is not only cowardly but also irresponsible.
You mention in your fable that the godmother had an engineering degree from MIT. I have two engineering degrees from MIT, a master’s and a doctorate, and for years I taught classes and did research at MIT. There are a great many projects at MIT devoted to eliminating our dependence on oil, mitigating the effects of climate change, and moving us to a sustainable economy. It is one of the most pressing issues the Institute has tackled in its century and a half of history. And one of the gravest challenges in the history of humanity. MIT is taking it very seriously.
I invite you not to focus on Greta and to pay attention to the calls of the world’s scientific leaders on these issues. With all respect, maestro, from a great admirer of your music and your virtuosity on the trombone. A hug.