{"id":67426,"date":"2024-06-03T12:25:03","date_gmt":"2024-06-03T10:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=67426"},"modified":"2024-06-13T12:41:42","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T10:41:42","slug":"why-i-blame-oil-and-gas-companies-for-burning-our-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/67426\/why-i-blame-oil-and-gas-companies-for-burning-our-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I blame oil and gas companies for burning our future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Each year, as December draws near and I prepare for my journey home, I am seized by a growing sense of anxiety. This unease isn’t stemming from the inevitable barrage of questions from my family about my life in Johannesburg, South Africa, or when I plan to marry. As I sit and search for the root of this knot in my stomach, it is all too clear. <\/p>\n\n

\"Flooding
Flooding along the Sunshine Coast and Garden Route, South Africa, in 2023 (left). Thandile Chinyavanhu as a child (right).
\u00a9 Pete Du Toit \/ Alan Eason \/ Thandile Chinyavanhu<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

It has become a constant presence in my waking and sleeping hours. It is the rainy season in Southern Africa. The fear of when flooding returns – will my family be safe? Can I afford to repair the damage if disaster strikes again? Last time, it was the backyard wall of my mother\u2019s home that was damaged, but what if it’s worse next time?<\/p>\n\n

My family is from a small coastal town in the Eastern Cape. It can only be described as idyllic. The green expanse of cascading hills is broken only by clusters of vibrant wildflowers. The air is filled with a salty sweetness, a tranquil symphony of the sea meeting the land. There is no place I feel more at ease. <\/p>\n\n

However, with the growing frequency and intensity of flooding, that has changed. These feelings of anxiety grew more pronounced last year as a surge of spring tides with waves as high as 9.5 metres pillaged the Southern Coast<\/a>. I watched on helplessly as my social media was flooded with footage of familiar landscapes deluged. My frustration grew as I observed my community grappling to understand the disaster. Social media was awash with conjectures of doomsday and ancestral wrath<\/a>. But to me, the culprit was clear – it was the stark reality of climate change \u2013 global heating driven by a polluting industry that\u2019s insatiable for profit at any cost.<\/p>\n\n

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A post shared by Greenpeace International \ud83c\udf0d (@greenpeace)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>