14 DAY TRIAL // If you're in the market for a role model, look no further, as odds are I've found one for you. The person I'm talking about is a 92-year-old man by the name Bill Ryan, and he is a World War II veteran and a climate activist.
According to Grist, it was just a few days ago when this man was arrested as a result of his taking part in a protest against a proposed mine in Australia's Leard State Forest.
If built, this mine would cough out about 15 million tons of coal on a yearly basis. The coal would get burnt for energy, and quite a lot of emissions would work their way into our planet's atmosphere.
Hence, neither 92-year-old Bill Ryan nor the other 150 climate activists that took part in the March 31 protest in Australia want the plans to establish this coal mine to move forward.
The same source tells us that, together with other environmentalists, the 92-year-old locked himself to the machinery that was brought in the area to clear trees and make room for the coal mine.
Shortly after, police officers arrived at the scene and arrested him on trespassing charges. Still, the World War II veteran says that, given the urgency of limiting climate change and global warming, he would do it all again.
“I’ve been reading the international scientific reports on the climate, which say there is no future for my grandchildren and great-grandchild[ren] unless there is a reversal in our use of fossil fuels, and a replacement by renewables,” the man writes in an essay describing the experience in The Guardian.
“I’ve only got a few years left, but I feel in my conscience that I have to take this stand. I was willing to put my life on the line in the second world war, so putting my body on the line here is a small inconvenience,” he adds.