16-year-old Greta Thunberg Talks About Her Future to World Leaders at Davos
I really admire 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, the climate activist who started the rapidly-growing School Strikes 4 Climate Action. (Schoolchildren around the world skip school on a Friday to protest against the lack of climate action by our leaders).
Thunberg says that adults in power aren’t doing anywhere near enough to stop catastrophic climate change – and she’s right.
This week she spoke to world leaders at Davos in Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum (WEF). Perhaps her voice fell on deaf ears – after all, the WEF is all about growth and development and capitalism. But I admire her for doing so.
Activism Isn’t Easy!
Below you’ll see some of her key points – and she makes them simply and well. But what’s also interesting is the toll her activism is taking on her personally.
- She loves school and enjoys learning, so taking Fridays off to protest is difficult.
- She’s had to give up hobbies – she used to act, sing, dance, play an instrument and ride horses. She no longer has time for those – climate activism is just too important. “You have to see the bigger perspective”, she says.
- has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome.
She travelled by train for 32 hours to reach Davos, and spent Wednesday night camped with climate scientists on the mountain slopes — where temperatures plunged to -18 degrees C (-0.4 degrees F).
On Friday she will join a strike by Swiss school children — the final day of the World Economic Forum.
She is now the voice for a generation who are demanding urgent action to slow climate change.
So, what did she say at Davos?
What Greta Thunberg Said at Davos
“Our house is on fire” she opened.
She reminded delegates that we are less than 12 years away from not being able to undo our mistakes. We need dramatic change.
(If you prefer, you can watch the video – it’s under 3 minutes long – here).
Now is the time to speak clearly. Solving the climate crisis is the greatest and most complex challenge that we have ever faced. Yet the main solution is so simple that even a small child can understand it. We have to stop our emissions of greenhouse gases.
Either we do that or we don’t.
It is a lie that nothing in life is black or white. Either we prevent 1.5C of warming or we don’t. Either we avoid setting off that irreversible chain reaction beyond human control or we don’t.
Either we choose to go on as a civilisation or we don’t. That is as black or white as it gets. There are no grey areas when it comes to survival.
We all have a choice. We can create transformational action that will safeguard the living conditions for future generations. Or we can continue with our business as usual and fail.
Here in Davos – just like everywhere else – everyone is talking about money. It seems money and growth are our only main concerns.
And since the climate crisis has never once been treated as a crisis, people are simply not aware of the full consequences on our everyday life. That needs to change today.
We must establish a wide, public awareness and understanding of our carbon budget, that must become our new global currency and the very heart of our future and present economics.
We must change almost everything in our current societies. The bigger your carbon footprint, the bigger your moral duty. The bigger your platform, the bigger your responsibility.
Adults keep saying: “We owe it to the young people to give them hope.” But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.
I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is.
I think Greta Thunberg is wonderful!
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Warm regards,
P.S. Don’t forget to download your free climate change report here!