The harsh speech of the "environmental warrior" at the UN
"They come to us, young people, looking for hope, how dare they?" Thus, between indignation and tears, Greta Thunberg delivered her speech to the United Nations at the summit on climate change.
"They have stolen my dreams and my childhood with their hollow words and yet I am one of the luckiest. People are suffering, people are dying, whole ecosystems are collapsing," said the Swedish activist.
Her words to world leaders generated strong expectations in the previous days. Last Friday, the 16-year-old girl summoned thousands of people who participated in the mass protests against climate change.
"The eyes of all future generations are on you," Thunberg said, adding that "young people will never forgive you" if you do not stop this phenomenon.
"We are at the beginning of a mass extinction, and all they can think about is money and fairy tales," Greta said before the General Assembly.
"We will not let them get away with it. This and now is where we draw the limit. The world is waking up and change is coming, like it or not," concluded the founder of Fridays for Future.
High Impact Ecological Warrior
"What is the use of learning if we are not going to have a future?" She explained several times to the media. A year ago, Thunberg began to miss school and protest in front of the Swedish parliament with a banner. Thus, it quickly became the symbol of young people's disagreement with the inaction of governments in the face of climate change. Fridays for Future became a symbol and is imitated by thousands of young people from all over the world.
She crossed the Atlantic under sail, wrote a book, organized global marches, met with Pope Francis and other world leaders, gave a TED talk, gave numerous speeches that went around the world and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Greta has Asperger's Syndrome, a developmental disorder that is included within the autistic spectrum. However, according to her, this is what gives her determination: "It makes me see the world differently. I see lies more easily."
In December of last year, the adolescent spoke at the XIV UN Climate Change Conference with words that toured the media around the world: "You only talk about green and eternal economic growth because you are too afraid of not being popular. They just talk about moving on with the same bad ideas that got us into this disaster. But I don't mind being popular. I care about climate justice and the planet. Our biosphere is being sacrificed so that rich people in countries like mine can live in luxury. It is the sufferings of many who pay for the luxury of a few."
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Greta went for more and assured before the world leaders present: "Either we choose to continue as civilization or not. Adults say 'we have to give hope to the next generation'. But I don't want their hope, nor do I want them to have it. I want them to panic, to feel the fear that I feel every day, and then I want them to act. I want them to act like their house is on fire, because that's what is happening."
It is not difficult, then, that Time magazine has defined it as one of the leaders of the next generation: "When I grow up, I want to be able to look back and say I did everything I could. I think more people should feel that way."
