Greta Thunberg has one goal: to make politicians act against climate change. The 16-year-old activist and Nobel prize nominee from Sweden – who kick started a global youth movement in a bid to tackle climate change in 2018 – stopped by parliament on her European tour to give a powerful speech on the planet’s future.
Joining a roundtable discussion with several MPs from various UK political parties, Thunberg served up some direct words on the government’s lack of action on climate change to date. “You lied to us. You gave us false hope. You told us that the future was something to look forward to. And the saddest thing is that most children are not even aware of the fate that awaits us,” she said, according to the Guardian. “We will not understand it until it’s too late. And yet we are the lucky ones. Those who will be affected the hardest are already suffering the consequences. But their voices are not heard.”
Thunberg, who gave up flying in 2015 to help the environment, spent two days travelling to the UK by train. She called out the UK on its current support of fossil fuels. “The UK’s active current support of new exploitation of fossil fuels – for example the UK shale gas fracking industry, the expansion of its North Sea oil and gas fields, the expansion of airports, as well as the planning permission for a brand new coal mine – is beyond absurd,” Thunberg said. “This ongoing irresponsible behaviour will no doubt be remembered in history as one of the greatest failures of humankind.”
Thunberg believes having Asperger’s syndrome has helped her in her fight against climate change. “It makes me different, and being different is a gift I would say. It also makes me see things from outside the box,” she told the BBC this week. “I don’t easily fall for lies, I can see through things. If I would’ve been like everyone else, I wouldn’t have started this school strike for instance.”
When concluding her speech – in which prime minister Theresa May wasn’t present – Thunberg took aim at adults, asking them to “wake up”. “We have not taken to the streets for you to take selfies with us, and tell us that you really admire what we do,” she said. “We children are doing this to wake the adults up. We children are doing this for you to put your differences aside and start acting as you would in a crisis. We children are doing this because we want our hopes and dreams back.”
Thunberg will now make her way back to Sweden to continue her studies.
