Greta Thunberg is just 16 years old, but she is perhaps the most important environmental activist we have right now. She is the Swedish school student who called on young people around the world to skip school and attend protests about climate change in November last year. Since then, she has travelled the globe, speaking to world leaders about the urgent need to act now to save our planet. She first started being noticed when her school strikes outside the Swedish parliament in Stockholm got media coverage and she’s since become a public figure worldwide.
On 15 March this year, 1.4 million students in 112 countries joined Greta to protest government inaction on the matter of climate change. The next big strike is in the diary for 24th May.
Yesterday, Greta touched down in London to address the British parliament – and her speech was just the urgent, eloquent cry for action we have come to expect from her. She accused the British government of “doing nothing”, saying that her future has been stolen from her by leaders who refuse to enact meaningful, responsible policies to stop carbon emissions and protect the planet.
“This ongoing irresponsible behaviour will no doubt be remembered in history as one of the greatest failures of humankind,” she told an audience of MPs. She condemned the British government for their support of fossil fuels and airport expansions, calling them “beyond absurd”. She is, quite rightfully, angry about the way our leaders have reacted to a desperate environmental emergency and she’d reminded them that it’s her generation who will really see the effects of climate change.
“You lied to us. You gave us false hope. You told us that the future was something to look forward to,” she said. “You don’t listen to the science because you are only interested in solutions that will enable you to carry on like before.”
Greta is calling for urgent action – and she did say that she thinks there still time to act. But not much. “I’m sure that the moment we start behaving as if we were in an emergency, we can avoid climate and ecological catastrophe,” she told MPs. “Humans are very adaptable. But the opportunity to do so will not last for long.”
You can watch Greta speak here.
As for the millions of school students who’ve skipped school to protest? “I assure you we will go back to school the moment you start listening to science and give us a future. Is that really too much to ask?”
Greta Thunberg is the climate change hero we need right now. She is an extraordinary speaker, a courageous activist and a true visionary. Books will be written about this young women and history will remember her as having spoken truth to power on what is possibly the single most important issue of our time. What remains to be seen is whether we all listen to her.
