In August of last year, a Swedish high school student decided to skip school every Friday to protest in front of the nation’s parliament. His goal of her? That the authorities take the problem of the climate crisis more seriously.
A year later, Greta Thunberg has become the leader of the movement “Fridays for the Future” (Fridays for Future) an initiative promoted mainly by young people who demand that adequate measures be taken to stop the advance of climate change.
Thunberg is known for her defiant speeches in which she openly points out the lack of action on the part of world leaders. In particular, her September 23 speech at the UN climate summit has garnered international attention and been widely applauded.
Below, we share with you other powerful phrases from Thunberg that have resonated around the world.
They are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden is left to us, the children.
In December 2018, while still relatively unknown, Thunberg attended the 24th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP24), in Katowice, Poland.
The young woman reproached the leaders for their reluctance to address the climate issue for fear of being unpopular with their base, assuring that she was intervening in “the name of climate justice.”
We are facing the sixth mass extinction and the rate of extinction is 10,000 times faster than normal
Thunberg gave a speech in front of the European Parliament in April this year. “Around the year 2030, 10 years, 259 days and 10 hours from now, we will have reached a point where we will set off a chain reaction that will probably spell the end of our civilization,” he said.
The young woman listed the environmental problems caused by the lifestyle of the richest countries in the world, such as the erosion of fertile soil, deforestation, air pollution, and the loss of wildlife.
My Asperger helps me not to believe in lies
He said it in an interview for the BBC shortly after his speech in the European Parliament. Thunberg has been the victim of online harassment and one of the focuses of the most toxic critics is that the young woman has Asperger’s syndrome, which many mistakenly confuse with a mental illness.
But the Swede thinks differently: “It makes me different and being different is a gift,” she said. “Asperger’s makes me think and see things outside of the traditional framework. And I don’t believe lies easily, I can see through those lies,” she added.
When I can be a politician, it will be too late to act
In an interview for EFE in April this year in Rome, he said: “We can’t wait for people like me to grow up and be the ones in charge of everything; we have to act now.”
Our parents argue about the end of Game of Thrones while the planet burns
In May of this year, Thunberg called for the inclusion of adults in the movement in a letter that was circulated quickly.
The Swede believes that young people are alone in their intentions to promote climate justice, since their parents are too concerned about “whether we have good grades, a new diet or the end of Game of Thrones, while the planet burns.”
It is the most important crisis humanity has ever faced.
At the end of this May, the actor Arnold Schwarzenegger organized a conference in Vienna, Austria, in which Thunberg participated.
“It is the most important crisis that humanity has ever faced,” Thunberg also said, adding that he trusted “humanity’s ability to react.”
“Humans have a great capacity for adaptation. When we become aware, we act, we change.”
I want you to listen to the scientists. And I want you to unite behind the science. And then I want them to act
On this occasion, the young woman presented a report on global warming, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in front of the United States Congress.
“I’m presenting this report as my testimony, because I don’t want them to listen to me. I want them to listen to the scientists. And I want them to unite behind the science. And then I want them to act,” he said on September 19.
Please save your compliments. we don’t want them
A day before her appearance in front of the US Congress, the activist told lawmakers: “Please save your praise. We don’t want it.”
“Don’t invite us here to tell us how inspiring we are without doing anything about it, because that leads nowhere,” he said.
Do you come to us, young people, in search of hope? How dare they?
This sentence is part of his keynote speech at the United Nations climate summit in New York on September 23.
“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be at school, across the ocean. Yet you come to us young people for hope? How dare you?” he said. .
The emotional speech has been around the world ever since.
What do you think of these phrases? Leave us your comments.
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BBC World