Transcript Of Greta Thunberg's Speech To The U.N. On Climate Change
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Climate activist Greta Thunberg, 16, addressed the U.N.'s Climate Action Summit in New York City on Monday. Here's the full transcript of Thunberg's speech, beginning with her response to a question about the message she has for world leaders.
"My message is that we'll be watching you.
"This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!
"You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!
"For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you're doing enough, when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight.
"You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil. And that I refuse to believe.
"The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees [Celsius], and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control.
"Fifty percent may be acceptable to you. But those numbers do not include tipping points, most feedback loops, additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution or the aspects of equity and climate justice. They also rely on my generation sucking hundreds of billions of tons of your CO2 out of the air with technologies that barely exist.
"So a 50% risk is simply not acceptable to us — we who have to live with the consequences.
"To have a 67% chance of staying below a 1.5 degrees global temperature rise – the best odds given by the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] – the world had 420 gigatons of CO2 left to emit back on Jan. 1st, 2018. Today that figure is already down to less than 350 gigatons.
"How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just 'business as usual' and some technical solutions? With today's emissions levels, that remaining CO2 budget will be entirely gone within less than 8 1/2 years.
"There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today, because these numbers are too uncomfortable. And you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is.
"You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.
"We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.
"Thank you."
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Greta Thunberg (born January 2003 ) is a Swedish environmental activist who is credited with raising global awareness of the risks posed by climate change , and with holding politicians to account for their lack of action on the climate crisis .
In August 2018, at 15 years of age, Thunberg took time off school to demonstrate outside the Swedish parliament , holding up a sign calling for stronger climate action . Soon, other students engaged in similar protests in their own communities.....
"I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean."
Yes.....YOU SHOULD BE !
"Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction"
As has happened before "Man/Woman" ever existed too !
I have a new thing to chant for her, "Just one damn human less". She and all of her friends can then pledge to never have children. Put their future families on the line for their beliefs. Nothing with reduce pollution, and CO2 levels, faster than there being less humans on this planet to consume.
Until she and all of her environmental friends make, and follow through, with that pledge they are spouting nothing more than empty words.
PS. Stop polluting by taking these bullshit trips all around the world. Yes, you should be in class on the other side of the ocean. Ever heard of teleconferencing? Just think, you caused the CO2 budget to be depleted faster by your worthless trips that accomplished nothing.
No speech - like the one this girl gives - that attempts to persuade people should be all anger. It's not a complete argument and it has a tendency to make your audience think you might be a little nuts.