Greta Thunberg to Media: Stop Focusing on Me, Focus on Other Climate Activists
Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg announced to 420 reporters that she is tired of the relentless media attention she is getting.
The 16-year-old activist arrived in Madrid last Friday, following a three-week sailing trip across the Atlantic, because she has sworn off flying due to the threat it poses for the environment.
Greta was joined by other activists at an event at La Casa Encendida where the COP25 United Nations climate change conference is being held.
Speaking alongside prominent German activist Luisa Neubauer at a UN climate meeting in Madrid, Greta said their stories ‘have been told over and over again.’
“There is no need to listen to us anymore,” she said.
“It is people especially from the global south, especially from indigenous communities, who need to tell their stories,” she said before handing the mic to young activists from the United States, the Philippines, Russia, Uganda, Chile and the Marshall Islands.
The 420 journalists there mainly directed their questions to Ms Thunberg, prompting her to say: “They shouldn’t listen to me before anyone else. I am a small part of a very big movement.”
She told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet: “It’s absurd. I don’t like to be the centre of attention all the time, but it’s a positive thing.
“As long as the press writes about me, they are also writing about the climate crisis.”
The teenager later took part in a climate march attended by roughly 25,000 people.
Two were arrested and six police officers were injured during the march, which also saw Spanish actor Javier Bardem call the Mayor of Madrid ‘stupid’ for his opinions on climate change.