Thunberg, Trump air polar views on climate
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg inveighed against the sowers of ‘‘climate chaos’’ yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, offering a view of the world in stark contrast to that of United States President Donald Trump.
In two speeches at the conference, Thunberg, 17, renewed the call to ‘‘start listening to the science’’ on climate change. The world, she said, needed to ‘‘treat this crisis with the importance it deserves’’.
Thunberg echoed her warning in Davos last year, when she told world leaders: ‘‘I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.’’
The Swedish teen’s activism helped inspire a global climate action movement, which earned her Time magazine’s Person of the Year title in December.
‘‘Without treating [climate change] as a real crisis, we cannot solve it,’’ she told the annual conference of world political and economic leaders. In a second speech, she said: ‘‘Our house is still on fire. Your inaction is fuelling the flames by the hour. And we are telling you to act as if you loved your children above all else.’’
Trump made his second appearance at Davos this year. While Thunberg and
Trump did not mention each other directly, their remarks represented a head-on collision of world views.
Trump said he was a ‘‘big believer in the environment’’ but did not single out climate change, and he lashed out at ‘‘alarmists’’. He said the US would participate in a plan to plant a trillion trees worldwide – a plan climate activists say will not scratch the surface of the problem. During her afternoon panel, Thunberg said: ‘‘Planting trees is good, of course, but it is nowhere near enough of what is needed.’’
Her words echoed a common sentiment among climate activists, whose anger at world leaders and big businesses has renewed momentum amid the wildfires that have wreaked havoc in Australia in recent weeks.
‘‘Not even catastrophes like these seem to bring any political action. How is this possible?’’ Thunberg tweeted last month, drawing the enmity of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who backs Australia’s coal industry despite research connecting it to climate change. Morrison is not at Davos.
Scientists say rising temperatures have increased the ferocity of this year’s Australian wildfires.
– Washington Post