Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Failing us on climate, teenager tells leaders
UNITED NATIONS — Days after telling U.S. lawmakers to “listen to the scientists,” teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg made the same demand of the global leaders assembled at the United Nations.
“This is all wrong,” said Thunberg, who was visibly emotional as she spoke on a panel at a U.N. climate conference Monday.
The 16-year-old activist — who began skipping school in her native Sweden a year ago to protest inaction on climate change — chastised the world leaders who had gathered in New York, saying they were
praising young activists while failing to deliver on actions that she says will avert the worst effects of climate change.
“I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean,” said Thunberg, who traveled for two weeks on a solar-powered sailboat to reach the United States this month. “Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you?”
On Monday, Thunberg and 15 other young people filed a legal complaint with the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child arguing that major countries — Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey — have known about the risks of climate change for decades but have failed to take sufficient action to curb their carbon emissions. The petitioners range in age from 8 to 17 and hail from Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, India, the Marshall Islands, Nigeria, Palau, South Africa, Sweden, Tunisia and the United States.
“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words,” Thunberg said as she sat on the dais with panelists who included a young clean-energy entrepreneur from India and a Brazilian lawyer representing youth climate activists. “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?”
Thunberg said she would not accept world leaders telling her that they understand, “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.”
Her remarks ended with a warning: “You’re 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.”
Thunberg spoke as hundreds of activists blocked major intersections across Washington, D.C., demanding immediate government action on climate change. Under the banner of ShutDownDC, a broad coalition of activist groups sought to bring the morning traffic in Washington to a standstill.
The Metropolitan Police Department arrested 26 people who were blocking the entrance to a major tunnel.
Russell Gray, a member of the activist group Extinction Rebellion, said his group was OK with upsetting people “as long as they’re thinking about climate change.”
“We’re here to disrupt business as usual,” Gray said. “We feel that’s our only recourse.”
Thunberg also appeared upset in a U.N. encounter with U.S. President Donald Trump that was widely shared online. News cameras captured video of Thunberg frowning at Trump as he walked by. Trump’s administration is working to roll back several rules from President Barack Obama’s administration, and last week revoked California’s ability to set tighter limits on vehicles’ carbon emissions.
The president previously announced in 2017 that the U.S. would leave the landmark Paris climate agreement. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi appeared to reference that in a speech when he said of the agreement, “The withdrawal of certain parties will not shake the collective goal of the world community.”
Sixty-six countries have promised to have more ambitious climate goals, and 30 swore to be carbon-neutral — balancing their carbon-dioxide emissions with plants and technology — by 2050, said Chilean President Sebastian Pinera Echenique, who is hosting the next climate negotiations later this year.
The United States did not ask to have someone speak at the conference, U.N. officials said. And Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had told countries they couldn’t be on the agenda without making bold new proposals.
Trump spent about 15 minutes at the conference before he turned his focus to global religious persecution and protecting religious freedom, calling it an “urgent moral duty” for world leaders to stop crimes against faith, release prisoners of conscience and repeal laws restricting religious liberty.
“Approximately 80% of the world’s population live in countries where religious liberty is threatened, restricted or even banned,” Trump said, adding that when he first heard the statistic, he didn’t believe it and asked for verification.
Dallas-based pastor Robert Jeffress lauded Trump for his decision to focus on religious freedom.
“It is a remarkable thing that this president would skip a U.N. climate change summit on an imaginary problem to address the very real problem of global persecution of believers,” Jeffress told Fox News. “I mean, think about it — what president in history would have the guts to do what President Trump is doing? And it’s this kind of leadership that is absolutely infuriating the president’s enemies, but it’s also energizing his base, especially his religious base of voters.”
Trump did acknowledge the climate conference briefly as he left, telling reporters, “I’m a big believer in clean air and clean water, and all countries should get together and do that, and they should do it for themselves. Very, very important.”