Thunberg bound for Europe as new adventures await
“EXTREMELY educational” is how
Greta Thunberg sums up her North
American sojourn as she prepares to cross the Atlantic once more, this time bound back for Europe.
The 16-year-old Swede, who became world famous for founding the “school strikes for the climate,” will set sail Wednesday morning, weather permitting, after 11 hectic weeks of criss-crossing the US and Canada, making headlines at every turn.
She excoriated world leaders at the United Nations, met former US president Barack Obama, received the keys to the city of Montreal and road tripped across the continent in a Tesla electric car lent to her by actor and ex-governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger.
But what did she make of the impact of the UN summit, the weekly student strikes, the protests where millions packed the streets worldwide to demand action against anthropogenic climate change?
“It depends,” she says in her usual matter-of-fact manner in an interview with AFP on board “La Vagabonde,” a sailboat owned by a young Australian couple that will be her home for the next two to three weeks.
She is wearing an oversized black windbreaker emblazoned with the words “Unite Behind The Science” as heavy, freezing rain pounds the hull.
“In one way, lots of things have changed, and lots of things have moved in the right direction, but also in a sense we have gone a few more months without real action being taken and without people realizing the emergency we are in,” said the high-schooler, who will return to her education next year.
She expresses her admiration for the people she met “who are living at the front line, and who are experiencing and living through the first consequences of the climate emergency” -- such as fellow teen Tokata Iron Eyes of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, who fought in vain to stop the construction of an oil pipeline on her homeland.
What did she learn from Obama? “It depends on how you define learning. I got an experience and he explained things to me, how it was to be in his position, how things work, and so on, so that, I guess.”
Her assessment of the presidents and prime ministers she encountered at the UN, meanwhile, was less than stellar.
“World leaders and people in power, politicians ask me for selfies and ask other climate activists for selfies because they want to look good next to us and say, ‘We care about the future of this planet, we care about future generations and young people today,’” she said, unsparingly.
She won’t mention names, but says “it was quite a lot.”
Even those countries that have committed to net zero emissions by 2050, such as the United Kingdom and New Zealand, are not doing “nearly enough,” she insists, adding that the media must do a better job of communicating why these targets aren’t sufficient to avert long-term climate disaster. Agence France-Presse