We must act over climate crisis, says Thunberg
Activist hits back as Trump decries ‘prophets of doom’
GRETA THUNBERG was among four young climate activists to scold the elites gathered at the World Economic Forum for not doing enough to deal with the climate emergency and warned them that time was running out.
At a panel in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, the four said they hoped their generation had found its voice and can work with those in power to bring about the necessary change to limit climate change.
Yet Miss Thuberg said not enough has been done.
“We need to start listening to the science, and treat this crisis with the importance it deserves,” said the 17-year-old, just as US President Donald Trump was arriving in Davos and was due to give a speech.
Mr Trump has pulled the US out of the Paris accord to limit climate change and has traded barbs with Miss Thunberg on social media.
“Without treating it as a real crisis we cannot solve it,” Miss Thunberg said.
The Swedish teenager came to fame by staging a regular strike at her school, sparking a global movement that eventually earned her Time Magazine’s award as the 2019 Person of the Year. She said that people are more aware about climate issues now. The campaigner said: “It feels like the climate and environment is a hot topic now, thanks to young people pushing.”
The others on the panel were just as forceful and passionate about the effects of global warming and how they, as young people, need to play a central role in raising awareness and insist on change.
“The older generation has a lot of experience, but we have ideas,
we have energy, and we have solutions,” said Natasha Wang Mwansa, an 18-year-old activist from Zambia who campaigns for girls’ and women’s rights.
Salvador Gomez-Colon, who raised funds and awareness after Hurricane Maria devastated his native Puerto Rico in 2017, said young activists are doing more than just talking. “We’re not waiting five, 10, 20 years to take the action we want to see. We’re not the future of the world, we’re the present, we’re acting now. We’re not waiting any longer.”
Miss Thunberg said the time for action was now, that being at the top of the agenda meant nothing if the world doesn’t get to grips with the climate emergency. “I am not the person who can complain about not being heard. I’m being heard all the time,” she quipped. “But in general the science and the voice of young people is not in the centre of the conversation.”
Autumn Peltier, the chief water commissioner for the Anishinabek
Nation of indigenous people in Canada, said plaudits are not what they are looking for.
“I don’t want your awards. If you are going to award me, award me with helping to find solutions and helping to make change.”
Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has slammed US President Donald Trump’s speech at the World Economic Forum for misrepresenting the economy and for failing to tackle climate issues.
In his speech at the Swiss resort, Mr Trump had dismissed climate “prophets of doom” and called for a rejection of “predictions of the apocalypse” and said America would defend its economy.
Mr Stiglitz said right after the speech that “the characterisation of the economy is totally wrong”.
He also voiced his frustration at Mr Trump’s failure to address head on the climate emergency, beyond a commitment that the US will join an initiative to plant a trillion trees worldwide.
We need to treat this crisis with the importance it deserves Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg.