- Greta Thunberg cut a frail and lonely figure when she started a school strike for the climate outside the Swedish parliament building last August (2018). Her parents tried to dissuade her. Classmates declined to join. Passersby expressed pity and bemusement at the sight of the then unknown 15-year-old sitting on the cobblestones with a hand-painted banner. Eight months later on this Friday Mar 15, 2019, the global climate school strike (over a million students on strike for climate justice) has become the biggest environmental protests the world has ever seen.
- Ms Thunberg's made it clear that "if solutions within the system are so impossible to find, maybe we should change the system itself". In her speech to MPs in April 2019, Miss Thunberg said the UK was supporting shale gas fracking, greater exploitation of North Sea oil and gas fields and expanding airports. "This ongoing irresponsible behavior will no doubt be remembered in history as one of the greatest failures of humankind," she said. She described the UK's carbon emissions reduction as the result of "very creative" accounting.
- In an industry conference, Oil and Gas UK chief executive Ms. Deirdre Michie said: "I would like to reassure Greta Thunberg - we are listening, because we want the world to be a better place too. And while we believe that our industry's global contribution has improved the lives of billions of people, we are clear that climate change is a real and present danger that we must deal with together." She described the climate activist (Ms.Greta Thunberg) as an "impressive young woman we can all take inspiration from".
- Unfortunately the public's, Govt's, etc Green credentials vaporize at the first suggestion that to avert climate change they may have to compromise their lifestyles a tiny bit. Much easier subscribe to the delusion that wind turbines, solar panels electric cars, etc help, even if they obviously don't. Meanwhile the worlds fossil fuel consumption grows year-on-year unabated.
Excerpts from Greta Thunberg's speeches:
- Some people can let things go. I can’t.
- The main solution however is so simple that even a small child can understand it. We have to stop the emissions of greenhouse gases.
- We must change almost everything in our current societies.
- Our civilization is being sacrificed for the opportunity with a very small number of people to continue making enormous amounts of money.
- And if solutions within this system are so impossible to find then maybe we should change the system itself.
- The real power belongs to the people!
- 200 species going extinct every single day.
- If the emissions have to stop, then we must stop the emissions.
- People keep doing what they do because the vast majority doesn't have a clue about the actual consequences of our everyday life.
- Most climate scientists or green politicians keep on flying around the world, eating meat and dairy.
- We need action more than hope. Once we start to act, hope is everywhere.
- Today we use 100 million barrels of oil every single day. There are no politics to change that. There are no rules to keep that oil in the ground. So we can't save the world by playing by the rules. Because the rules have to be changed.
Greta Thunberg speeches
- Speech at TEDxStockholm
- Speech at COP24 Dec 3 2018
- Speech at COP24 Dec 12 2018
- Challenging The World Economic Forum in Davos - January 22 2019
- Speech "Our House is on Fire" at 2019 World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos
- Speech 2019-02-21 in Brussels: "We want politicians to listen to the scientists"
- "You can't just sit around waiting for hope to come" 2019-02-21 in Brussels
- Speech at the EU Parliament in Strasbourg 2019-04-16
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