16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg harshly rebuked world leaders for refusing to address the climate crisis in a blistering set of remarks at the United Nations on Monday.
Said Thunberg: “This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words, and yet, I'm one of the lucky ones. 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 fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you! For more than 30 years the science has been crystal clear. how dare you continue to look away and come here and say that you're doing enough when the politics and solutions need are still nowhere in sight. You say you hear us and understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am I do not want to believe that 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.”
“There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today, because these numbers are too uncomfortable and you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is,” Thunberg added. “You are failing us. Young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. If you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. Change is coming whether you like it or not.”
CNN reports: “Thunberg and 15 other children filed a complaint with the United Nations Monday alleging that five of the world's leading economies have violated their human rights by not taking adequate action to stop the unfolding climate crisis. … The petition names five countries — Germany, France, Brazil, Argentina and Turkey — which they say have failed to uphold their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a 30-year-old human rights treaty which is the most widely ratified in history.”
