During her speech at the Youth4Climate summit in Milan, Greta Thunberg mocked the empty promises about climate change made by world leaders. The young activist described the leaders' words as babbling, including Biden's green jobs, Macron's no Planet B slogan and Boris Johnson's joke at the UN.
She said:
"This is not about some expensive politically correct green ads with bunny hugging or blah blah blah. Build back better blah blah blah. Green economy blah blah blah. Net-zero by 2050 blah blah blah. This is all we hear from our so-called leaders. Words. Words that sound great but so far has [sic] led to no action. Our hopes and dreams drown in their empty words and promises. Of course, we need constructive dialogue, but they've now had 30 years of blah blah blah and where has that led us?"
Her speech is expressive of the devastation felt by climate scientists and activists alike who have been trying to address climate issues for too long. Despite the fact that promises have been made during the Petersburg dialogue and the Climate Leaders' Summit, these have not been enacted thus far. The goals set by the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse emissions have not been met yet. Although this is worrying, we are still able to change course, as Thunberg emphasised.
During her speech, Thunberg stressed:
"But, of course, we can still turn this around. It is entirely possible. It will take drastic annual emission cuts, unlike anything the world has ever seen. And as we don't have the technological solutions that alone can deliver anything close to that, that means we will have to change. We can no longer let the people in power decide what is politically possible or not. We can no longer let the people in power decide what hope is. Hope is not passive, hope is not blah blah blah. Hope is telling the truth, hope is taking action, and hope always comes from the people!"
[h/t: IFL Science]
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