homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Climate activist Greta Thunberg slams world leaders at the UN

“This is all wrong, I shouldn’t be up here,” she said.

Fermin Koop
September 24, 2019 @ 10:00 pm

share Share

Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg told world leaders at the opening of a United Nations conference in New York City that they had stolen her childhood with “empty words.”

Credit: Wikipedia Commons

“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words,” Thunberg said at a U.N. climate change summit, admonishing them for not doing enough to protect the environment.

Thunberg, who traveled from Europe to New York for the summit on a zero-emissions sailboat, said she should be in school in her native Sweden rather than at the UN telling world leaders what to do to address climate change.

Listen to the science, she told them, which has been “crystal clear” for 30 years. She admonished them for leaving her generation with the task of sucking billions of tons of carbon dioxide out of the air “with technologies that barely exist.”

“This is all wrong, I shouldn’t be up here,” said Thunberg, who spoke along with UN Secretary-General Antônio Guterres, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others. “The eyes of all future generations are on you,” she said.

Leaders from around the world, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have gathered in New York this week to make new pledges to curb global-warming emissions. US President Donald Trump, who wasn’t originally scheduled to attend, made a surprise appearance at the summit on Monday.

President Trump took to Twitter, citing the first half of that statement then saying Thunberg “seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!”

Guterres is calling on countries to step up commitments to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels. “We face at least three degrees Celsius of global heating by the end of the century,” he said. “I will not be there, but my granddaughters will. And your grandchildren, too. I refuse to be an accomplice in the destruction of their home and only home.”

French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged in his speech after Thunberg’s at the summit the frustration she and other activists are expressing. “I was very struck by the emotion in the room,” Macron said. “I think they’ve identified an absolute urgency that we have to respond to here.”

Thunberg recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of the start of her climate change movement. Last August, she began striking by herself outside the Swedish parliament, and soon, students around the world began walking out of school, demanding action from their governments. She’s been called “the voice of the planet,” and has even been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

share Share

If you use ChatGPT a lot, this study has some concerning findings for you

So, umm, AI is not your friend — literally.

Revenge of the Fish: A Bone Pierced Through Man’s Gut and Stabbed His Liver

A swallowed bone made its way from the gut to the liver, causing weeks of mystery pain

Miyazaki Hates Your Ghibli-fied Photos and They're Probably a Copyright Breach Too

“I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself,” he said.

This Is Why Human Faces Look So Different From Neanderthals

Your face stops growing in a way that neanderthals' never did.

AI-Assisted Wearable Device 'Speaks' For People With Dysfunctional Vocal Cords

Speech-language pathology is an area of medical science based on the mechanics of voice production and the evaluation, treatment and prevention of communication. AI-assisted technology is now part of treatment options for conditions that affect speech, such as stuttering or the inability to control specific muscles after a stroke.  UCLA bioengineers have created a device […]

Scientists sawed a human brain into 703 cubes to map its energy system for the first time

Your brain burns 20 percent of your body’s energy and now we know exactly where it goes.

This Tiny Nuclear Battery Could Last for Thousands of Years Without Charging

The radiocarbon battery is supposed to be safe for everyday operations.

Bad microphone? The people on your call probably think less of you

As it turns out, a bad microphone may be standing between you and your next job.

New study shows why you should switch to filtered coffee

It doesn't matter what type of coffee or filter. Just filter your coffee.

Sharks Aren’t Silent After All. This One Clicks Like a Castanet

This is the first evidence of sound production in a shark.