A 16-year-old has just given the most pointed, well written, and powerful speech about climate change, and put into words everything we’ve been thinking.
Greta Thunberg tearily addressed the EU, scolding the group decades her senior for holding three emergency summits on Brexit and none on the threat posed by climate change.
Here is a snippet of her speech. Post continues after video.
“Our house is falling apart and our leaders need to start acting accordingly because at the moment they are not,” the Swedish schoolgirl told a standing room-only meeting of MEPs and EU officials in Strasbourg.
“If our house was falling apart our leaders wouldn’t go on like we do today,
“If our house was falling apart, you wouldn’t hold three emergency Brexit summits and no emergency summit regarding the breakdown of the climate and the environment,” she continued.
Greta’s 10-minute speech was interrupted by frequent applause and ended with a 30-second standing ovation.
The young climate activist’s voice wobbled as she spoke about the effects of climate change to date.
“The extinction rate is up to 10,000 times faster than what is considered normal, with up to 200 species becoming extinct every single day.”
“Erosion of fertile topsoil.
“Deforestation of the rainforest.
“Toxic air pollution, loss of insects and wildlife, acidification of our oceans – these are all disastrous trends,” she told the group.
She was applauded after getting to the end of the passage and continued the speech without faltering again.
She even mentioned the recent burning down of Notre Dame in her speech.
“Some buildings are more than just buildings.
“But the Notre Dame will be rebuilt.
“I hope that its foundations will be strong. I hope that our foundations are even stronger. But I fear they are not,” she said.
“Around the year 2030, we will be in a position where we set off an irreversible chain reaction that will most likely lead to the end of our civilisation as we know it,” she told the room.
