Greta Thunbergs tale ved Klimamarchen

Hei

Jag heter Greta Thunberg, jag är en svensk klimataktivist och jag kommer prata engelska nu för en säkerhets skuld, så ni inte behöver låda som om, ni förstår.

Thank you all for being her today. It’s lovely to see – it’s a lot of people, from where I stand it’s just an ocean of heads, so.

During the last couple of months millions of children have school striked for the climate all around the world.

And yesterday we had one of our biggest strikes yet.

It is absolutely crazy that things have gone so far that children feel like they must sacrifice their education to compensate for the inaction of our leaders and most adults.

In about two weeks you have elections in Denmark, and tomorrow across Europe there are elections to the European Parliament.

We are about 508 million people living in the EU, and we use about twenty percent of the world’s resources. That is about one-fifth of the world’s resources.

What we do in the EU has enormous impact for future living conditions on this planet.

We are facing an existential threat. Time is rapidly running out.

And unless we have cut our emissions by at least 50% in the next 10 years, 220 days and about 10 hours, it is likely that we set off an irreversible chain reaction beyond human control.

And note, that these figures do not include tipping points, feedback loops, already built-in warming hidden by toxic air pollution, nor the aspect of equity in the Paris Agreement.

These calculations are however depending on technical solutions that are yet to be invented at scale.

According to the United Science, this will require unprecedented changes in all aspects of society, starting today.

If the EU really decided to face the ongoing climate emergency, and tried to act with the necessary force then this would have a huge global impact.

Of course you would think the EU elections should be about this. But it is not.

Of course you would think we would try to stop our emissions. But we are not.

In fact, the global emissions are still rising. Despite all the beautiful words and promises of our leaders and politicians.

Beautiful words like “carbon neutral Copenhagen 2025”.

It sounds really good, but if being carbon neutral does not include transportation, shopping, food, aviation, and shipping then it doesn’t really mean that much.

In fact, sending these messages, that suggest that real action is going on when it really is not, probably does more harm than good.

Lowering our emissions is far from enough. Our emissions have to stop if we are to stay below the 1.5 or 2 degree warming limit.

And for this, we can no longer settle for isolated specific actions.

For this, we need to look at the full picture.

For this, we need to treat this emergency like an emergency.

For this, we need a whole new way of thinking.

If everyone lived like we do in Sweden, Denmark and the European Union then it would already be to late to stay below the 1.5 or 2 degree limit.

If everyone lived like we do then we would already be much closer to irreversible hothouse earth.

So instead of blaming others and telling them what they should be doing, we should instead be leading the way just like we signed up for in the Paris Agreement.

Our upcoming elections should all be about this, because this could be the last chance we have to start the transformation required.

We can still fix this, but to do so we must start today.

Those who are going to be affected the most by the climate and ecological crisis are young people like me who cannot vote. So if not for yourself, then vote for us.

I can’t say enough how important these elections are but we also have to acknowledge that we already know the outcome of the elections.

And since almost no-one is aware of the full consequences of the climate crisis, then people won’t care about this, when they go to vote.

So we mustn’t be disappointed when we see the results. We must bear in mind that the fight doesn’t end here, this is just the beginning.

Everyone and everything needs to change, so why waste precious time arguing about who and what should change first.

Everyone and everything needs to change, but the bigger your platform, the bigger your responsibility.

The bigger your carbon footprint, the bigger your moral duty.

Our house is on fire. And we should get angry and transform that anger into action, and then act as if your life depended on it. Because it does.

Thank you, and tusen takk. 

 
During the last couple of months millions of children have school striked for the climate. And yesterday we had one of our biggest strikes yet. It is absolutely crazy that things have gone so far that children feel like they must sacrifice their own education to compensate for the inaction of our leaders and of most adults.In about two weeks you have elections in Denmark.
 
And tomorrow, across Europe, there are elections to the European Parliament. We are 508 million people living in the European Union. And together we use 20 % of the world’s resources. That is one fifth of the world’s resources. What we do in the EU has enormous impact for future living conditions on this planet.
 
We are facing an existential threat. Time is rapidly running out.
 
And unless we have cut our emissions of greenhouse gases by at least half in the next 10 years, 220 days and 10 hours. It is likely that we will set off an irreversible chain reaction beyond human control.
 
And note that these figures do not include tipping points, feed back loops, already built in warming hidden by toxic air pollution nor the aspect of equity in the Paris agreement.
 
These calculations are however depending on technical solutions that are yet to be invented at scale.
 
According to the united science this will require unprecedented changes in all aspects of society, starting today.
 
If the EU really decided to face the ongoing climate emergency and try to act with the necessary force then this would have a huge global impact.
 
Of course you would think that tomorrows elections would be about this.
 
But it’s not.
 
Of course you would think that we would try to stop our emissions.
 
But we are not.
 
In fact our emissions are still rising.
 
Despite all the beautiful words and promises from our politicians and leaders.
 
Beautiful words like Carbon free Copenhagen 2025.
 
It sounds really good.
 
But if being carbon neutral does not include transportations, shopping, food or aviation and shipping then it really doesn’t mean that much.
 
In fact sending these messages that suggest that real action is going on, when it really is not, probably does more harm than good.
 
Lowering our emissions is far from enough.
 
Because our emissions have to stop if we are to be in line with the Paris agreement.
 
And for this we can no longer settle for isolated, specific actions.
 
For this we need to look at the full picture.
 
For this we need to treat the emergency like an emergency.
 
For this we need a whole new way of thinking.
 
If everyone lived like we do in Sweden, Denmark or the European Union then it would already be too late to stay below the 1,5 or 2 degree targets. If everyone lived like we do we would be much closer to irreversible hot house earth.
 
So instead of blaming others and telling them what they should be doing, we should be leading the way. Just like we have signed up to do in the Paris Agreement.
 
Our upcoming elections should all be about this.
 
Because this could well be the last chance we have to start the transformation required.
 
We can still fix this.
 
But to do so we must start today.
 
Those who are going to be affected the most by the climate- and ecological crises, young people like me, cannot vote. So if not for yourself, then vote for us.
 
I can’t say enough how important these elections are. But we also have to acknowledge that we already know the outcome of these elections.
 
And since almost no-one is aware of the full meaning of these crises, people won’t care about this when they go to vote.
 
So we mustn’t be disappointed when we see the results. We need to bare in mind that the fight doesn’t end here, this is just the beginning.
 
Everyone and everything needs to change. So why waste precious time arguing about who and what needs to change first? Everyone and everything needs to change, but the bigger your platform - the bigger your responsibility.
 
The bigger your carbon footprint. The bigger your moral duty.
 
Our house is on fire. And we should get angry, and then transform that anger into action. And act as if your life depended on it. Because it does.
 
 

I løbet af de seneste måneder har millioner af børn skolestrejket for klimaet. Og i går havde vi en af vores største strejker til dato. Det er helt skørt, at vi er nået dertil, hvor børn føler sig nødsaget at ofre deres egen uddannelse for at gøre op for den passivitet, vores ledere og de fleste voksne udviser.

Om ca. to uger har I valg i Danmark.

Og i morgen er der valg til Europa-Parlamentet over hele Europa. Vi bor 508 millioner mennesker i EU. Og tilsammen bruger vi 20 % af verdens resurser. Det er en femtedel af verdens resurser. Det, vi foretager os i EU, har en kæmpe betydning for de fremtidige livsbetingelser på vores planet.

Vi står over for en eksistentiel trussel. Tiden er ved at løbe fra os.

Og hvis ikke vi som minimum har halveret vores udledning af drivhusgasser inden for de næste 10 år, 220 dage og 10 timer, vil vi sandsynligvis sætte en ustoppelig kædereaktion i gang, vi ikke kan kontrollere.

Og læg mærke til, at disse tal hverken omfatter afgørende vendepunkter, feedbackmekanismer og allerede påbegyndt opvarmning forårsaget af anden luftforurening eller princippet om et retfærdigt grundlag, som er en del af Parisaftalen.

Men disse beregninger afhænger af tekniske løsninger, som mangler at blive opfundet i stort omfang.

Ifølge den samlede forskning vil det kræve, at vi foretager vidtgående ændringer i alle dele af samfundet allerede i dag.

Hvis EU virkelig besluttede sig for at se den igangværende klimakrise i øjnene og handle i overensstemmelse med situationens alvor, ville det have en kæmpe global effekt.

Man skulle tro, at det var det, valget i morgen handlede om.

Men det gør det ikke.

Man skulle tro, at vi ville forsøge at standse vores udledning af drivhusgasser.

Men det gør vi ikke.

Faktisk stiger vores udledning af drivhusgasser stadig.

På trods af alle de smukke ord og løfter fra vores politikere og ledere.

Smukke ord, såsom "København CO2-neutral 2025".

Det lyder rigtig godt.

Men hvis CO2-neutral ikke omfatter transport, indkøb, madvarer eller flyrejser, så har det ingen betydning.

Faktisk gør det nok mere skade end gavn at sende budskaber om, at der er sat reelle tiltag i gang, når det ikke er tilfældet.

Det er slet ikke nok at mindske vores udledning af drivhusgasser.

For vi er nødt til at standse vores udledning, hvis vi vil leve op til Parisaftalen.

Og derfor kan vi ikke længere nøjes med isolerede, målrettede tiltag.

Derfor er vi nødt til at se på det store billede.

Derfor er vi nødt til at behandle krisen som en krise.

Derfor er vi nødt til at tænke helt anderledes.

Hvis alle levede, som vi gør i Sverige, Danmark eller EU, så ville det allerede være for sent at holde sig under målet på 1,5 eller 2 grader. Hvis alle levede, som vi gør, ville vi være meget tættere på en ustoppelig drivhusplanet.

Så i stedet for at skyde skylden på andre og fortælle dem, hvad de burde gøre, burde vi gå forrest. Ligesom vi har skrevet under på, at vi vil, i Parisaftalen.

Det burde vores kommende valg handle om.

For det her kunne meget muligt være den sidste chance, vi har, for at sætte gang i den nødvendige omstilling.

Vi kan stadig løse det.

Men så er vi også nødt til at begynde i dag.

Dem, der bliver mest påvirket af klima- og miljøkriserne, er unge mennesker som mig, der ikke kan stemme. Så hvis du ikke vil gøre det for din egen, så stem for vores skyld.

Jeg kan ikke gentage nok gange, hvor vigtige valgene er. Men vi bliver også nødt til at indse, at vi allerede kender udfaldet af valgene.

Og siden ingen er klar over den virkelige betydning af kriserne, er folk ligeglade med dem, når de går hen for at stemme.

Så vi må ikke blive skuffede, når vi får resultaterne. Vi må huske på, at kampen ikke slutter her, det er kun begyndelsen.

Alle og alt er nødt til at omstilles. Så hvorfor bruge dyrebar tid på at skændes om, hvem og hvad der må omstilles først? Alle og alt er nødt til at omstilles, men jo større indflydelse du har, jo større ansvar har du også.

Jo større dit CO2-aftryk, jo større dit moralske ansvar.

Vores hus brænder. Og vi bør være vrede og omdanne den vrede til handling og handle, som om vores liv afhang af det.

For det gør det.