Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Rips Into World Leaders At UN Summit

Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg has become a global sensation as she's traversed across the planet preaching about the need to fix the planet.

She's inspired millions of people to pay more attention to the environment and sparked arguably the largest international rally in human history.

Now that she's got the public on board, she's turned to world leaders and issued a savage message to them at the United Nations.

The Climate Action Summit in New York City heard from many, but it was Ms Thunberg's speech that has struck a core with people around the world.

"This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here," she told them, "I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you have come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.

"Yet, I am one of the lucky ones. People are suffering, people are dying and entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairy tales 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 saying that you're doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight.

"You say you hear us and that you 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."

PA

"We will not let you get away with this. Right now is where we draw the line."

She urged the leaders to do more than they're currently doing to cut emissions because at this rate it's still only going to have a 50 per cent chance of limiting the global temperature by 0.4 of a degree Celsius.

There was promise from a 66 countries to do more to stop the advances of climate change and 30 committed to become carbon neutral by 2050.

Finland and Germany have pledged to ban coal within the next 10 years, which is a very ambitious goal.

French President encouraged wealthier countries to do more than they committed in order to offset the emissions and output from poor countries who can't afford to take on climate change policies.

To help pressure the Australian government into addressing the impacts of climate change, click here.

Topics: climate change, News, Citizen Reef

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie