The climate crisis is both the easiest and the hardest issue we have ever faced. The easiest because we know what we must do. We must stop the emissions of greenhouse gases. The hardest because our current economics are still totally dependent on burning fossil fuels, and thereby destroying ecosystems in order to create everlasting economic growth.
Greta Thunburg
We should no longer measure our wealth and success in the graph that shows economic growth, but in the curve that shows the emissions of greenhouse gases.
We are living in the beginning of a mass extinction and our climate is breaking down.
Once we start to act, hope is everywhere. So instead of looking for hope, look for action. Then, and only then, hope will come.
We all have a choice. We can create transformational action that will safeguard the living conditions for future generations. Or we can continue with our business as usual and fail.
For 25 years countless people have come to the U.N. climate conferences begging our world leaders to stop emissions and clearly that has not worked as emissions are continuing to rise. So I will not beg the world leaders to care for our future. I will instead let them know change is coming whether they like it or not.
At first when I heard about climate change, I was a climate denier. I didn't think it was happening. Because if there really was an existential crisis like that, that would threaten our civilisation, we wouldn't be focusing on anything else. That would be our first priority. So I didn't understand how that added up.
To do your best is no longer good enough. We now have to do the seemingly impossible.
We can't just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow.
I am an introvert; privately I am very shy, and I don't speak unless I have to.
You can rebel in different ways. Civil disobedience is rebelling. As long as it's peaceful, of course.
I thought I couldn't make a difference because I was too small.
Avoiding climate breakdown will require cathedral thinking. We must lay the foundation while we may not know exactly how to build the ceiling.
There are thousands of ways to take action. For example, plant trees, pick up litter, join an organisation or movement that makes a difference and especially try to influence adults and put pressure on people in power.
Solving the climate crisis is the greatest and most complex challenge that homo sapiens have ever faced. The main solution, however, is so simple that even a small child can understand it. We have to stop our emissions of greenhouse gases.
I have Asperger's, I'm on the autism spectrum, so I don't really care about social codes. It makes you think differently.
Some people say that I should study to become a climate scientist so that I can 'solve the climate crisis.' But the climate crisis has already been solved. We already have all the facts and solutions. All we have to do is to wake up and change.
I think in many ways that we autistic are the normal ones and the rest of the people are pretty strange. They keep saying that climate change is an existential threat and the most important issue of all. And yet they just carry on like before.
Of course, individual change doesn't make much difference in a holistic picture... but we need both systemic change and individual change.
Social media can be very effective in creating movements. In the beginning, that is how I first got attention.
Being young is a great advantage, since we see the world from a new perspective and we are not afraid to make radical changes.
So when I speak in front of thousands, tens of thousands of people, I don't really get nervous because I know what I want to say and I know what message I want to give.
Some people say that the climate crisis is something that we will have created, but that is not true, because if everyone is guilty then no one is to blame. And someone is to blame.
I have been on the road and visited numerous places and met people from all over the globe. I can say that it looks nearly the same everywhere I have been: The climate crisis is ignored by people in charge, despite the science being crystal clear.
I do not see myself as a celebrity or an icon or things like that... I have not really done anything.
I have promised myself that I'm going to do everything I can for as long as I can.
I just know what is right and I want to do what is right.
I don't really like being in the centre of attention.
It is hard sometimes to always be at the centre of attention, but when you talk about me you also have to talk about the climate.
It felt like I was the only one who cared about the climate and the ecological crisis. My parents didn't care about it, my classmates didn't care about it, my relatives didn't care about this. I mean nobody I knew cared about this and I felt like I was the only one.
The symbolism of the climate strike is that if you adults don't give a damn about my future, I won't either.
The real danger is not inaction. The real danger is when politicians and CEOs are making it look like action is happening when in fact nothing is being done.
Some people can just let things go, but I can't, especially if there's something that worries me or makes me sad.
Giving up cannot be an option.
If burning fossil fuels was so bad that it threatened our very existence, how could we just continue like before? Why were there no restrictions? Why wasn't it made illegal? To me, that did not add up.
If there really was a crisis, and if this crisis was caused by our emissions, you would at least see some signs. Not just flooded cities, tens of thousands of dead people, and whole nations leveled to piles of torn down buildings. You would see some restrictions. But no. And no one talks about it.
I have always been that girl in the back who doesn't say anything.
Before I started school striking I had no energy, no friends and I didn't speak to anyone. I just sat alone at home, with an eating disorder. All of that is gone now, since I have found a meaning, in a world that sometimes seems shallow and meaningless to so many people.
For way too long the politicians and people in power have got away with not doing anything at all to fight the climate crisis and ecological crisis.
Many people seem to have this double moral. They say one thing and then do another thing. They say that the climate crisis is very important and yet they do nothing about it.
My message to all the activists is to just keep going, and I know it really may seem impossible and hopeless sometimes - it always does - so you just have to keep going because if you try hard enough and long enough you will make a difference.
When I'm really interested in something, I get superfocused on that. And I can spend hours upon hours not getting tired of reading about it and still be interested to learn more about it.
I think that once you fully understand the climate and ecological emergencies, then you know what you can do as well. And, of course, there's a lot of things you can do in your everyday life, but we cannot be focusing on these individual things you can do. We have to see the full picture.
When I was maybe eight or nine years old, I first learned about the climate crisis in school. My teachers taught me about it and we saw films and pictures of plastic in the ocean and extreme weather events. Those pictures were just stuck in my head; I thought, there is no point in anything.
People are unaware of what is going on. When I talk to people, they know the basics, they know the planet is warming because of greenhouse gases... but they don't know the actual consequence of that.
I remember when I was younger, and in school, our teachers showed us films of plastic in the ocean, starving polar bears and so on. I cried through all the movies. My classmates were concerned when they watched the film, but when it stopped, they started thinking about other things. I couldn't do that. Those pictures were stuck in my head.
Sometimes it's Tune-berg, sometimes Thunn-berg. I mean, I think it's funny that everyone pronounces it differently. So, that is just - I don't mind anyone pronouncing it wrong. There's no wrong way to pronounce it. Everyone pronounces it in their own way.
We can no longer save the world by playing by the rules.
I see the world in black and white, and I don't like compromising.
I'm telling you there is hope. I have seen it, but it does not come from the governments or corporations. It comes from the people.
