Greta Thunberg shook the internet last night with a fiery, emotional speech about climate change – naturally Donald Trump’s response wasn’t far away.
Although, the US president didn’t outright denounce Thunberg’s scathing worldview – Trump appears to have taken a mocking stance, using sarcasm to avoid the damning subject matter the Swedish climate activist raises.
The 16-year-old took to the stage at the United Nations Climate Summit on Monday (September 23), leaping into a powerful indictment of the grown-ups around her.
Have a look at the video below:
The UN summit, entitled ‘A Race We Can Win. A Race We Must Win’ and convened by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, is intended to confront the crisis of global warming and rising fossil fuel emissions.
In the speech, Thunberg told delegates:
This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. 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.
People are suffering. People are dying and dying ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is the 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.
The teen’s tearful speech has been retweeted thousands upon thousands of times – commentators have said Thunberg ‘represents the anger of that generation’ and she’s a ‘brave young woman’.
Trump’s tweet, without context, would appear to be kind – but it doesn’t make sense considering the video he’s sharing.
The president wrote on Twitter: ‘She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!’
It reeks of sarcasm: clearly, Thunberg is not looking forward to a ‘bright and wonderful future’, nor is she ‘very happy’ – she is absolutely furious at people, like Trump, who are skirting round, if not avoiding, the Earth’s greatest crisis.
Photos have also emerged which seem to show Trump getting some shuteye during the conference.
Many replies to the tweet are vicious, calling the young girl a ‘brat… filled with hate’. Mark Dice, a media analyst, wrote: ‘She makes me want to start dumping my trash in the ocean and praying the world really does end in 12 years!’
However, Brian Tyler Cohen said it best:
Alas, another moment of perfection came from the event. Thunberg was caught on video at the UN headquarters giving Trump an icy, Paddington-esque hard stare as he walked into frame – and it is magical.
Delegates at the summit discussed energy transition, climate finance, carbon pricing, industry transition and nature-based solutions.
Guterres, commenting on Thunberg’s words, said as per the MailOnline:
My generation has failed in its responsibility to protect our planet. That must change. The climate crisis is caused by us, and the solutions must come from us.
Thunberg is an inspiration us all. Her words paint a devastating picture: if you’re against her, you’re on the wrong side.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.