Greta Thunburg

Environmentalist

2003-01-03

Quotes by Greta Thunburg

• Social media can be very effective in creating movements. In the beginning, that is how I first got attention.

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• 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.

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• I'm on the autism spectrum. I don't usually follow social coding and so therefore I go my own way.

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• Once we start to act, hope is everywhere. So instead of looking for hope, look for action. Then, and only then, hope will come.

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• 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.

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• We are not going to be satisfied by politicians saying 'we support you' and then walking away. We won't be satisfied until they meet our demands and act. That's why simply taking a selfie or posting support on Twitter isn't enough. That's why we have to keep striking.

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• 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.

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• Sweden is not a green paradise, it has one of the biggest carbon footprints.

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• Many people, especially in the U.S., see countries like Sweden or Norway or Finland as role models - we have such a clean energy sector, and so on. That may be true, but we are not role models.

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• The symbolism of the climate strike is that if you adults don't give a damn about my future, I won't either.

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• Of course, individual change doesn't make much difference in a holistic picture... but we need both systemic change and individual change.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• I don't care about hate and threats from climate crisis deniers. I just ignore them.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• I mean, people aren't continuing like this and not doing anything because they are evil, or because they don't want to. We aren't destroying the biosphere because we are selfish. We are doing it simply because we are unaware.

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• We should not underestimate ourselves, because if lots of individuals go together then we can accomplish almost anything.

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