Greta Thunberg to COP26 Climate Leaders: 'We Are Watching'

Back to where it all started, thousands of people marched in Stockholm on Friday for the last Global Climate Strike before COP 26 opens in Glasgow.

Strikes were planned in more than 500 locations around the globe, organized by Fridays for Future, a youth climate movement started by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg in the summer of 2018 in front of Sweden's Parliament.

Youth activist leaders from around the globe gathered in Stockholm ahead of the journey to the United Nations climate summit to let their voices be heard.

"It's so important that a lot of us here from the global south, that are the countries most affected by the climate crisis, are here today because we wanted to bring the voices of the most impacted to the biggest strikes," said Mitzi Jonelle Tan, from the Philippines.

Activist Edwin Namakanga from Uganda said he had been inspired by Greta Thunberg and couldn't believe he was where Fridays for Future started.

He hoped he could raise awareness of the specific issues facing his country.

"We are experiencing landslides in the eastern part of Uganda and then severe catastrophic floods, whereby they have left many homes destroyed. People are dying and there is food scarcity," he said.

Greta Thunberg said she was fearful that Glasgow would not provide the action needed to solve the problem, but that the presence of youth activists from around the world would remind politicians their actions are being scrutinized.

"We are watching people," she said.

"We are not going to let them get away with just talking and not doing anything and pretending the situation is under control."

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[rustyankle]

One crisp winter morning in Sweden, a cute little girl named The Angry Beaver woke up to a perfect world, one where there were no petroleum products ruining the earth. She tossed aside her cotton sheet and wool blanket and stepped out onto a dirt floor covered with willow bark that had been pulverized with rocks. “What’s this?” she asked.
“Pulverized willow bark, ” replied her fairy godmother.
“What happened to the carpet?” she asked.
“The carpet was nylon, which is made from butadiene and hydrogen cyanide, both made from petroleum, ” came the response.
The Angry Beaver smiled, acknowledging that adjustments are necessary to save the planet, and moved to the sink to brush her teeth where instead of a toothbrush, she found a willow, mangled on one end to expose wood fibre bristles.
“Your old toothbrush?” noted her godmother, “Also nylon.”
“Where’s the water?” asked The Angry Beaver
“Down the road in the canal, ” replied her godmother, ‘Just make sure you avoid water with cholera in it”
“Why’s there no running water?” The Angry Beaver asked, becoming a little peevish.
“Well, ” said her godmother, who happened to teach engineering at MIT, “Where do we begin?” There followed a long monologue about how sink valves need elastomer seats and how copper pipes contain copper, which has to be mined and how it’s impossible to make all-electric earth-moving equipment with no gear lubrication or tires and how ore has to be smelted to a make metal, and that’s tough to do with only electricity as a source of heat, and even if you use only electricity, the wires need insulation, which is petroleum-based, and though most of Sweden’s energy is produced in an environmentally friendly way because of hydro and nuclear, if you do a mass and energy balance around the whole system, you still need lots of petroleum products like lubricants and nylon and rubber for tires and asphalt for filling potholes and wax and iPhone plastic and elastic to hold your underwear up while operating a copper smelting furnace and . . .
“What’s for breakfast?” interjected The Angry Beaver whose head was hurting.
"Fresh, range-fed chicken eggs, ” replied her godmother. “Raw.”
“How so, raw?” inquired The Angry Beaver.
“Well, . . .” And once again, Greta was told about the need for petroleum products like transformer oil and scores of petroleum products essential for producing metals for frying pans and in the end was educated about how you can’t have a petroleum-free world and then cook eggs. Unless you rip your front fence up and start a fire and carefully cook your egg in an orange peel like you do in Boy Scouts. Not that you can find oranges in Sweden anymore.
“But I want poached eggs like my Aunt Tilda makes, ” lamented The Angry Beaver.
“Tilda died this morning, ” the godmother explained. “Bacterial pneumonia.”
“What?!” interjected The Angry Beaver.. “No one dies of bacterial pneumonia! We have penicillin.”
“Not anymore, ” explained godmother “The production of penicillin requires chemical extraction using isobutyl acetate, which, if you know your organic chemistry, is petroleum-based. Lots of people are dying, which is problematic because there’s not any easy way of disposing of the bodies since backhoes need hydraulic oil and crematoriums can’t really burn many bodies using as fuel Swedish fences and furniture, which are rapidly disappearing - being used on the black market for roasting eggs and staying warm.”
This represents only a fraction of The Angry Beavers’s day, a day without microphones to exclaim into and a day without much food, and a day without carbon-fibre boats to sail in, but a day that will save the planet.
Tune in tomorrow when The Angry Beaver needs a root canal and learns how Novocain is synthesized and that Mike Obama is a guy.

[marywright]

Why does she travel in million dollar yachts and private planes? Talk is cheap

[imthebest]

We're gonna stand and shout we want change but continue to use the things that create the problem

[scottprimrose]

Look at me, I'm Gretty the rock star ! I'm just like Jesus Christ !!

[charlesimone]

Whats about clean your room? Before decide to solve difficult problem?

[randomdude]

She’s “never gonna give” this up is she? 😂

[davidrixon]

They never protest in China or Brazil the worst countries

[marccharboneau]

I wouldn't want to go home to her every night....or at all for that matter.

[nunyabidnis]

And they all fly around in jets and ride in limos.

[ajlacostewm]

None of those leaders should have the chance to talk to each other behind closed doors, if they do the world is screwed .

[stevemills]

I'd like to know if you've stopped any big polluters yet ?

[Vickielindstrander]

Rather than using Chinese solar panels that emit large amounts of greenhouse gases during the production process, Japanese-made coal plants that do not emit greenhouse gases will be significantly better environmentally friendly.

[TheDoomWizard]

So many people in denial. 2030 will be hell.

[naoh]

I do not care about the climate change. Sometime things has to end.

[kate]

I love how the entire fossil fuels sector and their friends in bought governments spew such venom at a tween with wealthy parents, Amazonians, the citizens of Flint and so many others.

[ricardodsavant]

Calm down, I suggest a bowl of weed, but whatever floats your boat. Have a nice day...🙂

[rubenverheij]

Protestors, before you look to others what they "must" do differently, why not start to change yourself first?!! Live the vegan-organic life-style. Don't buy clothing that harm the rivers and the oceans if you wash them. Don't pollute the air/oceans with party-balloons. Don't pollute nature with your cleaning-products (Cleaning products for your hair, face, body, teeth, nails, your house (toilet, etc)). Etc. Etc.

You wanna change the world, fine! But change yourself first!

Second step you could do.
Make organic-food cheaper and unhealthy-food more expensive. Help farmers (financially), to make the shift to organic-farming.

[kennethmoaratty]

I couldn't care any less about the climate. What I do care about is our fresh water supplies being polluted and the oceans.

[chandrabhushanshukla]

Has she herself done any ground work for conserving the environment.I feel they wouldn't have watered a plant in their whole life other than the purpose of social media..If u are a climate activist then you dont only need protest but concrete action on ur behalf.You wanna learn real climate saving story, go and watch Tulasi Gauda a tribal women from India.

[thorekobs]

#Scriptgirl (Margaret Klein Salamon, "Leading the public into emergency mode", a 2016 framing manual: "House on fire" phrase etc)