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Greta Thunberg has lashed out at the West's obsession with capitalism in a scathing rant during a sit down chat in London to promote her new book.
The 19-year-old Swedish activist called on everyone to help tear down the system that she believes is responsible for the climate crisis we find ourselves in today.
Thunberg said the Western world is in need of a 'system-wide transformation'.
The teenage activist said: "We are never going back to normal again because ‘normal’ was already a crisis.
"What we refer to as normal is an extreme system built on the exploitation of people and the planet.
"It is a system defined by colonialism, imperialism, oppression and genocide by the so-called global North to accumulate wealth that still shapes our current world order."
Thunberg added that if economic growth is the only priority of our global leaders, then 'what we are experiencing now should be exactly what we should be expecting'.
The Swedish activist spoke at London’s Royal Festival Hall to launch her new published work called The Climate Book.
The book is described as the 'essential handbook for making it happen' when it comes to saving the Earth.
In her speech, she added that her generation is prepared to fight for what is right and to tackle the wrongs of their predecessors.
"We are still here, and we are not planning on going anywhere," she said.
"Young people all over the world are stepping up, showing that our leaders messed with the wrong generation."
During a question and answer section of the event, Thunberg added: “We need to change everything because right now our current system is on a collision course with the future of humanity and the future of our civilisation”.
Her words came after the activist dubbed the UN's climate conference COP27 as a 'colossal scam'.
"I’m not going to COP27 for many reasons, but the space for civil society this year is extremely limited," she said.
"The COPs are mainly used as an opportunity for leaders and people in power to get attention, using many different kinds of greenwashing."
Greenwashing is the process of companies or countries exaggerating their commitment to tackling climate change.
Given the incredibly pressing nature of the climate crisis, Greta said: "As it is, the COPs are not really working, unless, of course, we use them as an opportunity to mobilise, which we must try to do, and make people realise what a colossal scam this is."
She isn't wrong.
Watching the world's superpowers fly to a conference to talk about climate change sounds like like the start of a Monty Python sketch.
Greta Thunberg says she has daily ‘laughing attacks’ and says her Asperger’s helps her see through ‘bulls**t’
Claire Reid
Published | Last updated
Featured Image Credit: Franz Perc / Alamy Stock Photo / BBC
Greta Thunberg has challenged the perception that she’s an ‘angry teenager’ and says those closest to her know differently.
The 19-year-old climate change activist surprisingly rose to fame when she was a schoolgirl and became the face of school strikes.
Thunberg has said becoming a climate change activist has given her life ‘purpose’ and ‘something to do’ - but her approach has prompted some to believe she’s constantly angry.
Greta Thunberg in 2019. Credit: Franz Perc / Alamy Live News.
Former US President Donald Trump once sarcastically tweeted that the teen ‘seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future’ after seeing part of an impassioned speech she gave at a climate change summit.
However, in a new interview with Elle, Thunberg has spoken about her ‘angry’ image and how it’s not at all accurate.
“People seem to think of me as an angry teenager,” she told the publication. “They obviously haven't met me. At least two or three times a day I get laughing attacks where I can't breathe. It can be anything. If I’m in a room with people, they suddenly realise I’m not breathing and ask me if I’m OK and it’s because I can’t stop!”
Credit: Stig Alenäs / Alamy Stock Photo
Over the years, Thunberg has spoken at numerous climate change events including the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit, which was attended by politicians from across the globe.
The teen reckons her Asperger’s Syndrome helps her quickly get to the truth of the matter and cut through the soundbites often given by politicians when it comes to climate change.
She said: “It’s helped me see through a lot of the bulls**t because they say, ‘Oh yeah, we’re not in line with the Paris Agreement so far, but at least we’re taking small steps in the right direction.’
Greta Thunberg spoke at Glastonbury this year. Credit: JEP Live Music / Alamy Stock Photo
"Some people might see that as though we’re trying, but I see it as we’re so far away from what we need to be doing for even the bare minimum.”
The activist, who is releasing The Climate Book this month, said her key point is that people shouldn’t listen to her (which is somewhat ironic considering she often gives speeches to an audience), but instead believe in the experts - something that has been a constant theme of the past couple of years.
She said: “Listen to the scientists, listen to the experts, listen to those who are most affected.
“I could talk about all these things, but I am a privileged white person who lives in Sweden. I don't really have any story to tell, so it's up to others who need to be heard to [talk about] these things.”
Jeremy Clarkson Says Greta Thunberg Deserves A 'Smacked Bottom'
Stewart Perrie
Published
Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Jeremy Clarkson has hit out against Greta Thunberg's appearance at the global Glasgow climate summit.
The TV presenter described the Swedish activist as an 'annoying bucket of ego' for trying to offer advice on how to fix the planet.
World leaders, dignitaries and experts all flew to Scotland last week to talk about the best approach to tackling climate change and Greta held multiple protests outside COP26.
In his latest column for The Sunday Times, Clarkson said: "I simply don't get the Thunberg phenomenon.
Credit: Iain Masterton/Alamy Live News
"She has no knowledge of how the world works, no manners and no letters after her name because instead of going to school, she's been busy sailing round the world so she can be mardy and abusive to grown-ups.
"What she needs is a smacked bottom."
He agreed with Greta that the whole idea of COP26 was kind of pointless because he believes regular folk are already aware of what needs to be done to prevent or at least limit the impact of climate change.
At one point during the summit, Greta was seen at Festival Park in Govan chanting: "You can shove your climate crisis up your a**e, you can shove your climate crisis up your a**e!
"Change is not going to come from inside there - that is not leadership, this is leadership. We say no more blah blah blah, no more exploitation of people and nature and the planet.
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"No more exploitation. No more blah blah blah. No more whatever the f**k they are doing inside there."
Clarkson admits this sentiment 'struck a chord' with him because he reckons 'the people outside knew what had to be done and could just get on and do it'.
But don't think for a second that the former Top Gear host is slowly warming to Greta Thunberg's activism.
He wrote: "Here's a tip, Greta: lecturing me on what needs to be done is pointless. It'd be like standing in my bedroom every morning ordering me to wear clothes. I know already.
"What you should be doing instead is cycling to countries where people are perhaps less well aware of what should be done. China for example.
"That I'd like to see. Greta standing outside Zhongnanhai with her parka and her Glastonbury backpack and her microphone, lecturing the leaders about their policies on coal and trees and so on."
Just Stop Oil protester says she’d be willing to leave her son and go to jail
Claire Reid
Published | Last updated
Featured Image Credit: LBC
A Just Stop Oil protester has said she would be prepared to go to jail as she’s fighting for her son’s future.
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The mum, whose son is almost seven, said she would ‘try very hard’ to not get banged up but said the time for ‘standing by’ and watching his future be ‘stolen’ had passed.
Lora Johnson, a spokesperson for Just Stop Oil, appeared on LBC where she spoke to Nick Ferrari about her reasons for protesting.
She told him: “I’m just a mother. I’m here standing up for the future of my son.
Lora Johnson appeared on LBC. Credit: LBC
“Did you know 100,000 people die every year in the UK because of air pollution. That’s eleven people an hour. What about the families of those eleven people an hour?”
Referencing previous Just Stop Oil protesters who have been sent to prison, Ferrari asked if Johnson would be willing to go to jail in the name of protest.
To which she replied: “I’m a single mum so I’m going to try very hard not to [go to prison] but the time for standing by and watching my son’s future be stolen from him has gone. So, you can join in civil resistance against a corrupt government without getting arrested.”
When pushed further on whether she’d be prepared to do time for the cause, she added: “I would find that personally heartbreaking as would my son, but it would be something I’m willing to do, because I want him to have a future.”
Credit: Just Stop Oil
Johnson also admitted to having previously taken illegal action but stressed she wouldn’t be doing that again as she didn’t want to be jailed and taken away from her young son.
She added: “I have done things that are illegal and I won’t be doing that anymore but I will be protesting and I will be joining in civil resistance.”
When asked why she’d stopped doing anything illegal, she replied: “Because I don’t want to risk being remanded in prison. I don’t want to. If it happens, it happens. But I won't be doing anything illegal for that to be happening - but I will be joining civil resistance against the government.”
Greta Thunberg has opened up about the public's perception of her and revealed how her Asperger's Syndrome has helped her during her climate activism.
The Swedish 19-year-old rose to global fame after organising climate strikes and refusing to go to school.
She's spent the last few years ruffling feathers around the world with her activism.
Now, she has sat down with Elle UK to reflect on the whirlwind of becoming a social, cultural, and environmental icon, all before finishing her education.
"People seem to think of me as an angry teenager – they obviously haven't met me," Thunberg told Elle UK.
"At least two or three times a day I get laughing attacks where I can't breathe. It can be anything."
Greta Thunberg "Skolstrejk for Klimatet" (School Strike for Climate) at the 29 March 2019 Fridays For Future climate march, Berlin.Credit: Robert K. Chin / Alamy.
The teen also spoke candidly about living with Asperger's syndrome.
The condition sits on the autism spectrum and can make people who have it perceptively socially awkward.
But not Thunberg.
In fact, she sees it like her own special superpower.
She told the British magazine that her Asperger's helps her cut through 'the bulls**t' in life, politics, and activism.
But she stressed that she has always had a simple message when it comes to the climate: "Don't listen to me."
"Listen to the scientists, listen to the experts, listen to those who are most affected," she told Elle UK.
"I could talk about all these things, but I am a privileged white person who lives in Sweden. I don't really have any story to tell, so it's up to others who need to be heard to [talk about] these things."
Thunberg shot to international fame in August 2018 during the run-up to Sweden's general election.
She decided to stop going into classes at her school in order to draw attention to the climate crisis.
Greta Thunberg, 2019. Credit: Franz Perc / Alamy Live News.
That particular year saw Sweden hit by heatwaves and wildfires, and was the hottest summer in the Scandinavian country since records began 260 years ago.
Her continued action saw her take a gap year from school to tour the world to rally for change.
She eventually returned to her education at 17 and she's since graduated.
Greta posted an image on her first day back, captioned with: "My gap year from school is over, and it feels so great to finally be back in school again!"
Even though school may be over, the fight for the climate isn't.
Thunberg is releasing a memoir to detail her experiences with the climate revolution.
Grab your copy of The Climate Book when it's released on October 27.