Avoiding climate breakdown will require cathedral thinking. We must lay the foundation while we may not know exactly how to build the ceiling.
The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say – we will never forgive you.
I want you to act as if the house is on fire because it is.
We deserve a safe future. And we demand a safe future. Is that really too much to ask?
I think it is insane that people are gathered here to talk about the climate, and they arrive here in private jets.
We showed that we are united and that we, young people, are unstoppable.
Change is coming, whether you like it or not.
Some people say that the climate crisis is something that we all have created. But that is just another convenient lie. Because if everyone is guilty then no one is to blame. And someone is to blame. Some people – some companies and some decision-makers in particular – have known exactly what priceless values they are sacrificing to continue making unimaginable amounts of money.
We are striking because we have done our homework, and they have not.
Since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have to take the responsibility they should have taken long ago.
The moment we decide to fulfil something, we can do anything.
When haters go after your looks and differences, it means they have nowhere left to go. And then you know you’re winning!
You must unite behind the science. You must take action. You must do the impossible. Because giving up can never ever be an option.
You don’t listen to the science because you are only interested in solutions that will enable you to carry on like before. Like now. And those answers don’t exist any more. Because you did not act in time.
We have to understand the emergency of the situation. Our leadership has failed us. Young people must hold older generations accountable for the mess they have created. We need to get angry, and transform that anger into action.
My message is that we’ll be watching you. 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 all come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. Yet I am one of the lucky ones. People are suffering.
I have Asperger’s syndrome and that means I’m sometimes a bit different from the norm. And – given the right circumstances – being different is a superpower. It makes you think differently. And especially in such a big crisis like this one we need to think outside the box. We need to think outside our current system, that we need people that think outside the box and who aren’t like everyone else.
I’d like to tell my grandchildren that we did everything we could. And we did it for them – for the generations to come.
