Greta Thunberg on Whether She’d Meet with the President

I am so excited right now. At just 16 years old, our next guest is already changing the world. Look at her. Humanity is now standing at a crossroads. We must now decide which path we want to take. A teenager from Sweden, called the Voice of the Planet, leads a global youth movement and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. We are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction. Our house is falling apart. Our leaders need to start acting accordingly. Her actions started with a solitary strike outside Sweden's parliament last year. And now, look at what her movement has become. Students and workers all around the world are flooding the streets, demanding action on climate change. 1.4 million kids across dozens of countries joined her in the streets. But it's looking good to be the largest climate protest in our planet's history. Now she's taking her message to the other side of the Atlantic. Greta Thunberg has completed her sailboat trip to attend a United Nations global warming conference. Thunberg refused to fly here because of the carbon footprint of traveling by plane. You all come to us young people for hope. How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. Greta Thunberg is taking on climate change head on, pulling no punches. She delivered a scathing speech. She fiercely criticized leaders for their inaction on combating climate change. You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. By scolding the rich and powerful, she made such waves, a prominent conservative in Britain tweeted, freak yachting accidents do happen in August. And now she's on the president's radar as well. Overnight, the president seeming to mock this teenage activist with a sarcastic tweet. And if you belong to that small group of people who feel threatened by us, then we have some very bad news for you because this is only the beginning. First of all, thank you. I guess everyone who meets you says thank you because what you're doing, it's the loudest voice and it's getting so much attention. And we need this because we haven't obviously done enough. So I want to start with thank you. And then does this just get overwhelming because you're just doing so much at your age? This is a lot of energy. Yes, it is a lot. It is a lot to take in. It is. It is a lot for a teenager. Yeah, it's a lot. And you're traveling around the world and you're speaking in front of so many people that we've been we've been trying to get you for two months. It took you to get you know, you had to like take a boat and then you're in New York and then you had to take a train. And so it took a while to get you here. But thank you for being here. So so I mean, I like so many people are fascinated that you started learning about climate change at what age? I think it was age seven, eight, nine in school. It was I learned the basics, like the planet was warming because of increased greenhouse gas gases. And and then I I just couldn't believe it because I thought if this was really true, then then surely someone must have done something. And then surely we would we would take it seriously. But no one took it seriously. And so I started to read about it. And of course, the more the more I read about it, the more I understood. And and once I fully understood it, I couldn't just look away anymore. Right. But there's a lot of people you could say that for a lot of young people and adults, but people just get on with their lives and they don't they don't go after it the way you have. And you started with one small gesture. You just sat down on the street and and put a sign out. And now over 11 million people because of you have strike been striking because of this. I guess it shows you what what one voice can do, right? It shows you the power that you have. Yes, it it really does. And I I would never have expected that something like that would happen. I mean, I just thought that I need to do whatever I can do. And it's obviously not going to be enough, but at least it's something. And I needed to to just for myself, make sure that I I did whatever I could so that I could look myself in the eye in this crisis. Well, it's the way it's the way you speak. I think it's where you're coming from. It's how you're you come across and your energy and you're so real and raw. And I think that's probably why we're going to take a break. And we're going to talk about what everyone else can do so they can look themselves in the eye. And we can all try to turn this thing around because we're running out of time. So we'll be right back. You obviously have a lot of supporters. You have a lot of people who are walking and fighting with you. But then you get a tweet from the president who basically was not a kind tweet. Do you do you ever think about would you sit down with him to try to help him understand climate change? I don't understand why I would do that. I mean, I I don't I don't see what I could tell him that he hasn't already heard. Yeah. And I just I just think it would be a waste of time, really. Yeah. And and you have said and I love that you say this. You say that your Asperger's is a gift that you you think it's you look at it as a gift. And I think I think it is a gift. But explain why you say that. I mean, in this society, everyone is the same. Everyone thinks the same. And then I think it it is a gift to be different, to have some kind of if you are on the autism spectrum, that makes you different. And especially in in a crisis like this, we need to think outside the box. We need people who think differently. And that means that people who work differently can be a good resource for that. What have you done? What have you done to change your life? Like you said, you do things that you can do to look yourself in the eye and and and know you've done enough. What have you done? I have done I have stopped flying and I have gone vegan. I have a shop stop. It means you don't buy new things unless you absolutely have to. And I and just things like that. But especially I'm trying to to communicate what is happening and try to put pressure on people in power and. All right. So here's what we're doing. We're going to do something because your voice is I just I just have been wanting to meet you for so long. I think you're so amazing. So we're creating a section on Ellentube and we're dedicating it to you. So we'll have information and resources to help educate people on climate change. You can learn how to reduce your carbon footprint, see what you can do to make a difference. We'll also have information on how to join Greta's climate strikes as she posts new information. We'll share it on that page. We're committing one hundred thousand dollars into promoting that Web page to help your message get across. All right, Greta's book. No one is too small to make a difference is out now. And you're all going to go home with a copy. We'll be right back.