(Photo Credit: Manuel Lopez/World Economic Forum)

Thunberg addresses Davos economic forum

Greta Thunberg, the 17-year-old climate change activist who urged students around the world to skip school on Fridays to protest inaction on the environment, addressed the Davos economic forum in Switzerland this week. In her speech, she asked attendees to “act as if you loved your children above all else.”

“Unlike you, my generation will not give up without a fight,” Thunberg said. “I wonder what will you tell your children was the reason to fail and leave them facing climate chaos that you knowingly brought upon them.”

After Thunberg delivered the speech, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin mocked Thunberg for not having a degree in economics.

“Is she the chief economist or who is she? I’m confused,” Mnuchin joked to a reporter who asked him what he thought of Thunberg’s speech.“After she goes and studies economics in college she can go back and explain that to us.”

Thunberg hit back on Twitter, saying she doesn’t need a college degree to understand the science of climate change.

“My gap year ends in August, but it doesn’t take a college degree in economics to realize that our remaining 1,5° carbon budget and ongoing fossil fuel subsidies and investments don’t add up,” Thunberg tweeted. “So either you tell us how to achieve this mitigation or explain to future generations and those already affected by the climate emergency why we should abandon our climate commitments.”