(Photo Credit: Reuters Pictures / Carlo Allegri)

Thunberg addresses climate change to the UN General Assembly

Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old climate activist from Sweden, delivered a scathing speech to the UN General Assembly on Monday, accusing politicians of “stealing her childhood” with “empty words.”

“I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back at 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,” Thunberg said. “People are suffering, people are dying, entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth…You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency, but no matter how sad and angry I am I do not want to believe that because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil, and that I refuse to believe.”

Of course, Thunberg’s speech was roundly criticized by the right, including President Trump, who sent out a tweet mocking Thunberg after her speech.

“She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!” Trump said in a sarcastic tweet.

Michael Knowles, a conservative pundit, went on Fox News and called Thunberg a “mentally ill Swedish child.” Thunberg was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism, in 2015. Fox News later apologized for Knowles’ “disgraceful” comments.

In the meantime, Thunberg has forged on with her climate activism. On Tuesday, she announced that she and several other children are filing a lawsuit against several nations for violating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by ignoring the “climate crisis,” as Thunberg calls it.