This is in response to Joe Biden saying that “nothing will change”. Last weekend in Stockholm there was a conference called “Brilliant Minds”. Greta Thunberg gave a variation on her speech there. The video is now on YouTube.
The lines that caught my attention are these:
I know that you here in the audience did not travel here to see a 16 year old girl who says strange and uncomfortable things. But you know what? We need to dare to be uncomfortable. We need to be brave enough to say and do things that may not increase our profits or our popularity. Because otherwise, we won’t stand a chance.
We need to start thinking outside the box, to acknowledge that we do not have all the solutions to the climate and ecological crisis yet unless those solutions mean that we simply stop doing certain things.
We need to acknowledge that the markets and new technologies will not solve everything for us. We need to admit our common failure. And then we need to act while there is still time.
Simply stop doing certain things. I think we know how to do that.
Future generations are counting on you. Don’t let us down.