Posted on Sep 21, 2019 at 8:52 amUpdated Sep 22, 2019, 5:58 PM
« Make America Greta Again “. On the lawn of Battery Park, at the southern tip of Manhattan, posters have diverted Donald Trump’s presidential slogan to welcome the young Swede Greta Thunberg, who in a few months has become the icon of a generation and the voice of the fight for the climate.
“The biggest climate strike in history”
In front of thousands of demonstrators who chant her first name after going down Broadway from City Hall (town hall), the young activist took stock of this new Friday of ” climate strike », Ahead of the summit to be held at the UN on Monday.
« I have some figures to give you. We still count, but we are at least 250,000 in New York, and 4 million in the world. It’s the biggest climate strike in history », She launched, listing the scores of Australia, London, Berlin – Germany alone would have gathered some 1.5 million demonstrators, according to these figures (which have not been confirmed by other sources). ” All continents participated, even Antarctica », She underlined.
Arriving at the end of August from Europe on a sailboat, the young girl and her weekly strike had convinced the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, to authorize schoolchildren, middle school and high school students – potentially 1.1 million young people – to skip classes in the afternoon to show their commitment. Nathaniel, seven, on his father’s shoulders with a poster claiming “ a healthy land Was one of them. And his Brooklyn elementary school had organized a little walk in the yard for those who didn’t want to move.
“Buy less”
« Some say we should study to become scientists or politicians, but it will be too late », Launched Greta Thunberg, before a syncope in the audience, tested by heat, forces him to interrupt his speech for a few minutes.
The weekly class strike is probably not an option for most of the students who attended, but many were making their first protest there, such as Victoria and Juliana, two high school girls. “ We talk about the subject between us and on social networks, and we want to make a difference “, Explains the first, which recognizes that the consumption habits of Americans are” clearly too important when compared to other countries “. In a city where consumption is second nature, a young man brandishes his solution on a piece of recycled cardboard: “ Buy less stuff (“Buy less”).
“We are going to force them to listen to us”
But more than individual initiative, it is pressure on governments that Greta Thunberg has come to promote. ” Where I’m from is very different from here, but empty promises, lies and inaction are everywhere the same », She resumed in front of an acquired audience.
On Monday, at the summit for climate action organized at the United Nations headquarters a few kilometers from Battery Park, the leaders ” have a chance to prove that they are united behind science. We will make them listen to us “, Promises Greta Thunberg, because” we ask and we deserve a safe future ».
On Saturday, a summit brought together at the UN several hundred young people who will work on solutions for the climate. On Monday, neither Donald Trump nor Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will be present, but UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on others to present concrete actions to avoid sinking the 2015 Paris Agreement. Greta Thunberg en will surely take stock next Friday, in Montreal, Canada.
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