September 23, 2019

Listen to Greta Thunberg’s Searing Testimony to the United Nations

“You are still not mature enough to tell it like it is.”

(Drew Angerer/Getty)

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Sixteen-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg delivered a searing statement to world leaders at Monday’s United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York.

“You are still not mature enough to tell it like it is,” Thunberg said, her voice shaking. “You are failing us, but the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you, and if you choose to fail us, I say, we will never forgive you.”

On Friday, millions of people around the world participated in the Global Climate Strike to protest governments failing to respond to climate change. Thunberg pioneered the school climate strike movement when she began protesting outside the Swedish parliament with a sign that read Skolstrejk för klimatet (school strike for the climate). Now, students around the world skip school on Fridays to protest climate change, driven by the belief that education will be meaningless in an uninhabitable world.

Last week, in lieu of testifying before Congress, Thunberg handed lawmakers a copy of the 2018 report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change about the effects of global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The World Meteorological Association reported Sunday that the five-year period from 2015 to 2019 was the warmest on record, averaging 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures.

“We will not let you get away with this,” Thunberg said. “Right here, right now, is where we draw the line.”

Watch Thunberg’s testimony below:

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

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From the desk of Mother Jones CEO, Monika Bauerlein...

Newsrooms can be funded in many ways. One of the most controversial (and volatile) ways is by a for-profit corporation or a billionaire owner. We see it across the headlines on a weekly basis: the claw backs in public media, the gutting of The Washington Post, the bending over backwards to appeal to Trump and his allies.

But not here.

When Mother Jones first started publishing 50 years ago, our founders made a critical decision: to be a reader-supported nonprofit. They knew that no corporate owner would be interested in a muckraking newsroom; they also knew that no muckraking newsroom would be interested in following the agenda of a corporate owner.

And so, we’ve been reader-funded for half a century. We rely on contributions from our readers—readers like you—whether it’s $50, or $15 a month, or whatever fits your budget. People give what they can, and every donation makes a difference for our newsroom, which has grown tremendously—in size and reach and renown—since its inception in 1976.

You may be wondering: What does it take to publish an investigation? And what does my donation actually fund? The answers are one and the same: It takes people, resources, and time. And that’s what your donation funds directly.

Every donation Mother Jones receives from readers fortifies our newsroom, whether we’re covering underreported scandals out of Washington, DC, or the most important news of the day. And right now, each donation will be doubled because of our $50,000 match. So when you make a donation—$5, $50, any amount—it’ll go twice as far.

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