Women Activists

"We can’t just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow. That is all we are saying."

"I’m very weak in a sense... I’m very tiny and I am very emotional, and that is not something people usually associate with strength. I think weakness, in a way, can be also needed because we don’t have to be the loudest, we don’t have to take up the most amount of space, and we don’t have to earn the most money...We don’t need to have the biggest car, and we don’t need to get the most attention... We need to care about each other more."

"Because you grown-ups don’t give a damn about my future, neither do I. My name is Greta, I am in ninth grade, and I am going on strike from school for the climate. (Her twitter bio)"

"A teenager working on her anger management problem (her Twitter profile after Trump told her to chill out)"

"I have been on the road and visited numerous places and met people from all over the globe... I can say that it looks nearly the same everywhere I have been: The climate crisis is ignored by people in charge, despite the science being crystal clear. We don’t want to hear one more politician say that this is important but afterward do nothing to change it. We don’t want more empty words from people pretending to take our future seriously... It shouldn’t be up to us children and teenagers to make people wake up around the world. The ones in charge should be ashamed."

"[In response to Time editor Edward Felsenthal question about how she dealt with all the haters] I would like to say something that I think people need to know more than how I deal with haters."

"Thurnberg has an uncanny ability to concentrate... “I can do the same thing for hours,” she said....She began researching climate change and has stayed on the topic for six years. She has stopped eating meat and buying anything that is not absolutely necessary. In 2015, she stopped flying on airplanes, and a year later, her mother followed suit, giving up an international performing career. The family has installed solar batteries and has started growing their own vegetables on an allotment outside the city. To meet me in central Stockholm, Thunberg and her father rode their bikes for about half an hour; the family has an electric car that they use only when necessary."

"As government ministers from around the globe gather in Katowice, Poland, for the final days of the 24th U.N. climate summit, we speak with 15-year-old activist Greta Thunberg, who denounced politicians here last week for their inaction on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. She has garnered global attention for carrying out a weekly school strike against climate change in her home country of Sweden."

"In 1429 Joan of Arc (17) led French troops to victory over English forces at the Siege of Orleans after she had a vision. Today, eco warrior Greta Thunberg (15) is leading the battle against the ravages of climate change. Greta has vision. She’s taken the leadership mantle from Joan of Arc whether she knows it or not. Some things in life just happen! For nearly three decades, the global movement to fix climate change has been stuck in low or no-gear ever since the nations of the world agreed to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 1992 at the Kyoto Protocol. It’s been a dry run ever since, nothing of consequence happens. Fortunately, Joan of Arc’s contemporary counterpart Greta Thunberg has swept onto the scene from Sweden.... Greta is equally committed to justice as Joan of Arc, but it is climate justice rather than recapturing sovereign territory. Several weeks ago Greta went on strike from school to protest, sitting on cobblestones outside parliament in central Stockholm, handing out leaflets to adults, informing them of their failure to fight the climate crisis."

"Sixteen-year-old climate action leader Greta Thunberg stood alongside European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker Thursday in Brussels as he indicated—after weeks of climate strikes around the world inspired by the Swedish teenager—that the European Union has heard the demands of young people and pledged more than $1 trillion over the next seven years to address the crisis of a rapidly heating planet."

"She says her dad often asks her to tone down her speeches, which she writes herself. “He becomes scared when he reads it, he is like, you shouldn’t say this, it is too provocative,” she says..."

"Over the past six months, she has become a superstar of the climate change movement. Her school strike, which started out with her sitting alone on a camping mat next to parliament, was swiftly highlighted by the media...She speaks softly, often simply nodding when addressed... she only speaks when necessary."

"Keeping track of the fast growing number of strikes is difficult, but many are registering on FridaysForFuture.org. So far, there are almost 500 events listed to take place on 15 March across 51 countries, making it the biggest strike day so far. Students plan to skip school across Western Europe, from the US to Brazil and Chile, and from Australia to Iran, India and Japan."

"The students striking from schools around the world to demand action on climate change have issued an uncompromising open letter stating: “We are going to change the fate of humanity, whether you like it or not.” The letter, published by the Guardian, says: “United we will rise on 15 March and many times after until we see climate justice... Thunberg, now 16 years old and who began the strikes with a solo protest beginning last August... was one of about 3,000 student demonstrators in Antwerp, Belgium on Thursday, and joined protesters in Hamburg on Friday morning..."

"In recent days, she has sharply rejected criticism of the strikes from educational authorities, telling the Hong Kong Education Bureau: “We fight for our future. It doesn’t help if we have to fight the adults too.” She also told a critical Australian state education minister his words “belong in a museum”."

"Greta is built in a laboratory! She has the proper face, the proper pigtails, the proper illness, she is properly little... She and all her family settled down forever, but it is evident that they are used. After two days she shook hands with miss Christine Lagarde, who leads the IMF. She is pure laboratory creation."

""If watching children being systematically starved, over two million people being systematically starved by Israel is not enough to motivate you to get out of the couch, then what is it going to take?"

"I felt very alone that I was the only one who seemed to be worried about this... I was the only one left in this sort of bubble. Everyone else could just continue with their lives as usual, and I couldn’t do that... I thought what the Parkland students did was so brave... Of course, it was not the only thing that got me out of that feeling. I did it because I was tired of sitting and waiting. I tried to get others to join me, but no one was interested and no one wanted to do that. So I said, ‘I’m going to do this alone if no one else wants to do it.’"

"Very honoured to receive Human Act Award. The prize money - USD $100’000 - will be donated to @unicef . Human Act will match this donation with an additional USD 100,000. Today we’re launching a funding campaign to support UNICEF in the corona crisis."

"It seems like the people in power have given up...They say it’s too hard — it’s too much of a challenge. But that’s what we are doing here. We have not given up because this is a matter of life and death for countless people.... Either we choose to go on as a civilization or we don’t... That is as black or white as it gets. There are no gray areas when it comes to survival."

"I’m asking everyone to step up and join me in support of UNICEF’s vital work to save children’s lives, to protect health and continue education... Like the climate crisis, the coronavirus pandemic is a child-rights crisis... It will affect all children, now and in the long-term, but vulnerable groups will be impacted the most."

"In Sweden @FortumSverige is running a huge “green” campaign saying that “The future is already here”, and that they ”have decided to take care of the future”. This takes #greenwashing to a whole new dimension."

"On Saturday @uniper_energy and Finnish state owned @Fortum will open a brand new coal power plant #Datteln4 in Germany. Those in power clearly lied when they said they cared about their children’s future. If you needed proof that their words and promises were empty, this is it."

"Today is a shameful day for Europe, as we open up a brand new coal power plant. We have signed up to lead the way to avoid a climate disaster - and yet this the signal we send to the rest of the world? How dare you indeed"

"Devastating to see the development taking place in the USA. Centuries of structural and systematic racism and social injustice won’t go away by itself. We need a global structural change. The injustices must come to an end. #BlackLivesMatter"

"The last 2 months the European Central Bank has injected 7,6 billion € into fossil fuels. Allow me to doubt the seriousness of the EUs' so called "green" recovery plan..."

"Still waiting for the EU and individual democratic nations to officially condemn the police brutality and attacks on the free press escalating the USA. For how long are we going to stand by, watch and say nothing?"

"We understand the world is complicated and that what we are asking for may not be easy or may seem unrealistic. But it is much more unrealistic to believe that our societies would be able to survive the global heating we’re heading for – as well as other disastrous ecological consequences of today’s business as usual... This mix of ignorance, denial and unawareness is at the very heart of the problem... The only way forward is for society to start treating the crisis like a crisis... We can still avoid the worst consequences. But to do that, we have to face the climate emergency and change our ways. And that is the uncomfortable truth we cannot escape."

"We can have as many meetings as we like, but the will to change is nowhere in sight. Society must start treating this as a crisis...On Thursday 20 August, it will be exactly two years since the first school strike for the climate took place.... Today, leaders all over the world are speaking of an “existential crisis”. The climate emergency is discussed on countless panels and summits. Commitments are being made, big speeches are given. Yet, when it comes to action we are still in a state of denial. The climate and ecological crisis has never once been treated as a crisis. The gap between what we need to do and what’s actually being done is widening by the minute. Effectively, we have lost another two crucial years to political inaction...."

"We are in a global emergency, which affects all of us. But everyone is not suffering its Consequences equally... Africa is being disproportionately hit by the climate crisis, despite contributing to it among the least."

"We are still speeding in the wrong direction. The five years following the Paris agreement have been the five hottest years ever recorded and, during that time, the world has emitted more than 200bn tonnes of CO2. Distant hypothetical targets are being set, and big speeches are being given. Yet, when it comes to the immediate action we need, we are still in a state of complete denial as we waste our time, creating new loopholes with empty words and creative accounting... Leaders should be telling the truth: that we are facing an emergency and we are not doing nearly enough. We need to prioritise the action that needs to be taken right here and right now, because it is right now that the carbon budget is being used up. We need to stop focusing on goals and targets for 2030 or 2050... We need to implement annual binding carbon budgets today. There is hope … we are the hope – we, the people... For me, the hope lies in democracy – it is the people who have the power. If enough people stand up together and repeat the same message, then there are no limits to what we can achieve."

"Whether or not you choose to rise to that challenge is up to you. Either way, history will judge you."

"We can still avoid the worst consequences, we can still turn this around. But not if we continue like today. You have the resources and possibilities to change the story overnight."

"The media must hold the people in power accountable for their actions, or inactions."

"To … minimize the risks of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control, we need immediate, drastic, annual emission reductions unlike anything the world has ever seen. And as we don’t have the technological solutions that alone will do anything close to that in the foreseeable future, it means we have to make fundamental changes in our society. This is the uncomfortable result of our leaders’ failure to address this crisis."

"Third, and most important of all, justice. The climate crisis isn’t just about extreme weather. It’s about people. Real people. And the very people who have done the least to create the climate crisis are suffering the most. And while the Global South is on the frontlines of the climate crisis, it’s almost never on the front pages of the world’s newspapers."

"Second, holistic thinking. When considering our remaining carbon budget we need to count all the numbers and include all of our emissions. Currently, you are letting high income nations and big polluters off the hook, allowing them to hide behind the incomplete statistics, loopholes and rhetoric they have fought so hard to create during the last 30 years."

"First, the notion of time. If your stories do not include the notion of a ticking clock, then the climate crisis is just a political topic among other topics, something we can just buy, build or invest our way out of. Leave out the aspect of time and we can continue pretty much like today and ”solve the problems” later on. 2030, 2050 or 2060."

"If you want to truly cover the climate crisis, you must also report on the fundamental issues of time, holistic thinking and justice."

"We are sick and tired of it and we are going to make the change whether they like it or not … We are not going to let them get away any more."

"We say no more blah blah blah. No more exploitation of people and the nature and the planets … no more whatever the fuck they are doing inside there."

"Inside COP they are just politicians and people in power pretending to take our future seriously, pretending to take the present seriously of the people who are being affected already today by the climate crisis. Change is not going to come from the inside; that is not leadership. This is leadership."

"You can shove your up your arse."

"May 2021 be the year of awakening and real bold change. And let's all continue the never-ending fight for the living planet."

"The worst-case scenario I guess I’ll buy second-hand, but I don’t need new clothes. I know people who have clothes, so I would ask them if I could borrow them or if they have something they don’t need any more. I don’t need to fly to Thailand to be happy. I don’t need to buy clothes I don’t need, so I don’t see it as a sacrifice. I’m not telling anyone else what to do, but there is a risk when you are vocal about these things and don’t practise as you preach, then you will become criticised for that and what you are saying won’t be taken seriously.... I don’t think it’s selfish to have children. It is not the people who are the problem, it is our behaviour..."

"People need to enhance their knowledge about the environment and demand action against climate change... We need to educate ourselves to understand the global processes linked to the climate crisis, to see what’s happening to our planet. People must learn as much as they can – there’s unlimited amount of information – and spread this information to create a social movement and shift the social norm. Because if we are enough people who demand change and advocate climate action, we will reach a critical mass and will no longer be possible to ignore. It’s not a small task but it’s something that we simply need to do because there’s no other option. Restoring Nature is not only a solution to the climate crisis, but also to the biodiversity crisis and so on."

"I’m just a teenager... My opinions on this doesn’t matter​. You should rather look at the science and whether his policies are in line with the Paris agreements and to stay below 1.5 or even 2 degrees Celsius, and then you can clearly see that, no, it’s not nearly enough in line with the science. That’s not me saying, that’s just black and white, looking at the facts​. I would just like you to basically just treat the climate crisis like a crisis. They have said themselves that this is an existential threat... They are just treating the climate crisis​ ​as it was a political topic, among other topics and, yeah, treat it as a crisis, that’s the No. 1 step​. So what we need now is to raise awareness and to create public opinion to treat the crisis like a crisis. Because if people are not aware of the crisis that we face, of course they wouldn’t put pressure on the elected leaders. So I would just tell him to, to tell the situation as it is... how can you expect support and pressure from voters if you are not treating the crisis like a crisis."

"They invite cherry-picked young people to meetings like this to pretend that they listen to us. But they clearly don’t listen to us. Our emissions are still rising. The science doesn’t lie. We can no longer let the people in power decide what is politically possible. We can no longer let the people in power decide what hope is. Hope is not passive. Hope is not blah, blah, blah. Hope is telling the truth. Hope is taking action. And hope always comes from the people."

"I am pleased to announce that I've decided to go net-zero on swear words and bad language. In the event that I should say something inappropriate I pledge to compensate that by saying something nice. #COP26,"

"We are never going back to normal again, because "normal" was already a crisis. What we refer to as "normal" is an extreme system built on exploitation of people and planet. It is a system defined by colonialism, imperialism, oppression and genocide by the so-called Global North to accumulate wealth that still shapes our current world order. Some people say that the system is now malfunctioning, but that is not true. The system is doing exactly what it is meant to be doing. If economic growth is our only priority, then what we are experiencing now should be exactly what we should be expecting."