Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg said Friday that young people are being “let down” by older generations when it comes to combating climate change.
The 17-year-old penned a joint op-ed with 20 other young activists ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, later this month, calling on businesses to completely divest from fossil fuels “immediately.”
“We demand that at this year’s forum, participants from all companies, banks, institutions and governments immediately halt all investments in fossil fuel exploration and extraction, immediately end all fossil fuel subsidies and immediately and completely divest from fossil fuels,” Greta co-wrote for The Guardian.
“In an emergency you step out of your comfort zone and make decisions that may not be very comfortable or pleasant. And let’s be clear – there is nothing easy, comfortable or pleasant about the climate and environmental emergency,” she continued. “Young people are being let down by older generations and those in power. To some it may seem like we are asking for a lot. But this is just the very minimum of effort needed to start the rapid sustainable transition. The fact that this still – in 2020 – hasn’t been done already is, quite frankly, a disgrace.”
Greta and her peers called on world leaders and businesses to pull their money out of fossil fuels and put it in “existing sustainable technologies” and research.
“Anything less than immediately ceasing these investments in the fossil fuel industry would be a betrayal of life itself,” she wrote. “Today’s business as usual is turning into a crime against humanity. We demand that leaders play their part in putting an end to this madness. Our future is at stake, let that be their investment.”
She later took to Twitter to ask the media not to “twist” her words.
“And please remember, many of us who have signed this are children, many of us live under constant threat just for communicating the situation we are in,” she wrote. “So do not make up your own quotes or twist our words. Quote what we actually say instead.”
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