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)

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

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate