Greta Thunberg, the world’s most prominent climate campaigner, led a mob of teenage demonstrators outside the COP26 meeting in Glasgow, claiming that the officials inside were merely “pretending to take our future seriously.” She also led a steamy chant addressed against the global leaders attending (and not attending) COP26, in keeping with Scottish custom. “You can stick your climate problem up your arse!” the 18-year-old protester and her fellow protestors sang in a video.
Thunberg, speaking at a gathering of climate campaigners outside the COP26 conference site in Glasgow said: “Inside COP, there are just politicians and powerful people professing to care about our destiny. There is not going to be any change from inside. This is leadership, not the other way around.”
Thunberg recently chastised lawmakers for “blah, blah, blah” rather than taking action to combat global warming over the past 30 years. COP26, which was postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, attempts to keep alive the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels, which experts think would avert the worst effects.
Speaking to the gathering, Thunberg stated that genuine change will be driven by action and the climate justice movement outside the conference hall, rather than by world leaders and officials delivering speeches inside. “This COP26 has so far followed in the footsteps of prior COPs – and that has gotten us nowhere. On Monday, November 1, she informed the gathering, “They have taken us nowhere.”
“Inside COP, they’re simply politicians and power players claiming to care about our future, pretending to care about the people who are currently suffering from the climate issue,” Thunberg concluded.
“Change isn’t going to happen from inside. That isn’t leadership; this is what it looks like,” she went on to say. “No more ‘blah blah blah,’ no more exploitation of people, nature, and the earth… no more whatever the f*ck they’re doing inside!” “We’re sick and tired of it and whether they like it or not, we’re going to make a difference,” she added.
