Greta Thurnberg 'Okay Boomers' Leaders At Davos

Greta Thunberg called out the lack of action from world leaders at the WEF

This year’s World Economic Forum is happening now in Davos, Switzerland and opening the session was none other than 17-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg. Thunberg called out companies and leaders from around the world for their lack of action and failure to stop deadly emissions.

“I wonder, what will you tell your children was the reason to fail and leave them facing the climate chaos you knowingly brought upon them?” said Thunberg to a packed room, the New York Times reported. “Our house is still on fire,” she added, reminding participants of her words from last year’s Forum. “Your inaction is fueling the flames by the hour.”

Thunberg also skewered leaders for making promises that she believes will do little to help the devastating impacts to our climate. Leaders have agreed to reduce planet-warming gases to net zero by 2050, offset emissions by planting one trillion trees, and transitioning to a low-carbon economy. “Let’s be clear. We don’t need a ‘low carbon economy.’ We don’t need to ‘lower emissions,’” she said. “Our emissions have to stop.”

Trump, who attended the Forum again this year, mocked Thunberg — not mentioning her by name — but describing climate activists as “heirs of yesterday’s foolish fortune tellers” and calling them “alarmists” and “perennial prophets of doom.” Trump also said he is a “big believer in the environment” and said that the US will join the “One Trillion Trees” initiative to help offset carbon emissions.

Thunberg also said her generation will be the ones to pick up the mess created by the Boomers. “My generation will not give up without a fight,” she proclaimed. She has led the charge on speaking openly about the gravity of global warming, government accountability, and raising awareness about what’s happening to our planet. “While we young people may not be able to vote or make decisions today, we have something just as powerful,” Thunberg said in a speech during one of her rallies last year. “And that is our voices. And we need to use them.”

For Thunberg’s part, she made it clear it’s not about a person’s politics, it’s about doing what is right for the world we all inhabit. “This is not about right or left. We couldn’t care less about your party politics,” she said. “From a sustainability perspective, the right, the left as well as the center have all failed. No political ideology or economic structure has been able to tackle the climate and environmental emergency.”

Regardless of what world leaders are doing, she’s proven she will not give up. “People are dying,” she said to the UN last year. “Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you?”