Greta Thunberg brings climate protest to the White House

World Today

Greta Thunberg brings climate protest to the White HouseGreta Thunberg brings climate protest to the White House

Climate change activist Greta Thunberg led a student rally outside the White House on Friday.

The Swedish teenager, who began her activism by skipping school to lobby her government, has inspired a similar movement here in the U.S. They’re demanding more action on climate change as world leaders prepare to gather at the United Nations.

CGTN’s Owen Fairclough has more.

And they are converging on the White House to do what they say adults won’t: take meaningful action against climate change.

And it’s one student in particular who’s galvanized them.

“This is overwhelming…just keep going,” Greta Thunberg told the several hundred-strong crowd

The 16-year-old has shot to global fame as a figurehead for the climate change movement after sailing across the Atlantic in a yacht to lobby the U.S. government.

She began skipping school last year to demonstrate outside parliament in her native Sweden.

And those following her lead, are doing so at some cost.

“I miss a lot of homework and my assignments and I have to make that up and it’s kind of difficult since I’m in high school,” one teenage girl said.

Record summer heat in the U.S. and across the world as well as accelerated melting sea ice have prompted climate scientists to warn irreversible temperature rises are an imminent danger.

After lobbying the U.S. Congress, Thunberg will take her message to the United Nations General Assembly later this month.

But finding a sympathetic ear in the Trump administration will be difficult.

Trump pulled out of the international deal on climate change,

And without the US, one of the world’s worst polluters, onboard, it’s increasingly difficult to find consensus on what these young people see as a critical issue.