Greta Thunberg: Humanity has not yet failed

Climate activist Greta Thunberg urges world leaders to do more. Doing our best is no longer good enough. We must now do the seemingly impossible, Thunberg says in the Swedish Radio show Summer on P1 where she takes us along her trip to the front lines of the climate crisis.

Alla Sommarprat finns att lyssna på i Sveriges Radio Play.

– We don’t accept these odds.

That was Greta Thunberg’s principal message while speaking before the General Assembly of the United Nations last year. It referred to the remaining CO2-budget of humanity.

– But the only message that seems to have resonated is “how dare you”, she says in the beginning of her Program, Summer on P1, a well-known Swedish Radio Show.

 After her speech, Greta and her father travel through 37 states in total.

 – Apart from a few wind power plants and solar panels, there are no signs whatsoever of any sustainable transition, despite this being the richest country in the world.

She has been discouraged from visiting the state of Alberta in Canada, but goes there anyway. Alberta is one of the western world’s largest oil producers and has a very powerful and aggressive oil lobby.

– On several occasions I need to call for police protection when the level of threats and the sheer harassments become too serious, she witnesses in her program.

On her way to Jasper Nation Park she drives through magnificent pine forests, but many trees aren’t green, their needles are either brown or have been lost entirely. She visits the Athabasca glacier and on her way up to the glacier she can see the signs of how the glacier has disappeared meter by meter, it is currently withdrawing five meter every year. The last 125 years the glacier has lost half of its volume, due to global heating.

– This year – 2020 – the emission curve must be bent steeply downwards, if we are to still have even a small chance of achieving the goals that world leaders have agreed to, says Greta Thunberg. Either we go on as a civilization, or we don’t. Doing our best is no longer good enough. We must now do the seemingly impossible. And that is up to you and me. Because no one else will do it for us.

About GretaThunberg

Greta Thunberg sailed the Atlantic Ocean to meet with the world leaders at the UN Climate Summit 2019.

Started to school strike for climate change outside of the Swedish Parliament in August 2018 and has inspired millions of students around the world to join her.

Greta Thunberg started the global movement Fridays for Future and have had conversations with prime ministers, presidents and the pope. She has 17 million followers through her social media channels and was appointed the Person of the Year by Time Magazine 2019.

“Summer” is a very well known radio show where a person is given free hands to speak about whatever they want and play whatever music they like.

Producer: Mattias Österlund