I remember when I was younger, and in school, our teachers showed us films of plastic in the ocean, starving polar bears and so on. I cried through all the movies. My classmates were concerned when they watched the film, but when it stopped, they started thinking about other things. I couldn't do that. Those pictures were stuck in my head.Collection: Movies
We should no longer measure our wealth and success in the graph that shows economic growth, but in the curve that shows the emissions of greenhouse gases.Collection: Success
Once we start to act, hope is everywhere. So instead of looking for hope, look for action. Then, and only then, hope will come.Collection: Hope
I think in many ways that we autistic are the normal ones and the rest of the people are pretty strange. They keep saying that climate change is an existential threat and the most important issue of all. And yet they just carry on like before.Collection: Change
There are thousands of ways to take action. For example, plant trees, pick up litter, join an organisation or movement that makes a difference and especially try to influence adults and put pressure on people in power.Collection: Power
I don't use any animal products, both because of ethical and environmental and climate reasons.Collection: Environmental
Why should I be studying for a future that soon may not exist?Collection: Future
I'm very weak in a sense. I'm very tiny and I am very emotional, and that is not something people usually associate with strength.Collection: Strength
I'm telling you there is hope. I have seen it, but it does not come from the governments or corporations. It comes from the people.Collection: Hope
We all have a choice. We can create transformational action that will safeguard the living conditions for future generations. Or we can continue with our business as usual and fail.Collection: Future
Before I started school striking I had no energy, no friends and I didn't speak to anyone. I just sat alone at home, with an eating disorder. All of that is gone now, since I have found a meaning, in a world that sometimes seems shallow and meaningless to so many people.Collection: Alone
At first when I heard about climate change, I was a climate denier. I didn't think it was happening. Because if there really was an existential crisis like that, that would threaten our civilisation, we wouldn't be focusing on anything else. That would be our first priority. So I didn't understand how that added up.Collection: Change
I like school and I like learning.Collection: Learning
Of course, individual change doesn't make much difference in a holistic picture... but we need both systemic change and individual change.Collection: Change
It is our future on the line, and we must at least have a say in it.Collection: Future
I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.Collection: Fear
Not having hope is not an excuse for not doing something.Collection: Hope
Learning about climate change triggered my depression in the first place. But it was also what got me out of my depression, because there were things I could do to improve the situation. I don't have time to be depressed anymore.Collection: Learning
My message is that if we do not care about the climate crisis and if we do not act now then almost no other question is going to matter in the future.Collection: Future
Being young is a great advantage, since we see the world from a new perspective and we are not afraid to make radical changes.Collection: Great
The climate crisis is both the easiest and the hardest issue we have ever faced. The easiest because we know what we must do. We must stop the emissions of greenhouse gases. The hardest because our current economics are still totally dependent on burning fossil fuels, and thereby destroying ecosystems in order to create everlasting economic growth.
We are living in the beginning of a mass extinction and our climate is breaking down.
I see the world in black and white, and I don't like compromising.
Giving up cannot be an option.
We can no longer save the world by playing by the rules.
We should not underestimate ourselves, because if lots of individuals go together then we can accomplish almost anything.
I'm on the autism spectrum. I don't usually follow social coding and so therefore I go my own way.
Solving the climate crisis is the greatest and most complex challenge that homo sapiens have ever faced. The main solution, however, is so simple that even a small child can understand it. We have to stop our emissions of greenhouse gases.
I believe that one person can make a difference.
We can't just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow.
People are unaware of what is going on. When I talk to people, they know the basics, they know the planet is warming because of greenhouse gases... but they don't know the actual consequence of that.
Avoiding climate breakdown will require cathedral thinking. We must lay the foundation while we may not know exactly how to build the ceiling.
I thought I couldn't make a difference because I was too small.
People are underestimating the force of angry kids.
My message to all the activists is to just keep going, and I know it really may seem impossible and hopeless sometimes - it always does - so you just have to keep going because if you try hard enough and long enough you will make a difference.
If burning fossil fuels was so bad that it threatened our very existence, how could we just continue like before? Why were there no restrictions? Why wasn't it made illegal? To me, that did not add up.
I have promised myself that I'm going to do everything I can for as long as I can.
To do your best is no longer good enough. We now have to do the seemingly impossible.
I have Asperger's, I'm on the autism spectrum, so I don't really care about social codes. It makes you think differently.
I know so many people who feel hopeless, and they ask me, 'What should I do?' And I say: 'Act. Do something.' Because that is the best medicine against sadness and depression.
You can rebel in different ways. Civil disobedience is rebelling. As long as it's peaceful, of course.
We can't just choose to tell some facts and not others because we don't want to upset people. We have to tell it like it is.
It's empowering to know I am doing something, I am taking a stand, I am disrupting.
The real danger is not inaction. The real danger is when politicians and CEOs are making it look like action is happening when in fact nothing is being done.
We have to understand what the older generation has dealt to us, what mess they have created that we have to clean up and live with.
Social media can be very effective in creating movements. In the beginning, that is how I first got attention.
I am an introvert; privately I am very shy, and I don't speak unless I have to.
For 25 years countless people have come to the U.N. climate conferences begging our world leaders to stop emissions and clearly that has not worked as emissions are continuing to rise. So I will not beg the world leaders to care for our future. I will instead let them know change is coming whether they like it or not.
Many people seem to have this double moral. They say one thing and then do another thing. They say that the climate crisis is very important and yet they do nothing about it.
Some people say that I should study to become a climate scientist so that I can 'solve the climate crisis.' But the climate crisis has already been solved. We already have all the facts and solutions. All we have to do is to wake up and change.