Greta Thunberg comes to Friends House
Greta Thunberg spoke at Friends House on 22 April
There were long queues to Friends House last week when Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) hosted the Swedish climate activist and Nobel Prize nominee Greta Thunberg as part of its commitment to tackling climate breakdown.
The sixteen-year-old urged everyone to listen to scientists and face the crisis of climate change. She was welcomed to Friends House by young Quakers.
Speaking to a packed and lively audience on 22 April, Greta Thunberg said: ‘Why should we study for a future when we have our future taken from us? Why should we go to school to learn facts when facts don’t seem to matter?’
Despite being a global figure, she insisted: ‘This is a movement, not an organisation. We don’t have titles. I am not a leader, just a part of the movement. No-one is irreplaceable.’
Anna Taylor, from the UK Student Climate Network, said it was not about being party political but the government must change its priorities.
Caroline Lucas MP, who also spoke at the event, implored everyone to put people and planet before profit: ‘We need more truth and honesty. We can see what is happening and we need to act. Sea levels are not the only thing that is rising… We are rising too. Greta has shown what action looks like.’
Paul Parker, recording clerk of BYM, said: ‘We uphold all those in the climate movement who are impelled by conscience to break the law to avert this disaster. We recognise the urgent need for people of all faiths and none to stand up for climate justice and urgent action.’
He said: ‘We know our privileged lifestyles contribute to the problem of climate change’ but ‘for climate breakdown to be averted, however, requires more than changing our personal behaviour’. He called on the government to take ‘urgent, far-reaching steps’ and added: ‘The response so far has been inadequate to the scale of this challenge. We can no longer ignore the need for change.’
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