WEBVTT

00:00:01.357 --> 00:00:04.093
When I was about eight years old,

00:00:04.117 --> 00:00:08.359
I first heard about something
called climate change or global warming.

00:00:09.635 --> 00:00:14.205
Apparently, that was something
humans have created by our way of living.

00:00:15.110 --> 00:00:18.727
I was told to turn off
the lights to save energy

00:00:19.064 --> 00:00:22.435
and to recycle paper to save resources.

00:00:24.196 --> 00:00:27.201
I remember thinking
that it was very strange

00:00:27.225 --> 00:00:31.038
that humans, who are
an animal species among others,

00:00:31.062 --> 00:00:35.241
could be capable of changing
the earth's climate.

00:00:35.918 --> 00:00:39.389
Because if we were,
and if it was really happening,

00:00:39.752 --> 00:00:42.655
we wouldn't be talking
about anything else.

00:00:43.636 --> 00:00:47.916
As soon as you'd turn on the TV,
everything would be about that.

00:00:48.471 --> 00:00:51.741
Headlines, radio, newspapers,

00:00:51.765 --> 00:00:54.213
you would never read or hear
about anything else,

00:00:55.128 --> 00:00:57.086
as if there was a world war going on.

00:00:58.793 --> 00:01:00.658
But no one ever talked about it.

00:01:02.284 --> 00:01:08.081
If burning fossil fuels was so bad
that it threatened our very existence,

00:01:08.683 --> 00:01:11.312
how could we just continue like before?

00:01:12.297 --> 00:01:14.205
Why were there no restrictions?

00:01:14.946 --> 00:01:17.044
Why wasn't it made illegal?

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:18.956 --> 00:01:21.441
To me, that did not add up.

00:01:22.267 --> 00:01:23.616
It was too unreal.

00:01:26.377 --> 00:01:28.503
So when I was 11, I became ill.

00:01:29.166 --> 00:01:30.686
I fell into depression,

00:01:31.235 --> 00:01:32.529
I stopped talking,

00:01:32.914 --> 00:01:34.206
and I stopped eating.

00:01:35.701 --> 00:01:39.066
In two months,
I lost about 10 kilos of weight.

00:01:40.836 --> 00:01:44.211
Later on, I was diagnosed
with Asperger syndrome,

00:01:44.235 --> 00:01:46.653
OCD and selective mutism.

00:01:48.105 --> 00:01:51.596
That basically means I only speak
when I think it's necessary.

00:01:51.620 --> 00:01:53.237
Now is one of those moments.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:53.261 --> 00:01:54.412
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:54.436 --> 00:02:03.934
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:03.958 --> 00:02:06.338
For those of us who are on the spectrum,

00:02:06.362 --> 00:02:08.545
almost everything is black or white.

00:02:09.545 --> 00:02:11.093
We aren't very good at lying,

00:02:11.117 --> 00:02:14.738
and we usually don't enjoy
participating in this social game

00:02:14.762 --> 00:02:16.524
that the rest of you seem so fond of.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:16.901 --> 00:02:18.063
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:18.651 --> 00:02:21.933
I think in many ways
that we autistic are the normal ones,

00:02:21.957 --> 00:02:24.100
and the rest of the people
are pretty strange,

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:24.124 --> 00:02:25.453
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:25.477 --> 00:02:28.397
especially when it comes to
the sustainability crisis,

00:02:28.881 --> 00:02:32.441
where everyone keeps saying
climate change is an existential threat

00:02:32.977 --> 00:02:35.052
and the most important issue of all,

00:02:35.604 --> 00:02:37.683
and yet they just carry on like before.

00:02:39.515 --> 00:02:41.551
I don't understand that,

00:02:41.575 --> 00:02:44.339
because if the emissions have to stop,

00:02:44.363 --> 00:02:46.236
then we must stop the emissions.

00:02:47.062 --> 00:02:48.783
To me that is black or white.

00:02:49.542 --> 00:02:52.304
There are no gray areas
when it comes to survival.

00:02:52.778 --> 00:02:55.729
Either we go on
as a civilization or we don't.

00:02:56.562 --> 00:02:57.992
We have to change.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:00.018 --> 00:03:03.842
Rich countries like Sweden
need to start reducing emissions

00:03:03.866 --> 00:03:06.794
by at least 15 percent every year.

00:03:08.151 --> 00:03:11.683
And that is so that we can stay
below a two-degree warming target.

00:03:12.713 --> 00:03:16.165
Yet, as the IPCC
have recently demonstrated,

00:03:17.271 --> 00:03:20.222
aiming instead for 1.5 degrees Celsius

00:03:20.246 --> 00:03:23.065
would significantly
reduce the climate impacts.

00:03:23.844 --> 00:03:27.172
But we can only imagine
what that means for reducing emissions.

00:03:28.950 --> 00:03:31.499
You would think the media
and every one of our leaders

00:03:31.523 --> 00:03:33.789
would be talking about nothing else,

00:03:33.813 --> 00:03:35.521
but they never even mention it.

00:03:36.920 --> 00:03:38.631
Nor does anyone ever mention

00:03:38.655 --> 00:03:41.775
the greenhouse gases
already locked in the system.

00:03:42.391 --> 00:03:44.780
Nor that air pollution is hiding a warming

00:03:45.371 --> 00:03:48.308
so that when we stop burning fossil fuels,

00:03:48.332 --> 00:03:50.757
we already have an extra level of warming

00:03:50.781 --> 00:03:54.847
perhaps as high as
0.5 to 1.1 degrees Celsius.

00:03:56.988 --> 00:03:59.516
Furthermore does hardly
anyone speak about the fact

00:03:59.540 --> 00:04:02.625
that we are in the midst
of the sixth mass extinction,

00:04:03.681 --> 00:04:08.677
with up to 200 species
going extinct every single day,

00:04:10.095 --> 00:04:13.711
that the extinction rate today

00:04:13.735 --> 00:04:17.606
is between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher

00:04:17.630 --> 00:04:19.130
than what is seen as normal.

00:04:22.432 --> 00:04:27.795
Nor does hardly anyone ever speak about
the aspect of equity or climate justice,

00:04:28.229 --> 00:04:31.206
clearly stated everywhere
in the Paris Agreement,

00:04:31.545 --> 00:04:35.533
which is absolutely necessary
to make it work on a global scale.

00:04:37.470 --> 00:04:39.234
That means that rich countries

00:04:39.258 --> 00:04:43.282
need to get down to zero emissions
within six to 12 years,

00:04:44.075 --> 00:04:45.814
with today's emission speed.

00:04:48.171 --> 00:04:50.314
And that is so that people
in poorer countries

00:04:50.338 --> 00:04:53.077
can have a chance to heighten
their standard of living

00:04:53.101 --> 00:04:56.252
by building some of the infrastructure
that we have already built,

00:04:56.747 --> 00:04:59.823
such as roads, schools, hospitals,

00:04:59.847 --> 00:05:02.591
clean drinking water,
electricity, and so on.

00:05:03.623 --> 00:05:08.195
Because how can we expect
countries like India or Nigeria

00:05:08.219 --> 00:05:10.162
to care about the climate crisis

00:05:10.186 --> 00:05:14.962
if we who already have everything
don't care even a second about it --

00:05:14.986 --> 00:05:17.587
or our actual commitments
to the Paris Agreement?

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:20.421 --> 00:05:24.095
So, why are we not reducing our emissions?

00:05:25.423 --> 00:05:28.198
Why are they in fact still increasing?

00:05:29.736 --> 00:05:32.427
Are we knowingly causing
a mass extinction?

00:05:33.629 --> 00:05:35.320
Are we evil?

00:05:37.153 --> 00:05:38.855
No, of course not.

00:05:39.616 --> 00:05:41.110
People keep doing what they do

00:05:41.134 --> 00:05:44.105
because the vast majority
doesn't have a clue

00:05:44.129 --> 00:05:47.471
about the actual consequences
of our everyday life.

00:05:48.350 --> 00:05:51.072
And they don't know
that rapid change is required.

00:05:52.469 --> 00:05:56.413
We all think we know,
and we all think everybody knows,

00:05:56.437 --> 00:05:57.628
but we don't.

00:05:58.703 --> 00:05:59.969
Because how could we?

00:06:02.390 --> 00:06:04.231
If there really was a crisis,

00:06:04.739 --> 00:06:07.499
and if this crisis was caused
by our emissions,

00:06:07.916 --> 00:06:09.918
you would at least see some signs.

00:06:10.964 --> 00:06:15.025
Not just flooded cities,
tens of thousands of dead people

00:06:15.049 --> 00:06:18.694
and whole nations leveled
to piles of torn down buildings.

00:06:19.820 --> 00:06:21.718
You would see some restrictions.

00:06:22.564 --> 00:06:23.714
But no.

00:06:24.718 --> 00:06:26.486
And no one talks about it.

00:06:28.275 --> 00:06:33.641
There are no emergency meetings,
no headlines, no breaking news.

00:06:34.527 --> 00:06:37.324
No one is acting
as if we were in a crisis.

00:06:38.371 --> 00:06:42.256
Even most climate scientists
or green politicians

00:06:42.280 --> 00:06:45.667
keep on flying around the world,
eating meat and dairy.

00:06:50.215 --> 00:06:55.944
If I live to be 100,
I will be alive in the year 2103.

00:06:57.590 --> 00:07:03.006
When you think about the future today,
you don't think beyond the year 2050.

00:07:04.156 --> 00:07:09.076
By then, I will, in the best case,
not even have lived half of my life.

NOTE Paragraph

00:07:10.139 --> 00:07:11.481
What happens next?

00:07:13.617 --> 00:07:19.130
The year 2078,
I will celebrate my 75th birthday.

00:07:20.302 --> 00:07:24.979
If I have children or grandchildren,
maybe they will spend that day with me.

00:07:26.542 --> 00:07:28.373
Maybe they will ask me about you,

00:07:29.300 --> 00:07:32.809
the people who were around back in 2018.

00:07:34.741 --> 00:07:37.223
Maybe they will ask
why you didn't do anything

00:07:37.690 --> 00:07:39.789
while there still was time to act.

00:07:41.806 --> 00:07:46.211
What we do or don't do right now
will affect my entire life

00:07:46.235 --> 00:07:48.846
and the lives of my children
and grandchildren.

00:07:50.005 --> 00:07:52.406
What we do or don't do right now,

00:07:52.430 --> 00:07:56.056
me and my generation
can't undo in the future.

00:08:00.191 --> 00:08:02.926
So when school
started in August of this year,

00:08:02.950 --> 00:08:05.224
I decided that this was enough.

00:08:05.983 --> 00:08:09.811
I set myself down on the ground
outside the Swedish parliament.

00:08:10.462 --> 00:08:12.565
I school striked for the climate.

00:08:14.593 --> 00:08:17.311
Some people say that
I should be in school instead.

00:08:18.185 --> 00:08:21.821
Some people say that I should study
to become a climate scientist

00:08:21.845 --> 00:08:24.623
so that I can "solve the climate crisis."

00:08:26.784 --> 00:08:29.294
But the climate crisis
has already been solved.

00:08:30.413 --> 00:08:33.284
We already have
all the facts and solutions.

00:08:33.819 --> 00:08:36.270
All we have to do is
to wake up and change.

00:08:38.119 --> 00:08:42.174
And why should I be studying for a future
that soon will be no more

00:08:42.817 --> 00:08:46.467
when no one is doing anything
whatsoever to save that future?

00:08:47.737 --> 00:08:50.936
And what is the point of learning facts
in the school system

00:08:51.906 --> 00:08:53.539
when the most important facts

00:08:53.563 --> 00:08:57.078
given by the finest science
of that same school system

00:08:57.536 --> 00:09:01.055
clearly means nothing
to our politicians and our society?

00:09:03.575 --> 00:09:06.424
Some people say that Sweden
is just a small country,

00:09:06.861 --> 00:09:08.972
and that it doesn't matter what we do,

00:09:09.817 --> 00:09:14.071
but I think that if a few children
can get headlines all over the world

00:09:14.095 --> 00:09:16.562
just by not coming to school
for a few weeks,

00:09:16.993 --> 00:09:19.718
imagine what we could all do
together if you wanted to.

NOTE Paragraph

00:09:20.024 --> 00:09:24.392
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:09:24.416 --> 00:09:26.934
Now we're almost at the end of my talk.

00:09:29.005 --> 00:09:33.870
And this is where people
usually start talking about hope,

00:09:34.574 --> 00:09:38.866
solar panels, wind power,
circular economy, and so on,

00:09:40.335 --> 00:09:41.985
but I'm not going to do that.

00:09:42.731 --> 00:09:47.040
We've had 30 years of pep-talking
and selling positive ideas.

00:09:47.921 --> 00:09:49.945
And I'm sorry, but it doesn't work.

00:09:50.905 --> 00:09:52.454
Because if it would have,

00:09:52.478 --> 00:09:54.478
the emissions would have gone down by now.

00:09:54.853 --> 00:09:56.003
They haven't.

00:09:57.372 --> 00:09:59.510
And yes, we do need hope,

00:10:00.496 --> 00:10:01.743
of course we do.

00:10:02.476 --> 00:10:05.910
But the one thing we need
more than hope is action.

00:10:06.956 --> 00:10:09.553
Once we start to act, hope is everywhere.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:11.768 --> 00:10:13.911
So instead of looking for hope,

00:10:13.935 --> 00:10:15.133
look for action.

00:10:16.474 --> 00:10:19.775
Then, and only then, hope will come.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:22.450 --> 00:10:28.813
Today, we use 100 million
barrels of oil every single day.

00:10:29.853 --> 00:10:31.964
There are no politics to change that.

00:10:33.016 --> 00:10:35.618
There are no rules
to keep that oil in the ground.

00:10:37.162 --> 00:10:40.062
So we can't save the world
by playing by the rules,

00:10:40.952 --> 00:10:43.205
because the rules have to be changed.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:44.098 --> 00:10:45.767
Everything needs to change,

00:10:46.647 --> 00:10:48.219
and it has to start today.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:48.941 --> 00:10:50.092
Thank you.

NOTE Paragraph

00:10:50.116 --> 00:10:55.246
(Applause)