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I never planned
to become a climate activist,
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but now things have changed,
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and now, standing here
as a climate activist,
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I ask you all to become one too.
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Here's why,
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and most importantly, how.
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Ten years ago, when I was 13 years old,
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I first learned about
the greenhouse effect.
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Back then, we spent
90 minutes on this issue,
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and I remember finding it quite irritating
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that something so fundamental
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would be squeezed
into a single geography lesson.
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Some of this irritation remained,
so when I graduated from high school,
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I decided to study geography
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just to make sure I was on the right track
with this whole climate change thing.
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And this is when everything changed.
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This was the first time
I looked at the data,
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at the science behind the climate crisis,
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and I couldn't believe what I was reading.
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Like many of you,
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I thought that the planet
wasn't really in a good state.
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I had no idea that we are rushing
into this self-made disaster
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in such rapid pace.
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There was also the first time
I understood what difference it makes
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when you consider the bigger picture.
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Take the CO2 concentration
in the atmosphere, for instance,
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the number one driver for global warming.
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Yes, this looks bad.
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This looks like we are on
a pretty bad track,
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but it's only once you don't
just consider the last 60 years,
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but the last 10,000 years,
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that you understand
how terrifying this really is.
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And this is just one aspect
of the crisis we are seeing.
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I'm not going to get into details here,
but let me tell you so much:
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we are in a point of history
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that the most destructive force
on the planet is humanity itself.
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We are in a point of history
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that no scientist could guarantee you
that you will survive this.
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We are in a point of history
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that humanity is creating an environment
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that's not safe for humans anymore.
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Yeah, there I was,
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first year of a geography,
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and pretty overwhelmed,
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but there was good news.
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The very same year
I first learned about all this,
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leaders from across the globe
came together in Paris
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to decide on the common target to limit
global warming to below two degrees.
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Pictures went around the world,
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and I was told that history
was made that day.
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How relieving, right?
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Except, something didn't quite
work out about this.
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After this agreement was signed,
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things didn't really get better.
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Actually, they got much worse.
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Decision-makers and industries,
leaders and politicians,
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they went back to business as usual,
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exploiting our livelihoods
like there is literally no tomorrow,
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building coal power plants again and again
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even though we know that needs to stop,
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according to the Paris agreement.
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So while there are also
good developments, of course,
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there are installations of wind
and solar energy all over the globe, yes,
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but these positive changes
are slow, too slow in fact.
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So since the Paris Agreement was find,
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climate graphs keep raising to the top,
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smashing records every year.
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The five hottest years ever recorded
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were the previous five years,
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and at no time have global emissions
been higher than today.
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So there I was,
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seeing and understanding
the science on the one side,
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but not seeing answers,
not seeing the action, on the other side.
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At that point, I had enough.
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I wanted to go to the UN
Climate Conference myself,
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that very place that was created
to bring people together
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to fix the climate,
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except not really, apparently.
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This was last year.
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I traveled to the Climate Conference
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and wanted to find out what is this
really like, what is this about?
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For political realists,
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this might be no surprise,
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but I found it hard to bear
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that fossil fuel industries
and political leaders
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are doing everything, everything
to prevent real change from happening.
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They are not keen to set targets
that are ambitious enough
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to put us on a below two-degree pathway.
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After all, these are the only ones who
benefit from this climate crisis, right?
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The fossil fuel industry generates profits
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and political leaders, well,
they look at the next election,
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at what makes them popular,
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and I guess that's not asking
the inconvenient questions.
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There is no intention for them
to change the game.
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There is no country in the world
where either companies or political powers
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are sanctioned for wrecking the climate.
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With all the strangeness
and the sadness about this conference,
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there was one someone who was different,
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someone who seemed to be quite worried,
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and that was Greta Thunberg.
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I decided right there
that everything else seemed hopeless
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and didn't seem to make sense,
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so I joined her climate strike
right there at the conference.
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It was my very first climate strike ever
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and an incredibly strange setting,
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just me and her sitting there
at this conference hall
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surrounded by this busyness
of the suit-wearing conference crowd
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who had no idea what to do with us.
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And yet, this felt more powerful
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than anything I had expected
in a very long time,
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and it was right there that I felt it was
maybe time to start striking in Germany.
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I was now certain that no one else
was going to fix this for us,
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and if there was just a slightest chance
that this could make a difference,
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it seemed almost foolish
not to give it a go.
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(Applause)
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So I traveled back to Berlin.
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I found allies who had
the same idea at the same time,
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and together we thought we'd give
this Fridays For Future thing a go.
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Obviously, we had no idea
what we were getting into.
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Before our first strike,
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many of us, including me,
had never organized
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a public demonstration
or any kind of protest before.
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We had no money, no resources,
and absolutely no idea
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what climate striking really is.
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So we started doing what we were good at.
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We started texting,
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texting en masse, night and day,
everyone we could reach,
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organizing our first
climate strike via WhatsApp.
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The night before our first strike,
I was so nervous I couldn't sleep.
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I didn't know what to expect,
but I expected the worst.
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Maybe it was because
we weren't the only ones
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who had been longing to have a voice
in an political environment
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that had seemingly forgotten
how to include young people's perspective
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into decision-making, maybe,
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but somehow this worked out,
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and from one day to the other,
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we were all over the place,
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and I from one day to the other
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became a climate activist.
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Usually,
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in these kind of TED Talks,
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I would now say how it's overly hopeful,
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how we young people
are going to get this sorted,
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how we're going to save the future
and the planet and everything else,
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how we young people
striking for the climate
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are going to fix this,
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usually.
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But this is not how this works.
But this is not how this crisis works.
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Here's a twist:
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today, three and a half years
after that Paris Agreement was signed,
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when we look at the science,
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we find it's still possible
to keep global warming
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to below two degrees, technically,
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and we also see it's still possible
to hold other disastrous developments
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we're seeing, such as mass extinction
and soil degradation, yes, technically.
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It's just incredibly, incredibly unlikely,
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and in any case,
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the world would have to see changes
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which we have never experienced before.
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We'd have to fully decarbonize
our economies by 2050,
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and transform the distribution of powers
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that is currently allowing
these fossil fuel giants
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and political leaders
to stay on top of the game.
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We are talking of nothing less
but the greatest transformation
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since the Industrial Revolution.
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We are talking, if you want
to put it that way,
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we are talking of a climate revolution
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in a minimum amount of time.
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We wouldn't have a single
further year to lose.
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And in any case, for any
of that change to happen,
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the world needs to stop relying
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on one or two or three million
school strikers to sort this out.
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Yes, we are great,
we are going to keep going,
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and we are going to go to places
no one ever expected us, yes,
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but we are not the limit,
we are the start.
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This is not a job for a single generation.
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This is a job for humanity.
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And this is when all eyes are on you.
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For this change to happen,
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we will have to get
one million things sorted.
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It's an incredibly
complex thing after all.
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But there are some things
that everyone can get started with.
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Bad news first: if you thought
I would tell you now to recycle more
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or eat less meat, to fly less,
or to go second-hand shopping,
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sorry, this is not that easy,
but here comes the good news.
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You are more than consumers and shoppers,
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even though the industry would like you
to keep yourselves limited to that.
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No, me and you,
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we are all political beings,
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and we can all be part of this answer.
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We can all be something
that many people call climate activists.
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Yay?
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So what are the first steps?
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Four first steps that are essential
to get everything else done,
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four first steps that everyone
can get started with,
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four first steps that decide
about everything that can happen after.
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So what's that?
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Number one,
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we need to drastically reframe
our understanding of a climate activist,
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our understanding of who
can be the answer to this.
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A climate activist isn't that one person
has read every single study
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and is now spending every afternoon
handing out leaflets
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about vegetarianism in shopping malls.
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No.
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A climate activist can be everyone,
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everyone who wants to join a movement
of those who intend to grow old
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on a planet that prioritizes
protection of natural environments
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and happiness and health for the many
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over the destruction of the climate
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and the wrecking of the planet
for the profits of the few.
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And since the climate crisis is affecting
every single part of our social,
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of our political, and of our private life,
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we need climate activists
everywhere in every corner,
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not only in every room
but also in every city
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and country and state and continent.
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Second,
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I need you to get out of
that zone of convenience,
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away from a business as usual
that has no tomorrow.
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All of you here, you are
either a friend or a family member,
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you are a worker or a colleague,
a student, a teacher,
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or in many cases a voter.
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All of this comes along
with a responsibility,
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that this requires you to grow up to.
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There's the company that employs you
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or that sponsors you.
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Is it on track of meeting
the Paris Agreement?
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Does your local parliamentarian know
that you care about this,
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that you want this to be a priority
in every election?
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Does your best friend know about this?
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Do you read a newspaper,
or write a newspaper? Great.
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Then let them know you want them
to report on this on every issue,
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and that you want them to challenge
decision-makers in every single interview.
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If you are a singer, sing about this.
If you are a teacher, teach about this.
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And if you have a bank account,
tell your bank you're going to leave
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if they keep investing in fossil fuels.
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And, of course, on Fridays
you should all know what to do.
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Thirdly,
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leaving the zone of the convenience
works best when you join forces.
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One person asking for inconvenient change
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is mostly inconvenient.
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Two, five, 10, one hundred people
asking for inconvenient change
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are hard to ignore.
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The more you are, the harder it gets
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for people to justify
a system that has not future.
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Power is not something
that you either have or don't have.
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Power is something you either take
or leave to others,
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and it grows once you share it.
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We young people on the streets,
we school strikers,
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we are showing how this can work out.
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One single school striker will always be
one single school striker,
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well, Greta Thunberg.
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Two, five, 10, one thousand people
striking school are a movement,
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and that's what we need everywhere.
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No pressure.
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And number four, finally,
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and this is probably the most
important aspect of all of this:
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I need you to start taking
yourselves more seriously.
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If there's one thing I've learned
during seven months
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of organizing climate action,
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it's that if you don't go for something,
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chances are high that no one else will.
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The most powerful
institutions of this world
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have no intention of changing the game
they're profiting from most,
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so there's no point
in further relying on them.
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That's scary, I know.
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That's a huge responsibility, a huge
burden on everyone's shoulders, yes,
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but this also means
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if we want to
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we can have a say in this.
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We can be part of that change.
We can be part of that answer.
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And that's quite beautiful, right?
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So let's give it a try,
let's rock and roll,
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let's flood the world
with climate activists,
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let's get out of the zones of convenience
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and join forces and start
taking ourselves more seriously.
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Imagine what this world would look like
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where children would grow up
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knowing their future was
this one great adventure
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to look forward to
and nothing to be scared of,
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what this world would look like
when the next climate conference,
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this great happening of people
who come together
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who had heard the voices of millions
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who would then roll up their sleeves
ready to create real change.
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You know, I dream of this world
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where geography classes
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teach about the climate crisis
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as this one greatest challenge
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that was won by people like you and me
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who had started acting in time
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because they understood
they had nothing to lose
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and everything to win.
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So why not give it a go?
No one else will save the future for us.
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This is more than invitation.
Spread the word.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)