Sixteen-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg led a “school strike for climate” in the nation’s capital Friday alongside students and environmental activists from the D.C. area. It was her 56th week of action since starting the movement in her native Sweden, which has since gone global. She addressed the crowd gathered in front of the White House.
Greta Thunberg: “I’m just going to say that I’m so incredibly grateful for every single one of you. I’m so proud of you who have come here. And it’s a lot of people, a lot more than I think anyone had expected. And I was in the back, so I didn’t see anything but the nearest speeches, so this is very overwhelming. And to just never give up. We will continue and see you next week on September 20th.”
Greta Thunberg will be back in New York City for this Friday’s Global Climate Strike. Click here to see our recent hour-long interview with her.
This week, Democracy Now! and over 250 newsrooms around the world are taking part in the “Covering Climate Now” initiative ahead of next week’s U.N. climate summit on Monday, the 23rd. We’ll have more on this initiative later in the broadcast with The Nation’s environment correspondent Mark Hertsgaard.