"There is no middle ground when it comes to the climate and ecological emergency." Climate activist Greta Thunberg has a strong message to politicians who treat climate science as fiction.
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00:00A lot of politicians, business leaders, journalists say they don't agree with what we are saying.
00:09They say we children are exaggerating, that we are alarmists.
00:15To answer this, I would like to refer to page 108, chapter 2, in the latest IPCC report.
00:25There you will find all our opinions summarized.
00:30Because there you find our remaining carbon dioxide budget.
00:36Right there it says that if we are to have a 67% chance of limiting the global temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees,
00:46we had on January 1st, 2018, 420 gigatons of carbon dioxide left in our CO2 budget.
00:57And of course that number is much lower today.
01:01We emit about 42 gigatons of CO2 every year.
01:08At current emissions levels, that remaining budget is gone within roughly eight and a half years.
01:18These numbers are as real as it gets.
01:21Though a great number of scientists suggest that they are too generous,
01:25these are the ones that have been accepted by all nations through the IPCC.
01:32And not once, not one single time have I heard any politician, journalist or business leader even mention these numbers.
01:44It is almost like you don't even know they exist.
01:51As if you haven't even read the latest IPCC report on which the future of our civilization is depending.
02:02Or maybe you are simply not mature enough to tell it like it is.
02:13Because even that burden you leave to us children.
02:20We become the bad guys who have to tell people these uncomfortable things because no one else wants to or dares to.
02:30And just for quoting and acting on these numbers, these scientific facts,
02:37we receive unimaginable amounts of hate and threats.
02:43We are being mocked and lied about by elected officials, members of parliaments, business leaders, journalists.
02:53What I really would like to ask all of those who question our so-called opinions or think that we are extreme,
03:03do you have a different budget for at least a reasonable chance of staying below the 1.5 degrees of warming limit?
03:14Is there another intergovernmental panel on climate change?
03:19Is there a secret Paris Agreement that we don't know about?
03:25One that does not declude the aspect of equity.
03:30Because these are the numbers that count.
03:33This is the current best available science.
03:37You can't simply make up your own facts just because you don't like what you hear.
03:44There is no middle ground when it comes to the climate and ecological emergency.