"I’m telling you, there is hope, I have seen it. But it does not come from the governments or corporations. It comes from the people."
As she was giving a speech at the COP25 conference, Greta Thunberg was named Time Person of the Year 2019. This is her message.
As she was giving a speech at the COP25 conference, Greta Thunberg was named Time Person of the Year 2019. This is her message.
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00:00I still believe that the biggest danger is not in action.
00:05The real danger is when politicians and CEOs are making it look like real action is happening,
00:11when in fact almost nothing is being done apart from clever accounting and creative PR.
00:18I have been fortunate enough to be able to travel around the world.
00:31And my experience is that the lack of awareness is the same everywhere,
00:38not the least amongst those elected to lead us.
00:43There is no sense of urgency whatsoever.
00:47Our leaders are not behaving as if we were in an emergency.
00:52In an emergency you change your behavior.
00:56If there is a child standing in the middle of the road and cars are coming at full speed,
01:02you don't look away because it's too uncomfortable.
01:05You immediately run out and rescue that child.
01:09And without that sense of urgency,
01:12how can we, the people, understand that we are facing a real crisis?
01:18And if the people are not fully aware of what is going on,
01:22then they will not put pressure on the people in power to act.
01:28And without pressure from the people,
01:32our leaders can get away with basically not doing anything,
01:36which is where we are now.
01:40And around and around it goes.
01:45In just three weeks, we will enter a new decade.
01:51A decade that will define our future.
01:55Right now, we are desperate for any sign of hope.
02:00Well, I'm telling you there is hope. I have seen it.
02:05But it does not come from the governments or corporations.
02:10It comes from the people.
02:13The people who have been unaware but are now starting to wake up.
02:18And once we become aware, we change.
02:21People can change. People are ready for change.
02:26And that is the hope because we have democracy.
02:30And democracy is happening all the time, not just on election day,
02:35but every second and every hour.
02:39It is public opinion that runs the free world.
02:44In fact, every great change throughout history has come from the people.
02:52We do not have to wait.
02:55We can start the change right now.
02:59We, the people.