It has become a habit, that whenever world leaders are about to meet during the annual UN General Assembly to discuss pressing matters, a distraction always appears and the real debate is swept under the carpet. This year it was no different. Climate change was top of the agenda then things started to unravel. The Persian Gulf crisis was threatening to spill over and war drums were beating, and US President Donald Trump whose low regard for climate change is legendary, was drawing media attention because of a controversial phone call. But one person would not let the climate change debate be overshadowed by politics, and that person is none other than 16-year-old Greta Thunberg. Her address at the UN was moving as it was epic. “This is all wrong, I shouldn’t be up here, I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you? “You have stolen my dreams, my childhood with your empty words and yet I am one of the lucky ones. People are suffering, people are dying, and our entire ecosystems are collapsing,” she told world leaders emotionally. “We are in the middle of the beginning of mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you?” World leaders should stop being selfish as many are on the last run of their lives and should leave behind a safe planet. But even if they decide nothing concrete in New York to quell the climate fears, there will always be the likes of Greta Thunberg – and her generation – to reckon with.
