Desperately Grasping For Relevance, Davos Invites Teenage Activist Greta Thunberg To Speak

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Since delivering an impassioned speech to world leaders at last month's United Nations climate talks in Poland, she's spurred protests by tens of thousands of schoolchildren around the world. On Thursday, 35,000 students marched for the climate in Brussels.

"My message is that if we do not care about the climate crisis and if we do not act now then almost no other question is going to matter in the future," Thunberg, who has Asperger's syndrome, said. "Why should I be studying for a future that soon may not exist?"

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This week, Thunberg co-authored a Washington Post op-ed titled, "Davos, this is outrageous," with Christiana Figueres, a Costa Rican diplomat who spearheaded the 2015 Paris climate accord. She joined Figueres and others on Friday for a panel on "preparing for climate disruption." Flanked by CEOs, she kicked off her speech by urging members of the audience to treat climate change like the existential crisis that it is -- not just another problem to be solved in a boardroom meeting. "I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And act as if your house is on fire. Because it is."

Asked by CNN Business how she gets the strength to address a room full of the world's richest people, Thunberg said she harnesses her rage. "I used to be angry at these people but now I'm not angry at them anymore ... I've sort of transformed that anger into doing things, so I use my anger as a sort of fuel," Thunberg said, looking outside as she paused to think. Outside the building, packed with businessmen in suits, are a few snow angels that Thunberg made earlier in the day. It's easy to forget she's only 16. "Many people say that this is not an easy issue, we cannot just say that this is how it is, it's not black and white. But I say that this is black and white. Either we stop the emissions or we don't. There are no gray areas when it comes to survival."

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https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/25/europe/greta-thunberg-davos-world-economic-forum-intl/index.html