Question

U6L9: Document D (Summarize the important parts of what the speaker is saying)

Source: Excerpt from the transcript of Greta Thunberg’s speech at the U.N. Climate Action Summit in New

York City, 2019.

My message is that we’ll be watching you. 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 and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People

are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass

extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you! For

more than 30 years, the science has been clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying

that you’re doing enough, when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight...The popular

idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees

Celsius, and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control...You are failing us. But

the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you.

And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right

here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it

or not. Thank you.

Answer 1

In the speech, Greta Thunberg criticizes world leaders for their inaction on climate change, accusing them of stealing the dreams and childhood of young people. She emphasizes the urgent need for action to prevent a mass extinction and calls out the focus on money and economic growth instead of prioritizing the environment. Thunberg warns that current efforts are insufficient to prevent catastrophic consequences and demands immediate and significant action. She concludes by declaring that young people are beginning to understand the betrayal of their future and promises that change is inevitable.