Greta Thunberg: People are underestimating the force of angry kids

People are failing to grasp the anger of the younger generation in the face of a changing climate, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg said on December 3. The 16-year-old activist spoke after arriving at a port in Lisbon, where she disembarked after more than two weeks spent crossing the Atlantic in a catamaran.

"I think people are underestimating the force of angry kids," she said. "We are angry and we are frustrated but it is because of a good reason. If they want us to stop being angry then maybe they should stop making us angry."

The boat, La Vagabonde, carried the Swedish campaigner, who refused to travel by plane, across the Atlantic so she could attend the COP25 climate summit in Madrid.

"I'm not traveling like this because I want everyone to do so," she said, speaking of crossing the Atlantic in a catamaran. "I'm doing this to sort of send a message that it is impossible to live sustainable today and that needs to change. It needs to become much easier. We can't require from everyone to rely on people like this to sail you across an ocean, that is absurd."

Thunberg said she would spend a few days in Lisbon before making her way to Madrid, where the COP25 climate summit is currently underway, where she would work to ensure the "voices of future generations" are heard.

"Eventually we will go into COP25 in Madrid and we will continue the fight there to make sure that within those walls the voices of the people are being heard and the voices of future generations are being heard and the voice from the people specially from the global south are being heard."

"We are facing a global emergency and we need to see it from a holistic point of view and we need to do everything we can. We need to work together to make sure that we secure future living conditions for humankind and that we fight for not only ourselves but for our children and for our grand-children and for every single living being on Earth. And everyone has to do everything they can in order to make sure they are in the right side of history," she said.