During a recent speech meant to highlight her new book, “The Climate Book,” teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg attacked the West’s capitalist system, building on a passage in her book in which she called for replacing capitalism with something else.
She began her diatribe against capitalism by saying that it was already creating a crisis and was rooted in such evils as “oppression” and “genocide,” saying:
“We are never going back to normal again because ‘normal’ was already a crisis.
“What we refer to as normal is an extreme system built on the exploitation of people and the planet.
“It is a system defined by colonialism, imperialism, oppression and genocide by the so-called global North to accumulate wealth that still shapes our current world order.”
She also apparently said that “If economic growth is our only priority, then what we are experiencing now should be exactly what we should be expecting,” then went on to call the extraction of fossil fuels “racist.”
Later, during the question and answer portion of the event, Greta said that we “need to change everything,” saying:
“We need to change everything because right now our current system is on a collision course with the future of humanity and the future of our civilisation”.
Watch her speech here:
Announcing her book on Twitter, Greta said:
Today The Climate Book is finally released in many parts of the world! I want to use my platform to share the reality of the climate crisis – to communicate a holistic picture of how the world is changing and what we need to do about it. That is why I created this book.
With over 100 incredible contributors – experts, activists and authors – it highlights many of the different faces of the crises we face, and aims to connect the dots between them.
I will not earn any money from this book as my copyright belongs to the Greta Thunberg Foundation. So all royalties go to charity.
I want to send a massive thank you to all the contributors for your invaluable expertise and stories, as well as to everyone who made this possible! And a special thanks to my fantastic editors Chloe Currens and Cristopher Richards.
Despite advocating for the downfall or overthrow of the capitalist system with something else, however, Greta said that she does not want to return to “socialism, liberalism, communism, conservatism, centrism, you name it,” because those ideologies “have all failed.”
The climate deniers and delayers are so desperate and feel so threatened that they simply make up their own “quotes” from pure lies and fantasies. This is what I have said about systems and ideologies:
The climate deniers and delayers are so desperate and feel so threatened that they simply make up their own “quotes” from pure lies and fantasies. This is what I have said about systems and ideologies: pic.twitter.com/FNacu4EYZv
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) November 2, 2022
She was criticized for that response by Michael Schellenberger, who said:
“In response to criticism, Thunberg once again scapegoats her critics as “deniers,” and claims they misquoted her, but the passage she shares from her forthcoming book confirms that she is indeed calling for an end to “capitalist consumerism and market economics.”
He also said “A lot of people ask why we listen to Thunberg. We shouldn’t. But global elites do. Why? Nihilism and infantilization, mostly.“
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