United Nations General Assembly Speech

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Comment by Rosmarie Heusser on September 27, 2019 at 9:39pm

Dalai Lama expresses support for teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg

Phayul[Monday, June 03, 2019 21:01] By Tenzin Dharpo DHARAMSHALA, June 3: Exiled Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama has written to Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, expressing support and appreciation for her activism and work to raise awareness for the global climate change. The octogenarian Tibetan leader who is a vocal advocate for global environment wrote, “It is very encouraging to see how you have inspired other young people to join you in speaking out. You are waking people up to the scientific consensus and the urgency to act on it. I am also an ardent supporter of environmental protection. We humans are the only species with the power to destroy the earth as we know it. Yet, if we have the capacity to destroy the earth, so, too, do we have the capacity to protect it.” The Dalai Lama also said that Thunberg’s work is “encouraging” in that she has opened the eyes of the world to the urgency to protect our planet and inspired so many youths to join this movement. Greta Thunberg, 16, spearheaded the ‘school strike for climate’ movement in November 2018 after she carried out solitary protests outside the Swedish parliament in Stockholm. The consequent media coverage gathered momentum as kids around the globe, inspired by her work and her messages to global leaders, began joining the movement. Thunberg is nominated for the Nobel peace Prize by the Norwegian parliament and has been featured on the Time magazine among the 100 most influential people in world in 2019. The Swedish teenager known for her direct style of speech, at the House of Parliament in London back in May 23 said, “We children are doing this to wake the adults up. We children are doing this for you to put your differences aside and start acting as you would in a crisis. We children are doing this because we want our hopes and dreams back.”