Greta Thunberg calls out Biden for climate action failures

Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg has criticized U.S. president Joe Biden for failing to lead in the fight against the climate crisis. In a detailed interview with the Washington Post, the 18-year-old activist criticized Biden and other world leaders for their lack of action.

Thunberg turned down a suggestion that Joe Biden is a leader in the fight against climate change. Instead, she argues that the U.S. is facilitating the climate crisis and making it even worse than it is. “It’s strange that people think of Joe Biden as a leader for the climate when you see what his administration is doing,” Thunberg said. “The US is actually expanding fossil fuel infrastructure.”

Related: Greta Thunberg slams global leaders for their “blah, blah, blah”

The activist says that elected leaders and those in positions of authority have relegated their duties to activists and teenagers. She says that if they were to take responsibility, they would not need to be reminded by activists about the crisis every day.

“Why is the US doing that? It should not fall on us activists and teenagers who just want to go to school to raise this awareness and to inform people that we are actually facing an emergency,” Thunberg said.

Although Biden has portrayed himself as a pro-climate president, many of his policies are questionable. Thunberg concluded that the president and other political leaders do not even understand what the climate crisis is all about. When asked what the president should do, Thunberg said we should all start with clear goals and understanding.

“We are trying to find a solution to a crisis that we don’t understand … it’s all about the narrative. It’s all about, what are we actually trying to solve? Is it this emergency, or is it this emergency?” Thunberg said.

Thunberg was also critical of the recently concluded COP26 climate Summit in Glasgow. According to the activist, COP26 turned out to be a “PR event” in which leaders tried to create loopholes to profit from the system. Still, Thunberg says there was one lesson to learn from the Glasgow meeting. She claims the lesson learned is that the only way to solve the climate crisis is by putting massive pressure on leaders from the outside. 

Despite the U.S. president pledging to lead the fight against climate change at COP26, his administration was not among the 40 countries that announced a promise to end coal mining. In November, the U.S. held the largest auction for oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, further proof that the government is not committed to cutting emissions.

Via The Guardian

Lead image via European Parliament