Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg issued a statement criticizing world leaders for their behavior during the annual G7 Summit.
Thunberg mocked the leaders' short-sightedness in a tweet that went viral.
The climate and ecological crisis is rapidly escalating. G7 spends fantasy amounts on fossil fuels as CO2 emissions are forecast for 2nd biggest annual rise ever.\n\nThis calls for steak-and-lobster-BBQ-celebration while jet planes perform aerobatics in the sky above the G7 resort!pic.twitter.com/iAKEit9aCB— Greta Thunberg (@Greta Thunberg) 1623606064
Accompanied with a photo of leaders like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden watching the air show they were given, Thunberg sounded the alarm on the current state of the climate crisis.
She wrote:
"The climate and ecological crisis is rapidly escalating. G7 spends fantasy amounts on fossil fuels as CO2 emissions are forecast for 2nd biggest annual rise ever."
She then made fun of the leaders' behavior:
"This calls for steak-and-lobster-BBQ-celebration while jet planes perform aerobatics in the sky above the G7 resort!"
The leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States gathered over the weekend in Cornwall, U.K. for the annual G7 Summit. Each year, the conference brings together the "Group of Seven," the world's seven wealthiest democracies, to analyze world events and strategize solutions to global problems.
Climate change was chief among those problems at this year's summit, with the Group of Seven leaders agreeing to ramp up action on climate change, pledging to raise $100 billion a year to aid developing countries in cutting emissions and moving away from coal, and committing to keeping global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees celsius.
But many climate activists, Thunberg included, were deeply disappointed in the leaders' climate action, criticizing their resolutions as insufficient, unclear, and a rehash of old agreements and benchmarks they have failed to meet time and again.
This led Thunberg, and many other activists, to criticize the leaders for what they saw as mere lip service.
The G7 leaders really seem to be having a good time presenting their empty climate commitments and repeating old unfulfilled promises.\n#G7UK #MindTheGap— Greta Thunberg (@Greta Thunberg) 1623606241
And that was all before it was revealed Prime Minister Johnson chose to fly on a private plane to Cornwall, a place easily reached by car or train from London.
On Twitter, people cheered on Thunberg's criticism of the world's leadership.
Totally agree Greta. Empty promises.pic.twitter.com/FxXUwsS0sN— Nick Ancell (@Nick Ancell) 1623606530
old habits die hard Greta\nthe older generation think they are doing their bit by recycling a bit of rubbish and having a composter in the garden - the connections between privilege and green is wide and far apart— Jane Gilbert (@Jane Gilbert) 1623606371
Flying jets to impress shows a monumental disconnect at this summit. \nThey could have had a much better time on local sailboats looking at Cornish wildlife and watching choughs do acrobatics in the skies\n@CwallWildlife @nicolakidsbooks @JackieMorrisArt @laurenstjohn— Gill Lewis (@Gill Lewis) 1623657570
For politicians, large corporations and banks - this all seems to be just another type of entertainment, like they do speech or debate in the senates / parliaments, do photo ops, pay non profit boards to do greenwashing!— Jim SMartEco (@Jim SMartEco) 1623606693
The last days of Romehttps://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1404131721428279296\u00a0\u2026— Extinction Rebellion (@Extinction Rebellion) 1623616440
Entirely depressing. Entirely unsurprising.https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1404131721428279296\u00a0\u2026— hannahlilystowe (@hannahlilystowe) 1623656228
Everybody loves acrobatic jets as a symbol of reducing emissions!https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1404131721428279296\u00a0\u2026— Gianluca Santoni (@Gianluca Santoni) 1623608258
the ecoterrorists must be stoppedhttps://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1404131721428279296\u00a0\u2026— \ud83c\udf3bSalaloquy\ud83c\udf30 (@\ud83c\udf3bSalaloquy\ud83c\udf30) 1623620038
She nailed it, that photo shows greatly the irony of it all.https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1404131721428279296\u00a0\u2026— Paul Caplat \ud83c\udf32\ud83e\udd8b\ud83d\udc26 (@Paul Caplat \ud83c\udf32\ud83e\udd8b\ud83d\udc26) 1623615222
It's embarrassing.https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1404131721428279296\u00a0\u2026— Lynn Matheson (@Lynn Matheson) 1623622002
Among the Group of Seven's pledges on climate change were an agreement to cut collective emissions in half by 2030, a timeline many scientists say is simply too little, too late.
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