[Watch Video] "Greta Thunberg Leads the N.Y.C. Climate Strike [newyorker.com] .................................................................................................
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Since crossing the Atlantic on an emission-free sailboat, earlier this month, Greta Thunberg, the sixteen-year-old climate activist from Sweden, has met with former President Barack Obama, appeared on “The Daily Show,” and given an address to Congress. On Wednesday, before the House Ways and Means Committee, she said that climate change “is, above all, an emergency, and not just any emergency. This is the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced.” Earlier in the day, during testimony before the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, she calmly rebutted an attempt by Representative Garret Graves, Republican of Louisiana, to pass responsibility for curbing carbon emissions off to China. “Another perspective,” she told Graves. “I am from Sweden. It’s a small country. And there it’s the same argument: Why should we do anything—just look at the U.S.” It was a succinct example of why smug congressmen should be wary of debating eloquent and dedicated teens.
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On Friday, Thunberg [made] her highest-profile appearance yet in the United States. At 5 p.m., she is addressing what is expected to be a crowd of hundreds of thousands in Battery Park, for the culmination of the first day of the Global Climate Strike, a weeklong series of school and work strikes. Similar strikes are planned in cities across the country and around the world. Earlier this week, the city announced that New York public-school students would not be penalized for missing school to attend the event, which will begin with a rally at noon in Foley Square, with a march to Battery Park to follow. The strikes are modelled on Thunberg’s own history of civil disobedience. She came to international attention, last year, after leaving school to protest on the steps of Sweden’s parliament against inaction on the climate crisis. This week’s strike is timed to coincide with the United Nations Climate Action Summit, which will begin on Monday.
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Watch a live stream of Friday’s strike in New York City above, and read more of our coverage of the climate crisis."
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How did you feel about that?