A quarter of a million people demonstrated for the climate in New York. Battery Park on Manhattan was completely packed when Swedish teenager climate activist Greta Thunberg gave a speech and heard the crowd screaming her name.
Afterwards, she was both satisfied and a little uncomfortable. “I think it’s hard when people give me too much praise,” she said.
A year ago, Greta Thunberg started her school strike for the climate outside the Swedish parliament in Stockholm. Now she has followers all over the world and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The demonstrations are under the slogan “Fridays for future”. According to the organization, Friday’s global protests were expected to be the largest so far, larger than those in the spring when around 2.3 million people participated. After the talk in Battery Park, Greta Thunberg told Swedish newspaper AB that the record seems to have been broken.
-“It’s unbelieveble. At least four million people around the world, still counting. I can’t understand it”
The march in New York attracted more than 250,000 people. All students in New York’s municipal schools had received valid absenteeism and were allowed to participate in the strike. In addition, several stores closed and invited their employees to participate.
The demonstration ended in Battery Park in southern Manhattan, just below Wall street. The park became so crowded that the police finally had to close it down.
When Greta Thunberg went on stage, the audience shouted her name. In her speech, the 16-year-old addressed those in power who, starting on Monday, gather in New York for a summit on the climate crisis. She is one of the speakers and around 60 of the world’s leaders are expected to attend the meeting. Greta said: “The eyes of the world are directed at them. They have the chance to show leadership, to show that they really hear us”.
– Do you think they hear us?
“No,” answered the audience in Battery Park.
Greta Thunberg smiled and said: “We’ll make sure they hear us. The change is coming, whether they like it or not.
Greta Thunberg also said that the world’s youth “do not go out into the streets for adults and politicians to take selfies with them”. She demands that they do something, that they take action now.
“We do this to get them to act. We deserve and demand a secure future. Is it really asking for too much?”
Swedish journalist Peter Kadhammar from leading Swedish newspaper AB was present at Battery Park and afterwards he asked himself if it had ever happened that a 16-year-old girl became central figure in a global political movement.
When the talk was over, Greta Thunberg took the subway from Battery Park.
“It felt very good, very many people and very successful event,” she said to Media at South ferry subway station.
What do you think when so many people scream your name? “Then I think I will end most because I find it difficult when people give me too much praise”.
Are you happy with the day?
“I’m very happy with the day. Now I’m going to go home and look through all the pictures from the world and look at updated figures and have dinner and some fruit”.
Source:Aftonbladet (AB)