Greta Thunberg marches in front of White House with American students over climate change crisis
Climate activist Greta Thunberg has taken her fight for the planet’s future to Donald Trump’s front door, marching along with American students outside the White House in Washington with fellow students as a part of a weekly school strike.
Ms Thunberg, a 16-year-old who arrived in the US last month on a carbon emission free sailboat, joined her American peers in a demonstration that at one point included an 11-minute “mass extinction” die-in to highlight the dire predictions of the changing climate.
“Hey, hey, ho, ho, climate change has got to go,” Ms Thunberg could be heard chanting alongside the other students.
The Swedish activist has gained a considerable following over the past year after she started a school strike outside her country’s parliament, sparking a global movement among students who have followed her example known as “Fridays for Future”.
Her trip to the United States comes as the United Nations is set to hold a climate action summit in New York this month, where she has been invited to deliver a speech on September 23.
Days before that, she is set to testify before the House foreign affairs subcommittee and the select committee on the climate crisis, having been invited to the Capitol by Democrats.
Speaking on the TV show Democracy Now this week, the 16-year-old said: “We are striking to disrupt the system.”
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Ms Thunberg has refused to fly for years, citing the large carbon footprint associated with that form of travel, and has said she is not sure when she might return to Europe.
She is planning on making her way to Chile in December, for the 2019 United Nations framework convention on climate change, but said when she arrived via boat last month that she was not certain how she would make that trip without a plane just yet.
