Greta Urges Denver Youth: Hold Politicians Accountable

In the height of the world's disappointment on her not winning a Nobel Peace Prize, young Swedish activist Greta Thurnberg still pushed her climate change agenda through her talk in Denver on Oct. 11.

Like in her previous talk, she called out the political leaders for "failing" them and called them immature for their inability to tell the truth about the real situation of the world. 

"How dare they leave this mess for their children to clean up? How dare they pretend they are doing enough when the politics needed are still nowhere in sight?" she said.

She encouraged her audience to watch out the world leaders and make them accountable to all of those messes she mentioned.

Aerial news footage during the rally has shown hundreds of participants. They can be heard chanting some of Greta's lines in her speech like "held accountable!". 

One of the organizers, 350 Colorado, claimed that the 16-year old activist's visit is an act of support for the fellow young activists in Denver. About 7,500 participants joined the climate strike in September, they added. Greta revealed that there will be a global climate strike on Nov. 29.

The young woman started her activism in August 2018 after she skipped school and was seen standing outside the Swedish Parliament to see stronger action to climate.

In September, she attended  UN Climate Action Summit in New York. She appeared to be frustrated and was holding back her tears in the stage, as she lambasted the leaders for only talking about "money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth." She also accused that their empty words had stolen her dreams and her childhood. 

Along with her conferences and rallies, Greta also started the trend of walking out of school to protest for climate change action. It has been observed in more than 100 countries.

The backlash

Although she is admired by many, including some politicians and celebrities, she also received lots of hate comments, including from some politicians and celebrities. Arron Banks, a known supporter of the controversial Brexit, joked that the carbon-free yacht Greta was riding on her tour across Atlantic would sink.

A teacher from Iowa, Matt Baish, recently made it to the news after leaving a comment on his former student's status in Facebook, saying he would not attend Greta's rally in Iowa because he "didn't have his sniper rifle."

Mason Severson, the former student, claimed that his former teacher is possibly not even joking at all. In some of his previous posts on Facebook, Baish was also seen leaving White supremacist replies, including on a picture of female Democratic representatives where Baish said that they should be out of the office as they are the "worst American in his lifetime." Baish was suspended since then.

In defense for Greta, supporters made a parody video to make fun of her detractors. Financial Times also said that these threats happened because they don't like being "berated by children," especially when "they are making a point."

Despite being the most favorite candidate of the year, the Nobel Peace Prize went to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia for ending a 20-year war. If Greta had won, she would become the youngest recipient, the record still held by the 2014 recipient Malala Yousafzai, who won at the age of 17.