Greta Thunberg gained international attention and became a prominent figure in the climate movement after she started skipping school on Fridays in August 2018 to protest outside the Swedish Parliament, demanding immediate action on the climate crisis. She held a sign that read “Skolstrejk för klimatet” (“School strike for climate”). Thunberg’s protest gained media attention in Sweden and eventually, her activism went viral on social media, inspiring other students around the world to join her movement, and she received support from various environmental organizations and celebrities. In September 2018, she was invited to speak at a climate event in Stockholm, which was her first public speech. Her speech went viral and was shared widely on social media. After that, she was invited to speak at various events and conferences, including the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York in September 2019, where she delivered her now-famous “How Dare You” speech partly quoted below: “This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!” While many people consider Greta Thunberg’s speech to be an essential call to action, it also had the drawback of being divisive. Thunberg’s speech placed blame on adults and leaders for causing environmental destruction that would affect future generations, which some people interpreted as an attack on themselves and their culture. As a result, some people criticized her, calling her a privileged child who didn’t understand the experiences of those living in poverty who do not have access to the resources and opportunities that she had. So what would have been a better speech? A divisive speech of course will go more viral than a non-divisive speech, and it will make you famous. But if the intention is to get everyone on board with your view, then a better speech would have been a more inclusive approach. This way, a speaker can engage a wider audience and communicate their message in a way that resonates with people from all backgrounds. Instead of placing blame on one or two particular groups, an inclusive speech would focus on the shared responsibility we all have to work towards a more sustainable future. In this way, the speech would be more likely to inspire people to take action and work together towards a common goal. So here is a my attempt at a more inclusive speech: “This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. … Continue reading What Greta Thunberg should have said