60+ Greta Thunberg Quotes on Climate Crisis and Social Justice

Greta Thunberg quotes are often inspiring and thought-provoking, particularly when it comes to environmental issues. Her quotes demonstrate her passion and urgency for addressing the climate crisis and serve as a call to action for others to join her in the fight for a sustainable future. Some of the famous Greta Thunberg’s most popular quotes are showcased below.

20 Greta Thunberg Famous Quotes to Inspire and Empower

Here are some of the most famous Greta Thunberg quotes of all time:

• We can no longer let the people in power decide what is politically possible. We can no longer let the people in power decide what hope is. Hope is not passive. Hope is not blah, blah, blah. Hope is telling the truth. Hope is taking action. And hope always comes from the people.
• We live in a strange world where children must sacrifice their own education in order to protest against the destruction of their future. Where the people who have contributed the least to this crisis are the ones who are going to be affected the most.
• So, we can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed. Everything needs to change and it has to start today.
• Homo Sapiens have not yet failed. Yes, we are failing, but there is still time to turn everything around. We can still fix this. We still have everything in our own hands.
• Some people say that the climate crisis is something we have all created. But that is just another convenient lie. Because if everyone is guilty then no one is to blame.
• We are about to sacrifice our civilization for the opportunity of a very small number of people to continue to make enormous amounts of money. We are about to sacrifice the biosphere so that rich people in countries like mine can live in luxury. But it is the sufferings of the many which pay for the luxuries of the few.
• Hope doesn’t come from words. Hope only comes from actions.
• My message is that we’ll be watching you. 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. Yet I am one of the lucky ones. People are suffering.
• I’m sure the moment we start behaving as if we were in an emergency, we can avoid climate and ecological catastrophes.
• Everyone and everything has to change so why waste precious time arguing about what and who needs to change first?
• To do your best is no longer good enough. We must all do the seemingly impossible.
• It’s okay if you refuse to listen to me. I am after all just a 16-year-old schoolgirl from Sweden. But you cannot ignore the scientists or the science.
• Unite behind the science – make the best available science the heart of politics and democracy.
• Our civilization is so fragile. It is like a castle built in the sand. The facade is so beautiful. But the foundations are far from solid.
• I know many of you don’t want to listen to us – you say we are just children. But we’re only repeating the message of the united climate science.
• Many of you appear concerned that we are wasting valuable lesson time, but I assure you we will go back to school the moment you start listening to science and give us a future.
• The fact that we are speaking of lowering instead of stopping emissions is perhaps the greatest force behind continuing business as usual.
• We should no longer measure our wealth and success in the graph that shows economic growth, but in the curve that shows the emissions of greenhouse gases.
• You don’t listen to the science because you are only interested in solutions that will enable you to carry on like before.
• This ongoing irresponsible behavior will no doubt be remembered in history as one of the greatest failures of humankind.

6 Climate Change Quotes Greta Thunberg

Check these memorable climate change quotes by Greta Thunberg:

• Build back better. Blah, blah, blah. Green economy. Blah blah blah. Net zero by 2050. Blah, blah, blah. This is all we hear from our so-called leaders. Words that sound great but so far have not led to action. Our hopes and ambitions drown in their empty promises.
• When I’m taking action, I don’t feel like I am helpless and that things are hopeless, because then I feel like I’m doing everything I can.
• That gives me very much hope, especially to see all the other people all around the world, the activists, who are taking action and who are fighting for their present and for their future.
• The denial of the climate and ecological crisis runs so deep that hardly anyone takes real notice anymore.
• Science doesn’t lie. If we are to stay below the targets set in the 2015 Paris agreement — and thereby minimize the risks of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control — we need immediate, drastic, annual, emission reductions unlike anything the world has ever seen.
• I think it is insane that people are gathered here to talk about the climate and they arrive here in private jets.

5 Greta Thunberg Quotes on Global Warming

Here are some powerful quotes addressing global warming by Greta Thunberg:

• The climate crisis is both the easiest and the hardest issue we have ever faced. The easiest because we know what we must do. We must stop the emissions of greenhouse gases.
• It is not a secret that COP26 is a failure. It should be obvious that we cannot solve a crisis with the same methods that got us into it in the first place.
• What we do or don’t do right now, will affect my entire life and the lives of my children and grandchildren. What we do or don’t do right now, me and my generation can’t undo in the future.
• 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!
• Our house is on fire. I am here to say, our house is on fire.

Greta Thunberg Quotes from her Speech ‘Our Lives are in Your Hands’

Here are some thought-provoking quotes by Greta Thunberg from her famous speech ‘Our Lives are in Your Hands’:

• If people knew what a nightmare scenario we will face if we don’t keep global warming below 2 °C, they wouldn’t need to ask me why I’m on school strike outside parliament. If everyone knew how serious the situation is and how little is actually being done, everyone would come and sit down beside us.
• Our school strike has nothing to do with party politics. Because the climate and the biosphere don’t care about our politics and our empty words for a single second. They only care about what we actually do.
• To all of you who choose to look the other way every day because you seem more frightened of the changes that can prevent catastrophic climate change than the catastrophic climate change itself. Your silence is worst of all.
• A lot of people say that Sweden is a small country, that it doesn’t matter what we do. But I think that if a few girls can get headlines all over the world just by not going to school for a few weeks, imagine what we could do together if we wanted to.

Greta Thunberg Quotes from her Speech ‘The Grown-Ups Have Failed Us’

Check these impactful quotes from Greta Thunberg’s speech, ‘The Grown-Ups Have Failed Us’:

• Every Friday we will sit outside the Swedish parliament until Sweden is in line with the Paris Agreement.
• Time is much shorter than we think. Failure means disaster. The changes required are enormous and we must all contribute in every part of our daily life. Especially us in the rich countries where no nation is doing nearly enough.
• The grown-ups have failed us. And since most of them including the press and politicians keep ignoring the situation we must take action into our own hands. Starting today. Everyone is welcome. Everyone is needed.

Quotes from Greta’s TED Talk ‘Save the World by Changing the Rules’

Here are some memorable quotes from Greta Thunberg’s TED Talk:

• When I was 8 years old I remember thinking it was very strange that humans could be capable of changing the Earth’s climate. Because if we were and if it was really happening we wouldn’t be talking about anything else. But no one ever talked about it.
• If burning fossil fuels was so bad that it threatened our very existence, how could we just continue like before? Why were there no restrictions? Why wasn’t it made illegal? To me that did not add up.
• For those of us who are on the spectrum, almost everything is black or white. When it comes to the sustainability crisis, everyone keeps saying that climate change is an existential threat and the most important issue of all. And yet they just carry on like before. I don’t understand that, because if the emissions have to stop, then we must stop the emissions. To me that is black or white. There are no grey areas when it comes to survival.
• Furthermore hardly anyone speaks about the fact that we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction. With up to 200 species going extinct every single day. That the extinction rate is today between 1000 and 10,000 times higher than what is seen as normal.
• Nor does anyone ever speak about the aspect of equity or climate justice, clearly stated in the Paris agreement, which is absolutely necessary to make it work on a global scale. That means rich countries need to get down to zero emissions within 6 to 12 years. And that is so people in poorer countries can have a chance to heighten the standard of living by building some of the infrastructure that we have already built, such as roads, schools, hospitals, clean drinking water, electricity and so on.
• How can we expect countries like India or Nigeria to care about the climate crisis if we who already have everything don’t care even a second about it, or about our commitments to the Paris agreement.
• We’ve had 30 years of pep-talking and selling positive ideas and I’m sorry but it doesn’t work. Because if it would have, emissions would have gone down by now. They haven’t. And yes, we do need hope, of course, we do. But the one thing we need more than hope is action. Once we start to act, hope is everywhere.

Greta Thunberg Quotes from the UN Conferences

Here are some famous Greta Thunberg quotes from her speeches at the UN conferences:

• Why should I be studying for a future when no one is doing anything to save that future?
• What is the point of learning facts when the most important facts clearly mean nothing to our society?
• Since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have to take the responsibility they should have taken long ago.
• We have not come here to beg the world leaders to care for our future. They have ignored us in the past and they will ignore us again. We have come here to let them know that change is coming whether they like it or not.
• You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden you leave to us children.
• We have to speak clearly. No matter how uncomfortable that may be.
• You say you love your children above all else and yet you’re stealing their future in front of their very eyes.
• Until you start focusing on what needs to be done rather than what is politically possible there is no hope.
• We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis.
• If solutions within this system are so impossible to find then maybe we should change the system itself.
• Our civilization is being sacrificed so a very small number of people can continue making enormous amounts of money. Our biosphere is being sacrificed so rich people in countries like mine can live in luxury.

Greta Thunberg Quotes from ‘No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference’

Here are some moving quotes from Greta Thunberg’s book ‘No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference’ that will compel you to think about the climate crisis:

• I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is.
• But I’ve learnt that no one is too small to make a difference.
• Some say we should not engage in activism. Instead we should leave everything to our politicians and just vote for change instead. But what do we do when there is no political will? What do we do when the politics needed are nowhere in sight?
• And I am sorry, but saying everything will be all right while continuing doing nothing at all is just not hopeful to us. In fact, it’s the opposite of hope.
• You lied to us. You gave us false hope. You told us that the future was something to look forward to. And the saddest thing is that most children are not even aware of the fate that awaits us.
• Sometimes NOT doing things – like just sitting down outside the parliament – speaks much louder than doing things. Just like a whisper sometimes is louder than shouting.
• The real power belongs to the people.
• If the walls of our house truly came tumbling town, surely you would set your differences aside and start cooperating. Well, our house is falling apart. And we are rapidly running out of time. And yet basically nothing is happening.
• So everyone out there: it is now time for civil disobedience. It is time to rebel.
• We have not taken to the streets for you to take selfies with us, and tell us that you really admire what we do. We children are doing this to wake the adults up.

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