On Thursday, as she testified before Congress, teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg, 18, who repeatedly has issued dire predictions for the planet, played psychologist for one Democratic congresswoman. The congresswoman, who has three children, asked the 18-year-old to advise her on how to deal with her 9-year-old daughter who bewailed, “The Earth is on fire and we’re all going to die soon.”
Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), the mother of three children, two teenage sons and a nine-year-old daughter, asked Thunberg: “I just want to ask you one question: I have a nine-year-old daughter, I have three kids, and I told my nine-year-old daughter that I was going to be speaking with you, and I said, ‘What do you think about the climate change?’ And she said, ‘The Earth is on fire and we’re all going to die soon.'”
“And I asked her how that made her feel, and she said that it made her feel angry,” Porter continued. “What should I tell my daughter and how should I help her and the youngest generation bear the emotional toll of the actions that we’re taking, fossil fuel companies are taking to destroy our planet?”
“Well, thank you for your question,” Thunberg replied. “That’s a big question. I know that there are many young people who feel angry and sad because of all the things that some people are doing to this planet and our futures and to the most affected people … today. And that’s very understandable. It would be strange if we didn’t feel that way because we wouldn’t have any empathy. But, of course, there is still much hope, and if we choose to take action, then we can do this. There’s unlimited things that we can do, and if we choose to act together, there are no limits to what we can accomplish. … The best medication against anger and anxiety is to take action yourself. So that’s what I would tell her, to take action herself because that will make her feel so much better.”
.@RepKatiePorter’s 9-year-old daughter said, “The Earth is on fire and we’re all going to die soon.” The congresswoman asked @GretaThunberg about the emotional toll of climate change on youth https://t.co/GTtIE58NSb pic.twitter.com/fYrE6y39cb
— Peter Wade (@brooklynmutt) April 22, 2021
Speaking before Congress, Thunberg went on her usual tirade, pronouncing that subsidies for fossil fuel industries were “clear proof that we have not understood the climate emergency at all. … The fact that we are still having this discussion and even more that we are still subsidizing fossil fuels directly or indirectly using taxpayer money is a disgrace.”
Thunberg pontificated, “To be honest, I don’t believe for a second that you will actually do this. The climate crisis doesn’t exist in the public debate today… You will still get away with continuing to contribute to the destruction of present and future living conditions.”
“How long do you honestly believe that people in power like you will get away with it?” she said. “How long do you think you can continue to ignore the climate crisis, the global aspect of equity and historic emissions without being held accountable? … You get away with it now, but sooner or later people are going to realize what you have been doing this time. That’s inevitable. You still have time to do the right thing and to save your legacies, but that window of time is not going to last for long. We, the young people, are the ones who are going to write about you in the history books, we are the ones who get to decide how you will be remembered. So my advice for you is to choose wisely.”