We are not going to be satisfied by politicians saying 'we support you' and then walking away. We won't be satisfied until they meet our demands and act. That's why simply taking a selfie or posting support on Twitter isn't enough. That's why we have to keep striking.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the need for actionable support from leaders rather than mere verbal endorsements.
Greta Thunberg expresses frustration with superficial political support that lacks real commitment and action. She asserts that simply showing support through social media or symbolic gestures is inadequate, and stresses the importance of sustained activism and pressure to bring about genuine change and meet the demands of movements advocating for action on climate change and social justice.
In practice
In a speech about climate change, you might quote Thunberg to urge politicians to take real action.
When I was maybe eight or nine years old, I first learned about the climate crisis in school. My teachers taught me about it and we saw films and pictures of plastic in the ocean and extreme weather events. Those pictures were just stuck in my head; I thought, there is no point in anything.
I have been on the road and visited numerous places and met people from all over the globe. I can say that it looks nearly the same everywhere I have been: The climate crisis is ignored by people in charge, despite the science being crystal clear.
I want the politicians to prioritise the climate question, focus on the climate and treat it like a crisis.
We have to understand what the older generation has dealt to us, what mess they have created that we have to clean up and live with.
It felt like I was the only one who cared about the climate and the ecological crisis. My parents didn't care about it, my classmates didn't care about it, my relatives didn't care about this. I mean nobody I knew cared about this and I felt like I was the only one.
The thing that's made me open my eyes to what was happening to the environment and climate was films and documentaries.
It is impossible to predict the time and progress of revolution. It is governed by its own more or less mysterious laws.
They ask me if I'm going to quit. I thought we were just getting started. We have a revolution to fight, a country to change.
It is time for me to chuck in the sponge. To retire from films and stage. The heart for it has gone out of me: it won't come back.
It is good to realize that falling apart is not such a bad thing. Indeed, it is as essential to evolutionary and psychological transformation as the cracking of outgrown shells.
This is the moment of your defeat; you have just put in the last nails in the coffin of communism.
No reform is possible unless some of the educated and the rich voluntarily accept the status of the poor, travel third, refuse to enjoy the amenities denied to the poor and, instead of taking avoidable hardships, discourtesies and injustice as a matter of course, fight for their removal.
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