1 00:00:02,840 --> 00:00:07,920 [Namrata Iyer]: I think some of the biggest challenges my generation faces is convincing 2 00:00:07,920 --> 00:00:13,230 the previous generations about why it's important to talk about what we believe in. 3 00:00:13,230 --> 00:00:18,529 [Greta Thunberg]: We can't choose between us young people saying to adults you must 4 00:00:18,529 --> 00:00:23,369 behave but we can't wait for us to become the ones in charge because we don't have time 5 00:00:23,369 --> 00:00:24,369 for that. 6 00:00:24,369 --> 00:00:27,430 [Timothée Chalamet]: Your youth does not have to work against you by way of experience, 7 00:00:27,430 --> 00:00:32,480 your youth can be a virtue by way of what you ethically and earnestly expect of the 8 00:00:32,480 --> 00:00:33,480 world. 9 00:00:33,480 --> 00:00:38,360 [Billie Eilish]: People can be so selfish about the environment and their experience 10 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:42,513 versus the globe and literally our lifespan. 11 00:00:42,513 --> 00:00:48,420 [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]: The America we grew up in is like nothing like the America 12 00:00:48,420 --> 00:00:51,010 our parents or grandparents grew up in. 13 00:00:51,010 --> 00:00:56,350 [Nyke Slawik]: When you have young people who are confronted with not having a future 14 00:00:56,350 --> 00:01:02,879 at all of course this is going to radicalize a whole generation. 15 00:01:02,879 --> 00:01:07,167 This is a question of survival basically. 16 00:01:07,167 --> 00:01:13,840 [John Kerry]: I don't doubt that we will get to a net zero carbon economy. 17 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:17,950 Will we get there fast enough to heed the science and avoid the worst consequences? 18 00:01:17,950 --> 00:01:19,139 That's the battle. 19 00:01:19,139 --> 00:01:20,929 That's what we're trying to do with Glasgow. 20 00:01:22,841 --> 00:01:23,526 [Thunberg]: What do we want? 21 00:01:23,570 --> 00:01:24,570 [Audience]: Climate justice. 22 00:01:24,570 --> 00:01:25,805 [Thunberg]: When do we want it? 23 00:01:25,805 --> 00:01:27,169 [Audience]: Now. 24 00:01:27,169 --> 00:01:28,335 [Thunberg]: What do we want? 25 00:01:28,335 --> 00:01:29,654 [Audience]: Climate justice. 26 00:01:29,654 --> 00:01:30,729 [Thunberg]: When do we want it? 27 00:01:30,729 --> 00:01:31,729 [Audience]: Now. 28 00:01:31,729 --> 00:01:32,729 [Thunberg]: Thank you. 29 00:01:32,729 --> 00:01:36,729 [Justin Worland]: This generation has reframed the way we talk and think about climate to 30 00:01:36,729 --> 00:01:39,810 make it an issue of intergenerational justice. 31 00:01:39,810 --> 00:01:42,649 The question is will this anger turn into action? 32 00:01:42,649 --> 00:01:48,079 Will leaders who have been listening actually take the message to heart and do something 33 00:01:48,079 --> 00:01:49,079 about it? 34 00:01:49,079 --> 00:01:55,170 [Kerry]: Our diplomacy is guided by what the scientists are telling us we must achieve. 35 00:01:55,170 --> 00:02:01,809 Three years ago they had a report in 2018 the IPCC gave us 12 years within which to 36 00:02:01,809 --> 00:02:06,965 make the critical decisions to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis. 37 00:02:06,965 --> 00:02:13,410 [Hoesung Lee]: Limiting warming to 1.5 degrees is not impossible but will require unprecedented 38 00:02:13,410 --> 00:02:16,633 transitions in all aspects of society. 39 00:02:16,633 --> 00:02:21,409 [Worland]: It was alarming in its the seriousness with which it portrayed the consequences of 40 00:02:21,409 --> 00:02:22,409 climate change. 41 00:02:22,409 --> 00:02:25,379 We're talking about hundreds of millions of people migrating. 42 00:02:25,379 --> 00:02:29,790 We're talking about the possibility of countries disappearing in their entirety. 43 00:02:29,790 --> 00:02:33,409 We're talking about a world that is totally transformed. 44 00:02:33,409 --> 00:02:37,650 Already 85 percent of the world's population has been affected by human-caused climate 45 00:02:37,650 --> 00:02:38,650 change. 46 00:02:38,650 --> 00:02:42,239 [Jim Skea]: The message is over to governments at this stage. 47 00:02:42,239 --> 00:02:47,420 We've told you what you—the scientific facts, the evidence, the costs. 48 00:02:47,420 --> 00:02:50,836 It is up to the governments now to decide what to do with it. 49 00:02:51,519 --> 00:02:54,720 [Ciara Nugent]: We've had loads and loads of reports about climate change over the last 50 00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:59,939 couple of decades and the massive threat to our planet but despite all of the science 51 00:02:59,939 --> 00:03:05,060 there are still people who are skeptical about how much of a big deal it really is. 52 00:03:05,060 --> 00:03:12,060 And I think for those people it's much harder to dismiss young people, normal school kids 53 00:03:12,060 --> 00:03:16,334 because they're part of their communities, they're part of their families often. 54 00:03:16,334 --> 00:03:23,519 [Nyke Slawik]: What we need is politicians who implement the policies in their home countries 55 00:03:23,519 --> 00:03:27,480 and that's—that's what has not been happening in the last years. 56 00:03:27,480 --> 00:03:33,120 And so now young people are saying why go to school? 57 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:35,139 Why go to university? 58 00:03:35,139 --> 00:03:42,950 Why start planning a family? Why buy a house when I don't even know that in 50 years time 59 00:03:42,950 --> 00:03:50,537 or 70 years time I will still have a future, because right now that's at stake. 60 00:03:50,537 --> 00:03:56,397 [Ocasio-Cortez]: If we do nothing this is what's going to happen: sea levels are going rise, 61 00:03:56,397 --> 00:04:00,290 crops are going to die out, there will be mass starvation. 62 00:04:00,290 --> 00:04:04,228 There's going to be all of these things that are going to happen and kids see that, 63 00:04:04,228 --> 00:04:07,000 they internalize it. 64 00:04:08,775 --> 00:04:13,060 [Charlotte Alter]: Researchers have found that young voters form their lifelong political 65 00:04:13,060 --> 00:04:20,130 attitudes in response to the events of their early adulthood, mostly late teens into the 66 00:04:20,130 --> 00:04:21,449 late 20s. 67 00:04:21,449 --> 00:04:28,360 And for millennials and gen z that period of time has been defined by climate catastrophe. 68 00:04:29,589 --> 00:04:32,270 [Christian Hidalgo]: I'm from Bakersfield, California, central valley. 69 00:04:32,270 --> 00:04:35,450 Earlier today I've been getting snapchats from all of my friends talking about how orange 70 00:04:35,450 --> 00:04:39,100 the sky is because of the wildfire surrounding us. 71 00:04:39,100 --> 00:04:44,900 The closest wildfire is probably not even 60 miles away but we have horrible air quality 72 00:04:44,900 --> 00:04:49,190 like we're—I'm in the middle of the valley and it just it really strongly affects us 73 00:04:49,190 --> 00:04:51,139 and that's what—that's what's drawn me to climate activism. 74 00:04:51,139 --> 00:04:54,000 [Isabella Guariniello]: This is my first strike ever. 75 00:04:54,000 --> 00:05:00,349 I watched a bunch of like sad penguin videos on YouTube and I started to get really sad 76 00:05:00,349 --> 00:05:05,080 when I learned about the effects of animals and like how much earth that we're actually 77 00:05:05,080 --> 00:05:06,080 losing. 78 00:05:06,080 --> 00:05:10,199 It's hard not to get discouraged when you're constantly learning about what people before 79 00:05:10,199 --> 00:05:11,199 you did wrong. 80 00:05:11,199 --> 00:05:16,870 [Sassy Fernandez]: Like I remember being in elementary school and watching Al Gore's documentary 81 00:05:16,870 --> 00:05:22,699 about climate change and the effects that we could be seeing within the next 10, 15 82 00:05:22,699 --> 00:05:27,430 years and so far he's been pretty right about everything that he said in his documentary. 83 00:05:27,430 --> 00:05:31,720 I totally forgot what it was called but shout outs to my science teacher. 84 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:38,650 [Thunberg]: We are being betrayed by those in power and they are failing us but we will 85 00:05:38,650 --> 00:05:41,432 not back down. 86 00:05:45,984 --> 00:05:52,090 And if you feel threatened by that then I have some very bad news for you. 87 00:05:52,090 --> 00:05:56,980 We will not be silenced because we are the change and change is coming whether you like 88 00:05:56,980 --> 00:05:59,090 it or not. 89 00:06:00,501 --> 00:06:06,129 We need to work together intergenerational of course that is the only way and we need 90 00:06:06,129 --> 00:06:12,979 to—everyone needs to participate and help out in the way we can. 91 00:06:12,979 --> 00:06:14,539 So I'm doing what I can. 92 00:06:14,539 --> 00:06:21,360 I'm trying to use my voice to spread awareness and to—to put pressure on those in power. 93 00:06:21,997 --> 00:06:27,830 [Alter]: When TIME put Greta on the cover in 2019 she had just gone from being a school 94 00:06:27,830 --> 00:06:36,330 girl protesting alone outside of Swedish parliament to being the leader of a global climate movement. 95 00:06:36,330 --> 00:06:42,120 That year her activism inspired four million people to join the global climate strike in 96 00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:47,390 2019 which was at that point the largest climate movement in world history. 97 00:06:47,390 --> 00:06:52,020 [Worland]: Across the world with very few exceptions there are examples of people who 98 00:06:52,020 --> 00:06:56,630 have been inspired by her and have led—who've taken up the mantle the Fridays for Future 99 00:06:56,630 --> 00:06:59,169 movement in countries across the world. 100 00:06:59,169 --> 00:07:05,409 [Thunberg]: I'm not a leader or the face of the climate movement, I'm just one of many 101 00:07:05,409 --> 00:07:06,910 faces. 102 00:07:06,910 --> 00:07:13,240 [Vanessa Nakate]: There are far too little evidence of the 100 billion dollars per year 103 00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:18,360 that was promised to help climate vulnerable countries to meet these challenges. 104 00:07:18,360 --> 00:07:26,252 In fact, those funds were promised to arrive by 2020 and we are still waiting. 105 00:07:26,252 --> 00:07:31,080 [Nugent]: Vanessa Nakate, a Ugandan climate activist, is one of many people who have been 106 00:07:31,080 --> 00:07:36,169 working to remind us that climate action is going to be expensive and many countries who 107 00:07:36,169 --> 00:07:40,599 are most vulnerable to climate change can't afford to pay for it alone. 108 00:07:40,599 --> 00:07:46,080 [Nakate]: Historically Africa is responsible for only three percent of global emissions 109 00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:52,780 and yet some Africans are already suffering some of the worst and brutal impacts of climate 110 00:07:52,780 --> 00:08:00,419 change, so to me climate justice doesn't just have to be about reducing greenhouse gas emissions 111 00:08:00,419 --> 00:08:03,979 it goes beyond the primary disasters that we see. 112 00:08:03,979 --> 00:08:10,410 It is what happens in the aftermath of those disasters, what happens to families, what 113 00:08:10,410 --> 00:08:13,310 happens to individuals, what happens to communities. 114 00:08:14,334 --> 00:08:19,940 [Worland]: You think about the fact that the U.S. has emitted a quarter of emissions historically. 115 00:08:19,940 --> 00:08:27,550 Africa has emitted three percent of emissions historically and the U.S. is able to isolate 116 00:08:27,550 --> 00:08:34,130 itself, to pay for adaptation, to pay for the costs in a way that developing countries 117 00:08:34,130 --> 00:08:38,210 in sub-saharan Africa and across the globe just can't. 118 00:08:38,210 --> 00:08:42,320 And so climate change is a justice issue on many different levels. 119 00:08:42,320 --> 00:08:46,840 [Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala]: We we have to bear in mind that whether you're rich or poor, 120 00:08:46,840 --> 00:08:51,790 a rich country or poor country, there are some things you just cannot do on your own. 121 00:08:51,790 --> 00:08:57,060 You can't deliver on this pandemic on your own, you cannot deliver on climate change 122 00:08:57,060 --> 00:08:58,270 on your own. 123 00:08:58,270 --> 00:09:04,520 [Nakate]: So what we really want is a future that is healthy, that is sustainable, that 124 00:09:04,520 --> 00:09:09,100 is clean, that is livable and equitable for all of us. 125 00:09:09,100 --> 00:09:13,430 [Nugent]: Some of the activists that I speak to are realizing they can't wait for the older 126 00:09:13,430 --> 00:09:17,350 generation to take action so they're trying to get elected to governments themselves. 127 00:09:17,350 --> 00:09:21,740 In Germany, the Green Party has really been in the ascendancy. 128 00:09:21,740 --> 00:09:26,390 In September they've almost doubled their number of seats in parliament and one of the 129 00:09:26,390 --> 00:09:30,401 118 lawmakers they now have is Nyke Slawik. 130 00:09:32,700 --> 00:09:37,780 She's a 27 year old German politician who was elected in September to the Bundestag 131 00:09:37,780 --> 00:09:44,690 and she has been involved in climate activism for almost 12 years and now she has political 132 00:09:44,690 --> 00:09:46,150 power to make a difference. 133 00:09:46,150 --> 00:09:56,010 [Slawik]: The time of just implementing small changes has passed and this is a reality we 134 00:09:56,010 --> 00:10:02,630 as younger politicians are bringing with us to the parliament now but of course there's 135 00:10:02,630 --> 00:10:10,023 lots of older colleagues who have not quite grasped this yet, and I think this is why 136 00:10:10,023 --> 00:10:17,330 we might be more determined to not go for the small compromises, to be a bit more rebellious 137 00:10:17,330 --> 00:10:19,090 about these things. 138 00:10:19,090 --> 00:10:26,540 The last German government has decided to exit coal in 2038 which is still too late 139 00:10:26,540 --> 00:10:35,050 way too late but now we even have the chance to accelerate energy transition from coal 140 00:10:35,050 --> 00:10:42,270 to renewables way quicker and that's a major achievement of the youth climate movement. 141 00:10:42,680 --> 00:10:47,190 [Alter]: In the United States young voters across the political spectrum understand that 142 00:10:47,190 --> 00:10:52,100 climate change is a major issue that needs to be addressed, they just disagree on how 143 00:10:52,100 --> 00:10:53,550 best to do it. 144 00:10:53,550 --> 00:10:59,190 So even younger Republicans, Republicans under 40, they understand that climate change is 145 00:10:59,190 --> 00:11:03,490 happening, they understand that something has to be done about it, they just don't agree 146 00:11:03,490 --> 00:11:08,800 with their more progressive peers about the scale and scope of what that intervention 147 00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:10,000 needs to be. 148 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:16,990 So this is a big shift from a couple generations ago when you had one side insisting that climate 149 00:11:16,990 --> 00:11:22,007 change was a problem and the other side basically denying that it was happening at all. 150 00:11:22,007 --> 00:11:26,740 [Worland]: When TIME spoke to Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, he spoke about how 151 00:11:26,740 --> 00:11:29,570 the youth movement had made him want to do better. 152 00:11:29,570 --> 00:11:33,960 When I talked to the U.N. Secretary General he talked about how he was trying to bring 153 00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:38,750 youth into the climate discussion because it had enthused him and he thought it would 154 00:11:38,750 --> 00:11:40,730 help change the conversation. 155 00:11:40,730 --> 00:11:46,070 Talking to members of Congress about how inspirational Greta was really made clear to me that she 156 00:11:46,070 --> 00:11:47,350 was changing the conversation. 157 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:53,760 [Nugent]: In my reporting activists are telling me that COP 26 is a crucial moment to find 158 00:11:53,760 --> 00:11:58,500 out if politicians are really listening to them and really taking action or if they're 159 00:11:58,500 --> 00:12:01,650 just saying they're listening and delaying action. 160 00:12:01,650 --> 00:12:07,440 [Nakate]: Leaders keep praising young people for standing up and protesting but saving 161 00:12:07,440 --> 00:12:13,940 the world needs action, it needs decisions from the leaders, decisions that prioritize 162 00:12:13,940 --> 00:12:19,150 the lives of the people and the planet, and that is not something that we are doing. 163 00:12:19,150 --> 00:12:24,270 The words of the leaders are not matching up with their actions. 164 00:12:24,270 --> 00:12:25,670 [Thunberg]: Words. 165 00:12:25,670 --> 00:12:33,990 Words that sound great but so far has led to no action. 166 00:12:33,990 --> 00:12:39,690 Our hopes and dreams drown in their empty words and promises. 167 00:12:39,690 --> 00:12:44,410 Of course we need constructive dialogue but they've now had 30 years of blah blah blah 168 00:12:44,410 --> 00:12:46,280 and where has that led us? 169 00:12:47,350 --> 00:12:51,760 [Jane Goodall]: I'm about to leave the world and leave it behind me with all the mess whereas 170 00:12:51,760 --> 00:12:54,790 young people have to grow up into it. 171 00:12:54,790 --> 00:12:57,820 That's why they need every bit of help they can. 172 00:12:57,820 --> 00:13:04,580 And if, you know, if they succumb to the doom and gloom ,which many have, then they lose 173 00:13:04,580 --> 00:13:05,580 hope. 174 00:13:05,580 --> 00:13:11,071 If you lose hope that's the end, because if you don't hope that there's a way out, if 175 00:13:11,071 --> 00:13:16,670 you don't hope that your actions can make a difference then you sink into apathy and 176 00:13:16,670 --> 00:13:18,380 do nothing. 177 00:13:19,541 --> 00:13:24,790 So hope is absolutely crucial if we're to get through this. 178 00:13:27,521 --> 00:13:30,282 [Singing]: We're going to strike because our waters are rising. 179 00:13:30,282 --> 00:13:32,987 We're going to strike because our people are dying. 180 00:13:32,987 --> 00:13:36,000 We're going to strike for life and everything we love. 181 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:38,659 We're going to strike for you, will you strike for us? 182 00:13:38,659 --> 00:13:41,275 We're going to strike for you, will you strike for us? 183 00:13:41,275 --> 00:13:43,823 We're going to strike because our waters are rising. 184 00:13:43,823 --> 00:13:46,693 We're going to strike because our people are dying. 185 00:13:46,693 --> 00:13:49,206 We're going to strike for life and everything we love. 186 00:13:49,206 --> 00:13:51,802 We're going to strike for you, will you strike for us? 187 00:13:51,802 --> 00:13:54,805 We're going to strike for you, will you strike for us? 188 00:13:54,805 --> 00:13:55,737 Beautiful.