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Teen Climate Activist Thunberg Leads Rally at UN

Margaret Besheer

   UNITED NATIONS - Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg joined several
   hundred other young people Friday outside the United Nations to demand
   action on global warming.
   To chants of "Greta! Greta!" the petite 16-year-old climate rock star
   made her way through a sea of young people, many of whom said they had
   drawn inspiration from her activism.
   She rose to fame last year after she started skipping school on
   Fridays, leading strikes over the lack of action on climate change.
   Greta arrived in New York on Wednesday, ahead of a Sept. 21 Youth
   Climate Summit at the United Nations, which she will address. Adult
   leaders will meet two days later to have a climate summit of their own.
   She has said she will not fly because air travelleaves too big a carbon
   footprint,and she put her principles to the test, crossing the Atlantic
   in a zero-emissions, no-frills sailboat with her father and a small
   crew. The trip took two weeks and the seas were often rough.
   On Friday, she looked tired and perhaps a bit overwhelmed by the large
   and enthusiastic crowd and the aggressive pack of photographers and
   reporters. She answered a few questions, but her comments were mostly
   inaudible because there was no sound system and she is not one to shout
   her message. But it did not dampen the enthusiasm of the many young
   people who had come to see her.

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