Putin criticises environmental activist Thunberg
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that he does not share the "common excitement" about Greta Thunberg's speech at the UN general assembly last month, EUobserver reported, citing Reuters.
"No one has explained to Greta that the modern world is complex and [that] (…) people in Africa or in many Asian countries want to live at the same wealth level as in Sweden," said Putin during an energy forum in Moscow.
Swedish youth activist Greta Thunberg had a strong message for world leaders at the UN's climate change summit on 23 September, telling them they had stolen her childhood with "empty words", Euronews reported.
"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," the 16-year-old activist tearfully told world leaders in the audience.
She repeated the message, admonishing them for allowing ecosystems to collapse and saying that they were only concerned about the "money" and "fairy tales of eternal economic growth".
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