Greta Thunberg Going Radical Won’t Help the Planet
The climate movement icon is alienating political allies by teaming up with extremists.
Too loud.
Photographer: Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images
Political leaders around the globe have celebrated the 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg – but can they handle her as she and her supporters turn more radical? The protests launched in big cities worldwide by the environmental campaign group Extinction Rebellion are a first test.
Extinction Rebellion, like Thunberg, wants governments to treat climate change as an emergency and to take urgent action to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The group blocks traffic at cities’ busiest intersections. In Berlin on Tuesday, police broke up their day-long occupation of a central square, Potsdamer Platz, but hundreds of protesters continued to hold another area, around the city’s Victory Column. Throughout Europe and in Sydney, Australia, hundreds of protesters have been arrested for disrupting traffic.