Youth Climate Activists Under Attack

Brut America

In the wake of online attacks on Greta Thunberg after she blasted climate deniers, American youth activists Alexandria Villaseñor and Lia Harel told Brut how they’re planning to face down any intimidation.

Transcript

00:00My message to Greta Thunberg because she has been cyber bullied and as well facing the attacks of

00:07climate deniers is to continue what you're doing because when climate deniers feel threatened by

00:12how your activism and the message and influence you have then you are really making a difference.

00:30I want to make a melody.

01:00We become the bad guys who have to tell people these uncomfortable things because no one else

01:12wants to or dares to and just for quoting and acting on these numbers these scientific facts

01:22we receive unimaginable amounts of hate and threats.

01:30So

01:38definitely in my own community I've been called brainwashed, I've been

01:43set. People have told me that I'm just mouthing the words of adults. I've even been called what's

01:50what's known as a watermelon where I appear to be green on the outside but it's like a socialist

01:55red communist whatever in the inside just people are saying I'm radical

02:00and all I'm saying is I want a better future for myself.

02:11I think immediately we need to recognize that continuing burning fossil fuels

02:15is making the problem worse every single minute of every single day. Second we need to make sure

02:21that we are moving our money away from fossil fuel infrastructure and moving that towards

02:26building renewable energy and making sure that our investments in that are really what is driving

02:33the economy to grow.

02:39So

02:48the way we are going to mobilize and share our message with other students is going to become

02:53more extreme and we're going to continue to do so as well as on the big global climate strike days

02:59but we are going to get more consistent in the ways we do direct action because right now it's

03:04the most hope we've had in a long time.

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