Greta
Thunberg gets UK royal seal of approval
Prince’s
support for Swedish climate activist contrasts with Trump’s scorn.
By STEPHEN
BROWN 1/22/20, 7:17 PM CET Updated 1/22/20, 7:18 PM CET
DAVOS,
Switzerland — Two rich and powerful septuagenarian men, two very different
responses to teenage climate activists.
Britain’s
Prince Charles, the 71-year-old heir to the throne, met Greta Thunberg in Davos
on Wednesday and offered the 17-year-old Swede his full backing in her campaign
to scold the adult establishment into cleaning up the planet.
Their
meeting, and the prince’s speech at the World Economic Forum calling for urgent
action such as changes to taxes and investment to improve sustainability, were
in stark contrast to 73-year-old U.S. President Donald Trump’s response to
Thunberg and other teenage activists in Davos a day earlier.
In his
speech at the WEF on Tuesday, Trump dismissed them as “prophets of doom” who
wanted to stop the U.S. from making technological progress. Speaking in Davos
the same day, Thunberg accused political and corporate leaders of “empty words
and promises” on the environment.
Prince
Charles, who has a long record of environmental advocacy, asked the conference
in the Swiss Alps: "Do we want to go down in history as the people who did
nothing to bring the world back from the brink, in trying to restore the
balance, when we could have done? I don't want to."
"What
good is all the extra wealth in the world gained from business as usual if you
can do nothing with it except watch it burn in catastrophic conditions?" he
said.
Authors:
Stephen
Brown sbrown@politico.eu
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