Black Lives Matter protests show world has reached a tipping point: Greta Thunberg
- The Swedish climate change activist said people cannot continue looking away from injustices such as racism and inequality
- She said the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic may provide a wake-up call on the environment, as it showed how to treat an emergency
“It feels like we have passed some kind of social tipping point where people are starting to realise that we cannot keep looking away from these things,” the 17-year-old said in an interview with the BBC. “We cannot keep sweeping these things under the carpet, these injustices.”
Thunberg’s interview aired as global capitals braced for another weekend of anti-racism protests in the wake of the death at the hands of a white policeman of the unarmed African American George Floyd.
Thunberg said “people are starting to find their voice, to sort of understand that they can actually have an impact”.
She also described being stunned by the depth of US poverty she discovered while travelling with her father in an electric car they borrowed from the former California governor and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.