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Agence France-Presse

Teenage climate campaigner Greta Thunberg said the “war on nature must end” and called on US President Donald Trump to listen to science after she sailed into New York on a zero-emissions yacht.
The 16-year-old completed a 15-day journey across the Atlantic on Wednesday, stepping off the boat onto a Manhattan dock to cheering crowds chanting her name.
“It is devastating and so horrible. It’s hard to imagine. They are a clear sign that we need to stop destroying nature,” she told waiting reporters when asked how she felt about raging fires in the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest.
The Swede also rebuked Trump, a notorious climate change sceptic.
“My message for him is listen to the science and he obviously doesn’t do that,” she said, as she brought her environmental message to the United States for the first time.

Thunberg poked fun at the president too by saying she was “pretty sure” windmills don’t cause cancer, in reference to a comment Trump made at a Republican fundraising event in April.
The teenager has become a symbol for climate action with her stark warnings of catastrophe if the world does not act now to cut carbon emissions and curb global warming.
Thunberg, who was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome at the age of 12, began sitting outside the Swedish parliament in August 2018 to get members to act on climate change.




She was quickly joined by other students around the world, as word of her strike spread through the media, and the “Fridays for future” movement was born.
She will attend a summit on zero emissions at the United Nations next month but refused to fly because of the carbon emissions caused by planes.
The Swede was offered a ride on the Malizia II racing yacht skippered by Pierre Casiraghi, the son of Monaco’s Princess Caroline, and German round-the-world sailor Boris Herrmann.
Thunberg has received criticism and abuse for her uncompromising attitude, however.
Her voyage sparked controversy after a spokesman for co-skipper Herrmann told Berlin newspaper TAZ that several people would fly into New York to help take the yacht back to Europe.
Hermann himself will also return by plane, according to the spokesman.
Team Malizia’s manager insisted, though, that the young activist’s journey would be climate neutral, as the flights would “be offset”.

Manhattan! pic.twitter.com/8SxPYk2WRk
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) August 28, 2019

A few hundred well-wishers and activists clapped and chanted “Greta, Greta, Greta” as she completed her 5,550km trip under overcast skies.
She passed the Statue of Liberty and headed up the Hudson River before docking at North Cove Marina near the World Trade Centre.
The United Nations sent a flotilla of 17 sailboats, one for each of its sustainable development goals for 2030, to welcome her.
Thunberg endured rough seas and cramped conditions but said she never felt seasick once. She ate freeze-dried food and used a bucket as a toilet.
“It’s insane that a 16-year-old has to cross the Atlantic Ocean to make a stand. This, of course, is not something that I want everyone to do,” she said, smiling.
Thunberg added that she planned to rest before joining youngsters striking outside the UN on Friday.
The Malizia II yacht left Plymouth in southern England on August 14, and the teenager marked the first anniversary of the start of her school strike on August 20.
The 18-metre yacht features state-of-the-art solar panels on its deck and sides, and two hydro-generators provide the vessel’s electricity.
It can travel at speeds of around 35 knots (70km/h).
Thunberg has said that she does not yet know how she will return to Europe.
Ahead of the UN summit on September 23, Thunberg will take part in youth demonstrations, before heading to Canada, Mexico and then to Chile for another UN conference in December.


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Climate change

Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg sails across Atlantic to attend climate meeting in New York

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, 16, arrives in the US after a 15-day journey crossing the Atlantic in the Malizia II, a zero-carbon yacht. Photo: AFP

Swedish 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg sails past the Statue of Liberty on the Malizia II racing yacht in New York Harbor as she nears the completion of her trans-Atlantic crossing in order to attend a United Nations summit on climate change in New York, U.S., August 28, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Segar TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Forget Brexit and focus on climate change, Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg tells EU leaders

Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg delivers a speech during a meeting with the environment committee of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

Young Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg reacts after giving a speech during a special meeting of the Environment Committee at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Eastern France, Tuesday April 16, 2019. Thunberg reacted after receiving a standing ovation for her speech. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

Asia’s young climate activists on joining the worldwide campaign for government action on global warming

Howey Ou (not her real name) stages a protest outside the Guilin People’s Government building in southern China.

A dog drinks polluted water as chemical foam floats on the surface of the Yamuna River in New Delhi on June 28, 2019. (Photo by Noemi CASSANELLI / AFP)

In this picture taken on May 18, 2018, a Vietnamese woman gathers shells in a coastal forest littered with plastic waste stuck in branches after it was washed up by rising coastal tide in Thanh Hoa province, around 150 kilometres south of Hanoi. (Photo by Nhac NGUYEN / AFP)

This aerial image taken on June 6, 2019 shows a steel factory in Chengde, China's northern Hebei province. (Photo by FRED DUFOUR / AFP)

The effects of climate change are happening now it may lose more than 10 percent of its land to sea-level rise within a few decades in at Kuakata Sea Beach Patuakhali District in Bangladesh on May 12, 2019.  (Photo by Kazi Salahuddin Razu/NurPhoto)

Nepali volunteers and school children tie up recycled plastic bags to make a sculpture representing the Dead Sea in a bid to set a new world record for the largest sculpture made out of recycled plastic bags in Kathmandu on December 5, 2018. - Some 100,000 plastic bags were used in the sculpture, in a bid to break the previous record made in 2012 in Singapore using 68,000 plastic bags. (Photo by PRAKASH MATHEMA / AFP)

Tahiti strikes.jpg Photo: HANDOUT [FEATURES 2018]

Children in Nepal support FFF(1).jpg Photo: HANDOUT [FEATURES 2018]

Local seen on a beach near slams in Baseco Compound with a view of new skyscrapers in Manila downtown (in the background).The Batangas Shipping and Engineering Company (BASECO) Compound is the largest among five communities composing Manilas port, situated in the vicinity of Tondo. It is a wide reclaimed area that is now occupied by informal settlers. On Tuesday, July 2, 2019, in Baseco Compound, Tondo, Manila, Philippines. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto)

taiwan strikes(1).jpg Photo: HANDOUT [FEATURES 2018]

Zel Whiting from Australia takes part in a climate action strike. Young climate change activists across the Asia Pacific have joined a global movement demanding government action and the declaration of climate emergencies.

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Greta Thunberg is in New York to speak at the United Nations Climate Action Summit next month
The teenager refused to fly because of the carbon cost of plane travel



The 16-year-old’s journey has taken two weeks, but has not produced any carbon.


Environment

Diplomacy

United Nations

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Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg sails across Atlantic to attend climate meeting in New York

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Greta Thunberg is in New York to speak at the United Nations Climate Action Summit next month The teenager refused to fly because of the carbon cost of plane travel

Greta Thunberg is in New York to speak at the United Nations Climate Action Summit next month

The teenager refused to fly because of the carbon cost of plane travel