To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.

×

If people don’t back independent journalism, it will die

Defeating Trump’s authoritarian takeover requires hard-hitting, people-powered journalism unafraid of making enemies or calling out villains. That’s the model that Common Dreams was built on from the beginning.

Right now, our team is doing the best, most consequential reporting we’ve ever done, keeping our millions of readers well-informed, inspired, and engaged—but we simply can’t do this work without your dedicated support.

If people don’t back independent journalism, it will die—it’s as simple as that. Will you make a gift to our Summer Campaign and keep the fearless, independent journalism of Common Dreams alive and strong?

If people don’t back independent journalism, it will die

Right now, our team is doing the best, most consequential reporting we’ve ever done, keeping our millions of readers well-informed, inspired, and engaged—but we simply can’t do this work without your dedicated support.

If people don’t back independent journalism, it will die—it’s as simple as that. Will you make a gift to our Summer Campaign and keep the fearless, independent journalism of Common Dreams alive and strong?

Greta Thunberg Says Humanity Must Not Be Fooled by 'Bullsh*t' Climate Targets of World Leaders

Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg in a video released shortly before the Biden administration kicked off a two-day virtual summit of international leaders to address the climate crisis. "The gap between what needs to be done and what we are actually doing is widening by the minute," says Thunberg. "The gap between the urgency needed and the current level of awareness and attention is becoming more and more absurd." (Photo: Screenshot/NowThis News)

Greta Thunberg Says Humanity Must Not Be Fooled by 'Bullsh*t' Climate Targets of World Leaders

The Swedish campaigner says insufficient goals and empty rhetoric represent the "biggest elephant there's even been in any room."

NewsClimateEconomy

Just before U.S. President Joe Biden's two-day virtual summit on the climate crisis got underway, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg on Thursday shared a video message calling out the "bullshit" of world leaders who she says are failing to take the steps necessary to confront the planetary emergency.

"While we can fool others and even ourselves, we cannot fool nature and physics."
--Greta Thunberg

Posted online by NowThis News, the video featuring Thunberg comes as a warning from the well-known global climate campaigner that the people of the world should not be fooled by the lofty rhetoric they will hear at the summit.

"At the Leaders' Climate Summit, countries will present their new climate commitments, like net-zero emissions by 2050," Thunberg says in the video. "They will call these hypothetical targets 'ambitious.' But when you compare our insufficient targets with the overall current best available science, you clearly see that there's a gap. There are decades missing."

Watch the video:

The 18-year-old founder of "Fridays for Future" and inspiration for the global climate strike movement also penned an open letter first published in Vogue on Thursday, making much the same argument.

"You may call us naive for believing change is possible, and that's fine," Thunberg wrote. "But at least we're not so naive that we believe that things will be solved by countries and companies making vague, distant, insufficient targets without any real pressure from the media and the general public."

Thunberg continued:

Of course, we welcome all efforts to safeguard future and present living conditions. And these targets could be a great start if it wasn't for the tiny fact that they are full of gaps and loopholes. Such as leaving out emissions from imported goods, international aviation and shipping, as well as the burning of biomass, manipulating baseline data, excluding most feedback loops and tipping points, ignoring the crucial global aspect of equity and historic emissions, and making these targets completely reliant on fantasy or barely existing carbon-capturing technologies. But I don't have time to go into all that now.

The point is that we can keep using creative carbon accounting and cheat in order to pretend that these targets are in line with what is needed. But we must not forget that while we can fool others and even ourselves, we cannot fool nature and physics. The emissions are still there, whether we choose to count them or not.

"The gap between what needs to be done and what we are actually doing is widening by the minute," she added. "The gap between the urgency needed and the current level of awareness and attention is becoming more and more absurd. And the gap between our so-called climate targets and the overall, current best-available science should no longer be possible to ignore."

Speaking of world leaders in the Thursday video and the shortcomings of their climate proposals thus far, Thunberg said, "Let's call out their bullshit," because the gap between what their rhetoric and what's actually needed is "the biggest elephant there's even been in any room."

Along with other witnesses, Thunberg is testifying before congressional lawmakers on Thursday during a hearing convened by the House Subcommittee on the Environment.

Watch the hearing--titled "The Role of Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Preventing Action on the Climate Crisis" and slated to begin at 10:00 am ET--live:

An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder


Dear Common Dreams reader,

The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets.

That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done.

Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good.

Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support.

That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you.

Our Summer Campaign is now underway, and there’s never been a more urgent time for Common Dreams to be as vigilant as possible. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams?

Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most.

- Craig Brown, Co-founder

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
climate emergencyenvironmentextreme weatherfossil fuelsgreta thunberginequalityjoe bidenpollutionro khannaus house

Just before U.S. President Joe Biden's two-day virtual summit on the climate crisis got underway, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg on Thursday shared a video message calling out the "bullshit" of world leaders who she says are failing to take the steps necessary to confront the planetary emergency.

"While we can fool others and even ourselves, we cannot fool nature and physics."
--Greta Thunberg

Posted online by NowThis News, the video featuring Thunberg comes as a warning from the well-known global climate campaigner that the people of the world should not be fooled by the lofty rhetoric they will hear at the summit.

"At the Leaders' Climate Summit, countries will present their new climate commitments, like net-zero emissions by 2050," Thunberg says in the video. "They will call these hypothetical targets 'ambitious.' But when you compare our insufficient targets with the overall current best available science, you clearly see that there's a gap. There are decades missing."

Watch the video:

The 18-year-old founder of "Fridays for Future" and inspiration for the global climate strike movement also penned an open letter first published in Vogue on Thursday, making much the same argument.

"You may call us naive for believing change is possible, and that's fine," Thunberg wrote. "But at least we're not so naive that we believe that things will be solved by countries and companies making vague, distant, insufficient targets without any real pressure from the media and the general public."

Thunberg continued:

Of course, we welcome all efforts to safeguard future and present living conditions. And these targets could be a great start if it wasn't for the tiny fact that they are full of gaps and loopholes. Such as leaving out emissions from imported goods, international aviation and shipping, as well as the burning of biomass, manipulating baseline data, excluding most feedback loops and tipping points, ignoring the crucial global aspect of equity and historic emissions, and making these targets completely reliant on fantasy or barely existing carbon-capturing technologies. But I don't have time to go into all that now.

The point is that we can keep using creative carbon accounting and cheat in order to pretend that these targets are in line with what is needed. But we must not forget that while we can fool others and even ourselves, we cannot fool nature and physics. The emissions are still there, whether we choose to count them or not.

"The gap between what needs to be done and what we are actually doing is widening by the minute," she added. "The gap between the urgency needed and the current level of awareness and attention is becoming more and more absurd. And the gap between our so-called climate targets and the overall, current best-available science should no longer be possible to ignore."

Speaking of world leaders in the Thursday video and the shortcomings of their climate proposals thus far, Thunberg said, "Let's call out their bullshit," because the gap between what their rhetoric and what's actually needed is "the biggest elephant there's even been in any room."

Along with other witnesses, Thunberg is testifying before congressional lawmakers on Thursday during a hearing convened by the House Subcommittee on the Environment.

Watch the hearing--titled "The Role of Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Preventing Action on the Climate Crisis" and slated to begin at 10:00 am ET--live:

Just before U.S. President Joe Biden's two-day virtual summit on the climate crisis got underway, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg on Thursday shared a video message calling out the "bullshit" of world leaders who she says are failing to take the steps necessary to confront the planetary emergency.

"While we can fool others and even ourselves, we cannot fool nature and physics."
--Greta Thunberg

Posted online by NowThis News, the video featuring Thunberg comes as a warning from the well-known global climate campaigner that the people of the world should not be fooled by the lofty rhetoric they will hear at the summit.

"At the Leaders' Climate Summit, countries will present their new climate commitments, like net-zero emissions by 2050," Thunberg says in the video. "They will call these hypothetical targets 'ambitious.' But when you compare our insufficient targets with the overall current best available science, you clearly see that there's a gap. There are decades missing."

Watch the video:

The 18-year-old founder of "Fridays for Future" and inspiration for the global climate strike movement also penned an open letter first published in Vogue on Thursday, making much the same argument.

"You may call us naive for believing change is possible, and that's fine," Thunberg wrote. "But at least we're not so naive that we believe that things will be solved by countries and companies making vague, distant, insufficient targets without any real pressure from the media and the general public."

Thunberg continued:

Of course, we welcome all efforts to safeguard future and present living conditions. And these targets could be a great start if it wasn't for the tiny fact that they are full of gaps and loopholes. Such as leaving out emissions from imported goods, international aviation and shipping, as well as the burning of biomass, manipulating baseline data, excluding most feedback loops and tipping points, ignoring the crucial global aspect of equity and historic emissions, and making these targets completely reliant on fantasy or barely existing carbon-capturing technologies. But I don't have time to go into all that now.

The point is that we can keep using creative carbon accounting and cheat in order to pretend that these targets are in line with what is needed. But we must not forget that while we can fool others and even ourselves, we cannot fool nature and physics. The emissions are still there, whether we choose to count them or not.

"The gap between what needs to be done and what we are actually doing is widening by the minute," she added. "The gap between the urgency needed and the current level of awareness and attention is becoming more and more absurd. And the gap between our so-called climate targets and the overall, current best-available science should no longer be possible to ignore."

Speaking of world leaders in the Thursday video and the shortcomings of their climate proposals thus far, Thunberg said, "Let's call out their bullshit," because the gap between what their rhetoric and what's actually needed is "the biggest elephant there's even been in any room."

Along with other witnesses, Thunberg is testifying before congressional lawmakers on Thursday during a hearing convened by the House Subcommittee on the Environment.

Watch the hearing--titled "The Role of Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Preventing Action on the Climate Crisis" and slated to begin at 10:00 am ET--live:

climate emergencyenvironmentextreme weatherfossil fuelsgreta thunberginequalityjoe bidenpollutionro khannaus house
Join the Conversation