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.
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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.