Greta Thunberg Did Not Say the Climate Crisis Doesn’t Exist
The Claim
Greta Thunberg said that the climate crisis doesn't exist.
News posted on
Emerging story
For the past few days, a video has been circulating of MSNBC reporter Mehdi Hasan interviewing environmental activist Greta Thunberg. In the clip, Hasan asks Thunberg what she would like for President Biden to do about the climate crisis. She appears to respond by saying, “I would just tell him to tell the situation as it is. Since the climate crisis doesn’t exist, how can we expect people to want climate action?”
The clip was originally posted by the Instagram account @republicanparty. “Greta says climate change doesn’t exist,” says the accompanying caption. “Freudian slip by Greta Thunberg? If anyone has kept up with her recently, she speaks out in a different way than she used to about [sic] Climate Change.”
It was viewed over 59,000 times and soon spread across multiple social media platforms. Some commenters claimed that this was proof she was an actress, a fraud, or a liar.
Misbar’s Analysis
The circulating video has been altered from the original. In the original clip, Thunberg answers Hasan’s question by saying she hopes that world leaders would “treat the crisis like a crisis,” and help the public come to terms with the severity of climate change. “How can you expect support and pressure from voters if you aren’t treating the crisis like a crisis — since the climate crisis doesn’t exist, how can we expect people to want climate action?" She asked. Her statement suggests that because politicians aren’t taking the climate crisis seriously enough, the public won’t take it seriously either.
The edited clip removed the first part of her sentence so that it sounds as if she’s simply saying that the climate crisis doesn’t exist. Her complete statement, without the edits, was the following:
"I would just tell him to tell the situation as it is. Because I mean, yes, you could say, I meet with a lot of world leaders and they say ‘I can't do anything because I don't have the support from voters.’ Well, how can you expect support and pressure from voters if you aren’t treating the crisis like a crisis — since the climate crisis doesn’t exist, how can we expect people to want climate action?"
