UN ACTION CLIMATE SUMMIT: Teenager scold world leaders on climatic neglect.

Teenage Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg scolded world leaders at the United Nation Climate Action Summit in New York yesterday for failing to take action to curb carbon emissions and prevent what scientists see as an existential threat to life on Earth. “This is all wrong,” Thunberg said in a blistering speech. “I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean, yet you come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.” “You say you hear us and understand the urgency, but no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that,” she added. “Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil. And that I refuse to believe.” The teenager was among 16 children to file a legal complaint with the United Nations on Monday, accusing five countries — France, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, and Turkey — of not doing enough to combat climate change.

Ahead of the summit, leading climate scientists issued a report, United in Science, stating “that accelerating climate impacts from melting ice caps to sea-level rise and extreme weather were to blame for the record as the global average temperature increased by 1.1°C above pre-industrial (1850-1900) times.” Their findings amplified last year’s U.N. report, warning that the world has until 2030 to cut carbon pollution to avoid the worst effects of global warming of 1.5°C, such as rising ocean levels and devastating storms. Some of these consequences are already being felt.

United States President Donald Trump made an appearance at the Climate Action Summit’s session of yesterday Monday taking everyone in the hall by surprise. U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, the summit’s host, described Trump’s unannounced attendance as a “step forward,” while Michael Bloomberg, who sat on a panel about achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, also thanked Trump for showing up. “Hopefully our conversations here today will be helpful to you as you make climate policy,” Bloomberg said, drawing applause and laughter from the guests in the hall. Trump has described climate change as a “hoax,” and, in 2017, pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement that seek to lower carbon emissions. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said countries “must honor our commitments and follow through on the Paris Agreement.” “The withdrawal of certain parties will not shake the collective goal of the world community,” Wang said.