Greta Thunberg says that Swedish politicians are ignoring the climate crisis as the election approaches
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STOCKHOLM, Sept 6 (Reuters) – Sweden’s politicians are ignoring the climate crisis ahead of the Sept. 11 election and treating it as if it were just a problem rather than a life-or-death threat, activist Greta Thunberg said.
The war in Ukraine and the ongoing energy crisis, which has sent electricity prices skyrocketing, dominate the headlines with just a week to go until the vote, while welfare, schools and gang crime also top the list of voter anxieties. Read more
Thunberg, whose Friday protests outside Sweden’s parliament years ago turned into a global youth movement demanding action on climate change, said the issue had been “pretty much non-existent” during the campaign.
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“We have been completely focused on other things,” she told Reuters.
She said politicians and the media had “chosen not to communicate that so many of the crises we are experiencing now are very closely linked”.
“Therefore, people naturally only focus on things that are right in front of them instead of actually focusing on the bigger picture,” she said.
She said politicians treated the climate as a distant problem.
“Just take Pakistan now, as an example, a very clear example,” she said.
Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in Pakistan’s northern mountains have led to floods that have affected 33 million people and killed at least 1,290, including 453 children. Read more
“We focus on the climate when we have time to spare, it feels like,” said Thunberg. “It’s something that—well, it’s a problem and not an existential emergency that affects all the other issues that it should be.”
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Reporting by Ilze Filks, written by Simon Johnson. Editing by Gerry Doyle
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