“The politics that’s needed to prevent the climate catastrophe—it doesn’t exist today,” says Greta Thunberg, a 15-year-old from Sweden. “We need to change the system.”

This article by Jessica Corbett was published on Common Dreams October 20th, 2018.

A brief commentary by Community Rights US media team member Curt Hubatch: We at Community Rights US agree with Greta Thunberg. We’ve had 199 years of corporate interests manipulating the current system of law we live under in the United States. The Community Rights strategy lays bare this reality and looks to dismantle corporate rule in the places we live. We invite you to take a look around our website and see where you can plug into the growing Community Rights movement. Then please free to contact us with comments, questions, or concerns. We’re the people we’ve been waiting for. 

Addressing some 10,000 people in Helsinki on Saturday at what some campaigners are calling Finland’s largest ever climate demonstration, 15-year-old Greta Thunberg urged marchers to fight for the major systemic changes that experts have said are necessary to limit greenhouse gas emissions and avert a looming climate catastrophe.

“Today we use 100 million barrels of oil every day. There are no politics to change that. There are no rules to keep that oil in the ground, so we can’t save the world by playing by the rules because the rules have to change. Everything needs to change and it has to start today,” declared the Swedish teenager, who traveled to the capital city of her nation’s Nordic neighbor for Saturday’s massive march.

“A lot of people say that Sweden or Finland are just small countries and that it doesn’t matter what we do,” Thunberg added. “But I think that if a few children can get headlines all over the world just by not going to school for a few weeks, imagine what we could do together if we wanted to.”

Thunberg garnered international media attention when, ahead of Sweden’s September election, she refused to attend school and instead protested outside the Swedish parliament, handing out educational pamphlets to passersby. Now that the election has passed, the self-described “climate radical” and others who have joined the strike return to school for four days each week but still protest on Fridays.

“We young people don’t have the vote, but school is obligatory,” she told The Local in August. “So this a way to get our voices heard.” MORE…