I am turning sixteen in just two months. That is the same age Greta Thunberg was when she presented at the United Nations summit on Sept. 23, 2019. As she gave her thought-provoking speech as a student climate activist, Thunberg pointed out the ignorance of corporations regarding climate change and their continuous effort in pushing for “eternal economic growth”. Thunberg’s emotional speech accompanied by her melodramatic tears, reminds us to start taking action. 
Thunberg is a Swedish sixteen year old, the daughter of Malenda Ernman, an opera singer and Svante Thunberg, an actor. Her activism career started once she wrote an article about climate change that won the Svenska Dagbladet writing competition at the age of 15. 
In Thunberg’s speech, she specifically pointed fingers at older generations, believing that their “betrayal” of not taking care of the environment has contributed to the global crisis still going on today. It is Thunberg’s simple yet impactful portrayal of ideas that snapped everyone awake to realize the horrific problem we are currently facing.
Although Thunberg’s speech achieved the ultimate goal of convincing and somewhat startling the audience in order to push for change, the commands she called for lacked significant detail, which does not effectively balance out with the opinionated expression that carried on throughout her speech.
To support this claim, we need to focus on parts of Thunberg’s speech. She said, “we are in the beginning of a mass extinction” The key word she used was “mass extinction”, this may seem like an addition to the dramatic appeal of the speech, but unfortunately Thunberg’s bold statement lacks accuracy.
The word “extinction”, implies that the world will come to an end. Thunberg is claiming that if the global temperature change and a reduction of carbon emission is not reached, humanity will cease to exist. The truth is, only parts of the globe will be affected, many countries might undergo little change, as more developed countries are prepared for change given the circumstances and economic or technological advances. 
Every nation, and every person is responsible for these changes, but it is not entirely necessary to stand on a moral high ground and place blames towards major corporations. It is more reasonable to deliver the exact details on how the changes should be made, and focus on a more flexible way that suits each and every person’s economic, social, and political background. 
The simple intention of Thunberg’s speech to place blame on the older generation shows that she has an overly simplistic view of the world. In her perception of the world, the population is split into two?— the old and new generation. This incredibly absurd way of viewing the world is seen multiple times in her speech, like “you all come to us young people for hope,” or “the young people are starting to understand your betrayal” and so on. Thunberg’s statements almost explicitly states that ‘young people’ are superior, when in reality, all generations should be working hand in hand to help the environment. 
On the other hand, Greta Thunberg’s enthusiasm and passionate delivery of her speech as a teenage climate activist has inspired many individuals. As a high schooler at TAS, I am now more aware of environmental issues, but Thunberg’s overly simplistic thoughts on change lacks feasibility and would only be targeted towards a short portion of the seven billion people living in our world today.