Greta Thunberg Speech at UN Climate Action Summit

• This speech from Greta Thunberg to the United Nations Climate Action Summit in 2019 is extremely powerful and is made even more impactful by the fact that she was only 16 years old when she gave this speech. 
• Thunberg discusses the remaining carbon budget to avoid dangerous environmental consequences and focuses the responsibility to act on older generations currently in positions of power. 
• Thunberg highlights that the UN plan only provides a 50 percent chance of avoiding catastrophic ecological conditions and that tipping points and feedback loops may reduce that chance even further. 

Positives

• Greta Thunberg's speech is clear and easy to understand.
• This passionate speech instills a sense of urgency to take action. 

Additional Prerequisites

• There may be an ad before the video.
• Students should be familiar with what 1.5 degrees Celsius means in regards to climate change.
  

Differentiation

• This would be a great video to show in a social studies or history class when talking about activism.
• Students could compare the tone and emotion Greta uses in her speech to other speeches given on the same day at the UN Climate Summit.  
• Writing or language arts classes could have students make their own speeches about climate change or another topic they are passionate about after watching this video. 
• Some related resources are this activity Climate Strike and Art Activism - Create Your Story, this lesson plan Greta Meets Malala: How Different Media Forms Present the News, and this activity Personal Narrative: Chiamaka Obilo.
  

This resource addresses the listed standards. To fully meet standards, search for more related resources.