“I said I wanted you to panic…”

“One year ago I came to Davos and told you that our house is on fire. I said I wanted you to panic.… And for the record, when we children tell you to panic, we’re not telling you to go on like before. We’re not telling you to rely on technologies that don’t even exist today at scale and that science says perhaps never will. We are not telling you to keep talking about reaching “net zero emissions” or “carbon neutrality” by cheating and fiddling around with the numbers.… Let’s be clear. We don’t need a “low carbon-economy.” We don’t need to “lower emissions.” Our emissions have to stop.… And until we have the technologies that at scale can put our emissions to minus then we must forget about net zero—we need real zero.… If high emissions continue like now even for a few years, that remaining budget will soon be completely used up.”

— Greta Thunberg, Our house is still on fire and you’re fueling the flames

(Illustration by Seth L. Taylor, 2020.)