Arnold Schwarzenegger Praises Greta Thunberg

Brut America

When an action hero recognizes a climate hero.  Listen to what Arnold Schwarzenegger said about 16-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg.

Transcript

00:00When dreamers hear that something has never been done before,

00:03they don't shrink away from that, they rise to the challenge.

00:07And we are so lucky today that we have some of those dreamers with us here in the audience.

00:13And if you don't mind, I would like to just mention one of them.

00:17And it is Greta Thunberg.

00:19Greta, if you please would stand up for a second.

00:40I've been called crazy many times in my life.

00:45I've been called crazy, for instance, when I was a young kid

00:48and I wanted to be a bodybuilding champion here in Austria.

00:51Of course, Austria is known for having great skiers and great soccer players,

00:54but not great bodybuilders.

00:56They called me crazy when I wanted to be a leading man in the movies

00:59because everything was wrong with me according to the experts.

01:02My accent, a huge muscular body, and a name that no one could pronounce.

01:09So they said you would never make it.

01:12And they called me also crazy when I wanted to become governor of the great state of California

01:16because I had never held a political position before.

01:21And today they probably will call me crazy once again

01:25because I believe that we can create a prosperous and clean energy future

01:34without fossil fuels choking us to death.

01:37Yes, we can.

01:39Yes, we can.

01:40Yes, we can.

01:50But this is what happens when you're a dreamer.

01:53When you're a dreamer, the naysayers and the doubters will always call you crazy.

01:57They always will try to hold you back.

01:59They use words like it's impossible, it's unrealistic, it has never been done before.

02:06You will never be able to do that nor this kind of stuff.

02:09I know the doubts that dreamers face.

02:12But I also know how quickly doubt can turn into acceptance, into imitation, into action.

02:20It is the dreamers, not the doubters, who shape the world as we know it.

02:25When great vision meets relentless work, yesterday's crazy becomes today's reality.

02:31It is that magical moment when dreamers become doers

02:35that has kept humanity on the path of progress

02:38since we emerged from the caves thousands of years ago.

02:42The doubters tell us that the clean energy future is an impossible dream,

02:47or they are wrong.

02:50Dreamers and doers all over the world are already disproving their doubts.

02:56Now, if you don't mind, today, instead of doing the usual environmental summit speech

03:01where we talk about carbon parts per millions and rising sea levels,

03:05I want to uplift some of those dreamers so that we can share in their vision.

03:11I want to raise up some of the doers so we can follow in their footsteps.

03:17I want to send the message also to the doubters

03:20so that they understand that they will never win.

03:25I will start with the dreamers because all progress starts with a dream.

03:30Dreamers hate the status quo.

03:33When dreamers hear that something has never been done before,

03:36they don't shrink away from that.

03:38They rise to the challenge.

03:40And we are so lucky today that we have some of those dreamers with us here in the audience.

03:46And if you don't mind, I would like to just mention one of them.

03:49And it is Greta Thunberg.

03:52Greta, if you please would stand up for a second.

04:10Greta is a dreamer in every sense of the word.

04:14As you have heard earlier, in August of last year,

04:16she started a school strike outside the Swedish parliament

04:20to demand action for a clean energy future.

04:24She was alone at the beginning,

04:27but like most dreamers who have changed history, she wasn't alone for long.

04:32Millions of young dreamers all over the world

04:35from a hundred different countries around the world

04:37have joined Greta in demanding action from the adults

04:41who are currently just sitting in the halls of power all over the world

04:46making promises after promises after promises that they don't keep.

04:52The fact is, if we fail to act, it is their future at stake, not ours.

04:59Their dreams should give us hope.

05:02Their vision should lead us to action.

05:05Greta and her fellow students

05:08are putting the politicians' words to the test.

05:11Will you become doers who support the dreamers

05:15and who make your campaign promises a reality?

05:18Or will you continue with the status quo

05:21and not telling us the truth and keep lying and lying and lying to us?

Category

Transcript

Recommended