'We cannot save the world by playing by the rules,' Thunberg says
Climate activist Greta Thunberg was dragged out of another protest at an oil facility in Malmo, Sweden, by police, according to video footage that emerged Monday.
It was mere hours after a Swedish court fined Thunberg for disobeying police during a climate change protest when the young activist returned to the same oil facility in Malmo on Monday.
"According to me, we have an emergency," she said in a press conference after the court fined her for the protest. "We cannot save the world by playing by the rules."
Thunberg admitted to the facts but denied guilt, saying the fight against the fossil fuel industry is a form of self-defense due to the existential and global threat of climate change.
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Greta Thunberg protests fossil fuels.
The activist said she is "protecting life as we know it" and that "We have to remember who the real criminals are. The ones who are committing the real crime. … We have truth on our side, morality on our side. And that will not change."
The court rejected her argument and fined her about $240.
Charges were brought against Thunberg and several other youth activists from the Reclaim the Future movement for refusing a police order to disperse after blocking road access to an oil terminal in the southern Swedish city of Malmö on June 19.
"If the court sees our actions of self-defense as a crime, that’s how it is," said Irma Kjellström, a spokesperson for Reclaim the Future who was also present at the June protest. She added that activists "have to be exactly where the harm is being done."
In 2021, Thunberg gave a famous speech at the United Nations, accusing the world of stealing her future.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg of Sweden waits for a hearing in a court in Malmo, Sweden, on July 24, 2023. (AP Photo / Pavel Golovkin)
"My message is that we’ll be watching you," she said. "This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet, you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you."
"You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. Yet, I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is the money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you," she continued.
"For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you’re doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight," Thunberg said. "You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency, but no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil, and that I refuse to believe."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Hannah Grossman is a Reporter at Fox News Digital.
