Teen activist sails across Atlantic to go to climate meeting
NEW YORK • Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg arrived in New York City to chants and cheers Wednesday after a trans-Atlantic trip on a sailboat to attend a global warming conference.
Thunberg, 16, and her crew were escorted into a lower Manhattan marina about 4 p.m., concluding a two-week crossing from Plymouth, England.
As the boat docked, hundreds of activists welcomed her from a Hudson River promenade. Thunberg waved then was lifted onto a dock.
“All of this is very overwhelming,” she said of the reception, looking slightly embarrassed.
The teenager refused to fly because of the carbon cost of plane travel. A 2018 study said that because of cloud and ozone formation, air travel may trap two to four times more heat than that caused by just emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Speaking after she landed, Thunberg said the trip wasn’t as uncomfortable as she expected.
“I didn’t get seasick once,” but she stressed that “this is not something I want everyone to do.”
Thunberg has become a symbol of a growing movement of young climate activists, leading weekly protests in Sweden that focused on the issue and that inspired similar strikes in about 100 cities worldwide.
She’s in New York to speak at the United Nations Climate Action Summit next month. There, she’ll join world leaders who will present plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The boat carrying Thunberg, the Malizia II, encountered rough seas that slowed it down for a day. Taking turns steering the 60-foot racing yacht were yachtsman Boris Herrmann and Pierre Casiraghi, the grandson of Monaco’s late Prince Rainier III and American actress Grace Kelly.
Inscribed on the boat’s sail are the words “FridaysForFuture” under “UNITE BEHIND THE SCIENCE.”
Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, sails into New York harbor aboard the Malizia II, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019. The zero-emissions yacht left Plymouth, England on Aug. 14. She is scheduled to address the United Nations Climate Action Summit on Sept. 23. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)