Vegan climate activist Greta Thunberg showed her enormous disappointment with world leaders. She said that they were making empty promises about climate action during the G7 (Group of Seven) summit gathered at the luxury Carbis Bay Hotel in England.
The three-day event was for the G7 Group (biggest 7 industrialized countries) to have a meeting before this year’s United Nations conferences for discussions on the variety of global issues, which include their collaborative joint efforts to tackle the climate crisis.
Throughout the whole weekend, guests attending the event were treated, to an extensive variety of meals, which included a five-course dinner of turbot fish, a selection of Cornish cheeses, and dairy-based desserts on Friday; a lavish beach barbecue on Saturday which included seafood appetizers made with scallops, mackerel, and crab claws, and a traditional surf-and-turf entrée that featured sirloin steak and lobsters.
The meals were marketed as sustainable and “carbon neutral”. But only because these animals such as lamb and crab were sourced on the local adjacent markets to the hotel.
Attendees to the event also pledged to support environmental projects in other developing countries, such as a composting site in Vietnam, to offset its carbon emissions. However, this is quite disappointing since PM Boris Johnson arrived in Cornwall by private jet instead of a more environmentally and conscious transportation choice, like taking a train from London.
During the summit, leaders from the G7 countries—which included Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US published a 25-page communique stating their climate commitments. Together, all assistants pledged to implement a “green revolution” by accelerating their efforts to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, with a benchmark to cut emissions by half by 2030 and a commitment to preserve 30 percent of lands and oceans by 2030. The G7 countries also committed to investing $100 billion annually through 2025 to help developing countries reach climate targets.
Image Credit: HM Treasury
When outlining their efforts to reach climate targets, the G7 leaders forgot to mention any details regarding animal agriculture who contributes at least 15% of total greenhouse gas emissions. Ironically between discussions, the G7 leaders conducted business, as usual, dining on an extensive array of animal products while entertaining themselves with highly polluting airshows.
Thunberg who become famous for challenging world leaders about their lack of urgency for taking care of the climate crisis took care of G7 leaders with scathing posts on social media.
“The climate and ecological crisis is rapidly escalating. G7 pours fantasy amounts into fossil fuels as CO2 emissions are forecast for the 2nd biggest annual rise ever, But the G7 leaders really seem to be having a good time presenting their empty climate commitments and repeating old unfulfilled promises. Of course this calls for a steak-and-lobster BBQ celebration while jet planes perform aerobatics in the sky above the G7 resort.”
Thunberg
Next November, the G7 leaders will attend the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland where they are expected to make additional commitments to fight the climate crisis.
At age 15, Swedish-born Thunberg skipped school to hold a one-person climate protest back in 2018 and since inspired millions of people (especially the young) around the world to take action in her “Fridays For Future” protests. As she becomes popular all over the world, Thunberg was invited to speak at various climate events where she delivered powerful speeches, demanding that world leaders take immediate action to fight the climate crisis.
Thunberg leads by sample, she does not consume any animal products nor use commercial transportation such as airplanes, she arrived at many conferences and places with a sailboat and tries to ride only on electric trains. Miss. Thunberg refused many monetary awards and instead called upon governments and organizations to redirect these funds to fight climate change.
Last month, Thunberg partnered with animal-rights group Mercy For Animals (MFA) to create For Nature, a short film explaining how human exploitation of animals and the planet have led to health crises such as COVID-19 and environmental catastrophes.
