The Dalai Lama has hailed Swedish teen environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg's efforts to highlight the climate crisis and mobilise young people.
In a letter to Thunberg, the Tibetan spiritual leader said it was ‘very encouraging to see how you have inspired other young people to join you in speaking out.’ ‘You are waking people up to the scientific consensus and the urgency to act on it,’ a statement on the Dalai Lama's website read.
He also wrote: ‘We humans are the only species with the power to destroy the Earth as we know it. Yet, if we have the capacity to destroy the Earth, so, too, do we have the capacity to protect it.’ Thunberg on Sunday welcomed the Dalai Lama's support.
‘I have been travelling and not seen any letter yet, but of course it's terrific and I really appreciate it,’ she told Stockholm daily Dagens Nyheter.
The Dalai Lama's statement was issued from Dharamsala in northern India, where he has lived in exile since fleeing Chinese-ruled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising.
After this school year finishes, Thunberg is planning to devote herself to her climate campaign full-time.
The 16-year-old is planning to take part in a UN climate summit in New York in September, and at the UN climate conference in Chile in December.
Thunberg last week visited Vienna to attend an event hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the action-movie star and former California governor. The R20 Austrian World Summit is a networking event for cities and regions that have launched climate protection initiatives.
