A LOT has already been said after Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg addressed the United Nations (UN) with a passionate speech on the lack of action against climate change.
Environmentalists and some world leaders have praised the 16-year old for facing world leaders during UN's Climate Action Summit in New York City on Monday.
"You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And 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 money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!" Thunberg said.
Social media was abuzz on commentaries on her speech. Many praised her for her confidence to say what she had to say to the world leaders. Many were moved by her message.
However, Thunberg and her message did not escape criticisms.
Christopher Hahn, a political commentator and Democratic Party activist based in the United States, called Thunberg "mentally ill" during an interview on Fox News on Monday evening.
"None of that matters because the climate hysteria movement is not about science. If it were about science it would be led by scientists rather than by politicians and a mentally ill Swedish child who is being exploited by her parents and by the international left," Knowles said.
In a September 25 report by United Kingdom-based media outfit, Daily Mail, it was reported that British journalist and author Toby Young criticized Thunberg's message.
"The problem with this catastrophic alarmist language is that it is terrifying children," he said during a segment on Good Morning Britain.
It is sad to note that instead of focusing on her message on the urgency to adapt to address climate change and the degradation of the environment, some are trying to veer the discussion away from the message she is trying to deliver.
True that her message was very passionate and she used really heavy words there but it is clear that she is calling on the world leaders to be more serious on how they address the environmental issues we are facing today.
"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," she said.
It is baffling to note that instead of discussing solutions to environmental problems and adapting to climate change, people have instead wanted to focus on how she delivered her message or her "mental" state.
Currently, there are many initiatives to conserve the environment and adapting to climate change. However, it is also clear that there is very little will on the side of the government in properly implementing these programs.
If there is truly any political will on conserving the environment, Boracay would not have become an environmental nightmare; plastic wastes would not have been found in the stomachs of dead marine mammals; flash floods would not have hit the lower areas in Davao City; our rivers would still be clean.
Instead of criticizing her or her message, we should instead heed Thunberg's and the environmentalists' call to protect the environment before we lose everything.