Climate activist Greta Thunberg said those who attack her, including U.S. President Donald Trump, are “terrified of young people bringing change, which they don’t want.”
On BBC Radio 4’s Today program, which she was guest editing on Monday, Thunberg was asked what she makes of the criticism of her by Trump and others.
“Those attacks are just funny,” she said. “Because I mean they obviously don’t mean anything. Well I guess of course it means something. It means that they are terrified of young people bringing change, which they don’t want. But that is just a proof that we are actually doing something. And that they see us as some kind of threat.”
Earlier this month, after Time magazine named Thunberg its person of the year, Trump tweeted: “Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!”
The BBC show also featured a discussion between Thunberg and David Attenborough, in which the naturalist praised the teenager for raising awareness of the climate crisis.
He said she had “achieved things that many of us who have been working on it for 20-odd years have failed to achieve — that is you have aroused the world.”