A 10-second video circulates on social networks in which the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, known for the environmental movement “Fridays for Future”, affirms, during an interview, that to “save the world” it is necessary to “save the world” . “yes the banks.” In the description of one of the publications that includes the video, it even says that the script was written by the young woman. “by global banks.”
However, the Swedish activist’s words were taken out of context and did not point in that direction, as can be seen in the original video, published on the account of the investigative newspaper “The Intercept”. The environmental activist’s words were spoken during an event organized by that media outlet in September 2019, specifically in an interview given by Greta Thunberg to journalist Naomi Klein.
During the interview, Naomi Klein asked the young Swede why some politicians use the argument that adopting environmental measures to combat climate change is “expensive.” In response, Greta Thunberg said that “the money is there”: “If we can save the banks [uma referência aos resgates bancários realizados por Estados, como também já aconteceu em Portugal]“This is how we manage to save the planet.”
The climate activist added, immediately after the audience’s applause, that “if there is something this world does not lack, it is money. Of course many people like money, But the people in power do not lack money.” “I wouldn’t even give an answer to that argument, because the money is there, what is needed is the social will to do it.”
Thus, the activist maintains that political power has enough power and financial capacity to impose environmental measures, giving as an example the fact that several governments around the world have spent millions of euros to rescue banks that end up going bankrupt. Greta Thunberg, during this interview, does not mention that, to save the planet, it is necessary to save the banks; it only compares the decisions of government officials to show that there are financial resourcesbut they are not channeled towards the fight against climate change.
Conclusion
In fact, the Swedish activist formulated the isolated phrase in this mail with the idea that “if we can save the banks, then we can save the planet”, but the meaning indicated by the social media posts does not take into account the context of the interview. After a question about why some government officials say it is “expensive” to save the planet, Greta Thunberg tries to draw a parallel between two types of spending (saving the banks versus fighting climate change) to show that political power has money, but does not use it to combat global warming.
Thus, according to the Observer classification system, this content is:
MISLEADING
In Facebook’s rating system, this content is:
PARTLY FALSE: Content claims are a combination of accurate and inaccurate facts, or the main claim is misleading or incomplete.
NOTE: This content was curated by Observador as part of a fact-checking partnership with Facebook.
Source: Observadora
