'She was very fired up!' Karl Stefanovic lambasts teen climate change activist
Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg’s impassioned United Nations speech got under the skin of many on Monday, including former Today Show host Karl Stefanovic.
While filling in for Ben Fordham as host on 2GB’s Sydney Live on Tuesday, the 45-year-old slammed the 16-year-old who tore into world leaders for failing to act on climate change, and former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd for coming out in support of her.
Stefanovic criticised how “fired up” Ms Thunberg was, and accused her of being “managed” and used by activists to influence the younger generation.
“There’s a lot of pressure, she’s not being looked after and everyone can say, ‘look if that was my kid she wouldn’t be in that situation’,” he told listeners.
“She is being managed, and her stance is being used by activists. She’s been put at the front of this thing because they think that she has an impact on young kids out there.”
He claimed the impact the teenager, who has Asperger’s, was having on “our kids” had caused them unnecessary stress.
“I think she does have an impact on young kids and we’re seeing our kids very distressed about the prospective changes to climate and that only adds to their burden and their stress,” he said.
Stefanovic also took issue with Kevin Rudd vocalising his support for Ms Thunberg after the former prime minister told the ABC, “she represents the anger of that generation and does so effectively”.
Mr Rudd added her words may insult “a lot of middle-aged white guys because it’s not the way in which we would talk”.
Stefanovic joked he was one of the insulted “middle-aged white guys”, and begged Mr Rudd to “give it a rest”.
“There’s anger out there, of course there’s anger, there’s anger at this kind of activism as well. I can’t believe he would go and say that,” Stefanovic said.
In an angry and impassioned speech at the UN climate summit on Monday, Ms Thunberg denounced world leaders for their neglect of the threat of global warming.
“This is all wrong,” Thunberg said, reading from a piece of paper.
“I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean, yet you come to us young people for hope. How dare you.”
The 16-year-old continued through tears: “People are suffering.”
“People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are at the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!
“You say you hear us and understand the urgency, but no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that.
“Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil. And that I refuse to believe.”
One Nation’s NSW leader Mark Latham also chimed in on the debate during his radio interview with Stefanovic, saying Ms Thunberg’s condition “was a factor” to be considered.
“I think any parent listening would think, ‘would you really put that much pressure on a child in the international spotlight?’,” he said.
‘Annoying brat’
Mr Latham said she was “not right in saying it’s the beginning of the mass extinction of our planet”, and it was “over dramatic to say the world is ending”.
Stefanovic wasn’t the only one irritated by Ms Thunberg’s speech, with former AFL player Sam Newman labelling her a “s**t”.
“This annoying little brat addressed the UN on the so-called climate crisis. WHO lets this s**t have a platform? Mendacious, inbred sycophants, that (sic) who. #ClimateChangeHoax,” he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, Ms Thunsberg has been praised over the delivery of her speech and hailed a powerful force in inciting change from policy makers.
Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter, download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play and stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoo’s daily newsletter. Sign up here.
