Greta Thunberg jokes she'll swap ‘climate thing’ for music career after speech is given death metal makeover

Environmental activist Greta Thunberg in New York
Jason DeCrow/AP
Katy Clifton29 September 2019

Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has joked she is moving on from “this climate thing” in favour of a death metal career after a band turned her UN address into a song.

The 16-year-old campaigner spoke emotionally at the climate change summit in New York, telling world leaders they have “stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words”.

Days after Miss Thunberg addressed the summit, a band in the US turned her “How dare you” speech into a death metal track, which has now been viewed more than 2.2 million times.

John Meredeth, drummer for thrash metal band Suaka, told Rolling Stone he agreed with the teenager’s message and said he thought her “passion and outrage” would make a good track.

Responding to the song on Saturday, Miss Thunberg wrote on Twitter: “I have moved on from this climate thing...

"From now on I will be doing death metal only!”

Asked whether he agrees with Miss Thunberg on the climate, Mr Meredeth told Rolling Stone: “My stance is that individuals need to do their part to strive to conserve and preserve our environment.

“When I saw her speech, I was very impressed by her passion and outrage. The words she chose evoked the darkness of the metal music I love: Entombed, Gojira, At the Gates, Sepultura.

“Teen angst can be a powerful and important driving force in society, for instance, the Arab spring. But there is an element of satire and levity regarding the tone and the music.

“I mean, I have never sung like that before in my life. I think humour and [positive mental attitude] can be at least as powerful as anger and outrage, and there is a place for both.”

On Tuesday, Miss Thunberg told the climate change summit in New York: “This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here.

“I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean, yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words."

Ms Thunberg is the pioneer of the school strikes that have taken place around the world, including across the UK last Friday.

She famously sailed across the Atlantic to get to New York for the climate conference, rejecting air travel.

Global climate strike - in pictures

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UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres called the summit to discuss the climate around the globe.

He told delegates: "Nature is angry. And we fool ourselves if we think we can fool nature, because nature always strikes back, and around the world nature is striking back with fury.

"There is a cost to everything. But the biggest cost is doing nothing.

"The biggest cost is subsidising a dying fossil fuel industry, building more and more coal plants, and denying what is plain as day: that we are in a deep climate hole, and to get out we must first stop digging."

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