15th October 2025
Modern day prophets include people such as Greta Thunberg, Vanessa Nakate, Antonio Guterres and Pope Francis.
Greta Thunberg began her prophetic journey began with a climate strike. Rather than spending Fridays in school, she sat alone outside the Swedish Parliament with her simple placard – “Skolstrejk for Klimatet” – calling on those in authority to take action.
With her single minded determination, she took this message, in 2019, to the World Economic Forum: “I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act. I want you to behave like our house is on fire. Because it is.”
And to the United Nations climate summit: “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. … 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?”
Her words and actions drew – and continue to draw – widespread attention to the urgency and scale of the climate crisis. In the six years since her speech about house on fire, we have clearly experienced scorching temperatures, more frequent outbreaks of wild fire, as well as the first signs that whole ecosystems – eg the coral reefs and the Amazon rainforest – are on the brink of collapse.
In November 2014, UN Secretary-General António Guterres sent young climate activists this message: “You have every right to be angry. I am angry too,” the UN chief posted on social media on Thursday following his meeting with youth representatives and young environmental activists. “I am angry because we are on the verge of the climate abyss, and I don’t see enough urgency or political will to address the emergency.”
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NB as an update on restrictions around protest and freedom of speech, here is an article from yesterday’s Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025/oct/14/human-rights-official-urges-uk-to-review-laws-after-palestine-action-placard-arrests?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
The Green Tau 