Ella Jones writes

Young Bath and Bristol Quakers had front row seats at Friends House in London last week for a climate summit with 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and others. The event was hosted by British Quakers and several climate NGOs and broadcast by Guardian Live. The trip was organised by SW England Quaker Youth Development Worker Kirsty Philbrick.

A young Friend’s impression of climate activist Greta Thunberg who spoke at Friends House last week.

One young Quaker said they were inspired by recent climate change protests, having attended events for the past few months. They said that Greta was confident, and were impressed that she could do an entire interview in English even though she is Swedish. “We gave her a standing ovation at the end. It was exciting to feel part of such a big thing and it made me feel good about protesting.”

Another young Friend, Sophia Heath, was particularly impressed by Caroline Lucas. “She was so passionate and well-informed,” she said.

Peter Corse said he felt inspired being in a building where a lot of Quaker history took place. “I wanted to know more about Greta, and see what had sparked all of this” he said. Peter has previously taken part in marches in Bath, encouraging people to take action on climate change.

He said that Greta was calm and collected, and came across as though she didn’t care what people thought. “One of the questions she [Greta] was asked was, how do you deal with denial?” Peter says. “Her answer was: ‘I don’t.”

Peter said that whilst attending a march is great “we all have to do just a little bit more” if we want to make a real difference.

The young friends who attended were clearly enthused by Greta’s talk and would encourage others to take part in similar events.

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