Greta Thunberg slams Steve Mnuchin: 'It doesn't take a college degree to realize carbon budget doesn't add up'
Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg hit back at Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Friday after he told the Swedish eco-warrior to go to college before lecturing world leaders on how things should be executed.
The US treasury secretary was taking a swipe her for pressing leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, recently to act swiftly against climate change.
Thunberg responded to Mnuchin's jibe in a string of tweets, saying it did not take a college degree "to realize carbon budget doesn't add up."
Mnuchin, while addressing the reporters in Davos, had said that the 17-year-old was in no position to give advice on climate change because she has not been to college yet. He also dismissed Thunberg's suggestion that governments and companies across the world need to cut back on their use of fossil fuel dramatically.
When the US treasury secretary was asked how cutting back on the use of fossil fuel would affect the country's economic model, Mnuchin responded with a condescending question directed at the climate crusader.
"Is she the chief economist? Who is she? I'm confused," he said. Mnuchin then gave a brief pause before saying it was "a joke." "After she goes and studies economics in college, she can come back and explain that to us," he concluded, according to the Daily Mail.
Hours after his comments, Thunberg, who is on a gap year from school till August, tweeted, writing, "It doesn't take a college degree in economics to realize that our remaining 1.5° carbon budget and ongoing fossil fuel subsidies and investments don't add up." The teen hit back at the White House official without mentioning his name.
She added, "Either you tell us how to achieve this mitigation or explain to future generations and those already affected by the climate emergency why we should abandon our climate commitments."
Thunberg, on the final day of the Davos event, had responded to Mnuchin's comments by brushing them off and saying "of course" the comments have "no effect" on her. The teen acknowledged that young activists "are being criticized all the time."
"We cannot care about those kinds of things," she said, insisting that her priority was drawing attention and action to concerns about global warming. "The situation is not being treated like the crisis it is."
Thunberg, who rose to popularity through her weekly Friday protest outside the Swedish parliament a year ago, inspired millions of people across the world to take to the streets in an effort to demand an emergency action on climate change from their governments.