Piers Morgan slams teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg's Nobel prospects: 'What's she done for peace exactly?'
Following news that Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was tipped to win the Nobel Peace Prize, talk show host Piers Morgan has questioned the teen's credentials for winning the award and criticized her angry speech at the UN climate summit last month.
The 16-year-old's impassioned speech at the UN went viral on social media and drew praise from several mainstream media personalities and Hollywood celebrities. But it looks like the 'Good Morning Britain' host was not so impressed with her delivery, accusing her of "abusing a load of adults," Metro reports.
The 54-year-old took to Twitter and quoted an article about Thunberg's Nobel prospects. "What’s she done for peace, exactly?" Piers asked his 6.8 million followers. "She’s got just very, very angry about climate change, abused loads of adults & terrified millions of children."
This is the second time the renowned TV presenter has criticized the teenager, previously calling her out for worrying children into assuming the world is about to end.
"She’s highly impressive, a 16-year-old girl who is so articulate, so passionate, I’ve got no problem with that and climate change is a very serious issue, I get it all," he told his GMB co-host, Susanna Reid. "There’s something I felt very uncomfortable watching it yesterday. It was all a bit melodramatic, end of the world, apocalyptic."
"I wonder the impact she’s now having on young people around the world watching this who must be thinking, 'Oh my god, the world is literally about to end,'" he explained. "It’s not about to end."
"I don’t want millions, if not billions, of young people watching Greta do that kind of speech and genuinely think the planet is literally about to end, because it isn’t," Piers asserted, before admitting that climate change is "serious" and "should be dealt with", but it’s not how Thunberg is portraying it to be.
Laura Tobin, a weather woman, told him Greta wasn't blowing up the urgency surrounding climate change. Piers acknowledged, but said her "overemotional" nature was disconcerting.
"It’s an interesting debate," he agreed. "I just feel very uncomfortable that she has got Asperger’s so people who have Asperger’s or families who have people with Asperger’s, they don’t like it being depicted as a mental illness or anything like that. But it is something which does affect the way you perform, behave, react to things."
Piers acknowledged the possibility of Greta's feelings being warranted and called her "fearless", but said that he had "concerns."
"She has two very politically active parents. It’s if she’s being exploited," he speculated. "They’re driving her as this global figure, is that healthy for her? Should she be back at school?" he further asked.
Recently, Top Gear legend Jeremy Clarkson also chimed in on the debate, branding Thunberg a "spoilt brat" and accusing politicians of exploiting her for personal gain.
"How dare you sail to America on a carbon fiber yacht that you didn’t build which cost £15million, that you didn’t earn, and which has a back-up diesel engine that you didn’t mention," Clarkson ranted in his column for The Sun. "Pause for a moment to consider how soundly you sleep at night, knowing that adults are building and servicing and flying Sweden’s fighter planes. To keep you safe."
"We gave you mobile phones and laptops and the internet. We created the social media you use every day and we run the banks that pay for it all," he wrote. "So how dare you stand there and lecture us, you spoilt brat."