Greta Thunberg 'Rickrolls' climate concert with super dance moves: 'Never gonna give you up'

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg let her hair down and "Rickrolled" an audience at a youth-led concert for climate action. Thunberg is known for her stoic expression but she pulled out the moves at a concert in Sweden to loud cheers from the crowd. She sang and danced to Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up. The video of the climate change activist dancing went viral on the internet, with Astley sharing the video of the dance, calling it "fantastic." The concert was held ahead of COP26, the 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is set to take place this November, according to CNN. The video was shared on TikTok by the official Climate Live 2021 account.

Greta Thunberg has been one of the prominent voices on climate change, and the teenager has called out some of the world's biggest leaders, accusing them of inaction and not caring about future generations. The climate crisis is worsening with every passing year, with floods, wildfires, and searing heat becoming a recurring feature across the world. 

A report published by the UN in August raised alarm bells after it showed that the world was becoming hotter much faster than scientists had previously anticipated. The UN described the report as a 'code red for humanity.' The 3,000-plus-page report from 234 scientists stated that sea-level was rising sharply and worsening extremes such as heatwaves, droughts, floods, and storms. The report also pointed out that the kind of heatwave that happens only once every 50 years is now happening once a decade. Should the world get warmer by another degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), the heatwave is likely to happen twice every seven years, said the report.

“Our report shows that we need to be prepared for going into that level of warming in the coming decades. But we can avoid further levels of warming by acting on greenhouse gas emissions,” said report co-chair Valerie Masson-Delmotte, a climate scientist at France’s Laboratory of Climate and Environment Sciences at the University of Paris-Saclay, reported AP. “This report tells us that recent changes in the climate are widespread, rapid and intensifying, unprecedented in thousands of years,” said IPCC Vice-Chair Ko Barrett, senior climate adviser for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The report said it was imperative that greenhouse gas emissions were cut by at least half this decade to save the world from more catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis. In 2015, more than 190 countries signed up to the Paris Agreement after the COP21 meeting, to limit the increase in global temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, but preferably to 1.5 degrees.

Additionally, a Pew Research Center study done in 2021 surveyed people across 17 advanced economies to understand how concerned they are about climate change and how willing they are to take action in their own lives. The report found that large majorities view climate change as a major threat, and that concern has grown in recent years as extreme weather has become more common. Younger adults consistently expressed higher levels of worry and urgency, saying the crisis will personally affect them and future generations. Many respondents also felt that their national governments were not doing enough to address the problem. Overall, the study showed a global public increasingly anxious about the climate crisis and expecting stronger action from leaders.

Thunberg hit out at world leaders last month at a summit in Milan, pointing out that over 30 years of purported climate action was nothing but "blah, blah, blah." She mocked world leaders for using environmental-friendly sounding phrases while not actually doing anything about the crisis staring the world in the face. "This is not about some expensive, politically correct dream at the bunny hugging or blah, blah, blah. Build back better, blah, blah, blah. Green economy, blah, blah, blah," she said. "Net-zero, blah, blah, blah. Climate-neutral, blah, blah, blah. This is all we hear from our so-called leaders — words, words that sound great but so far, have led to no action or hopes and dreams. Empty words and promises," she added.

In an interview with People, Thunberg said she was hoping to "see an awakening when it comes to the climate and environment; that we start to treat this crisis like the crisis it is. And understand what needs to be done — understand that we have failed and that we need to take real bold action right now, that we cannot afford to wait any longer."

This article originally appeared 4 years ago.