Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot on the climate crisis

This is not a drill. 

My name is Greta Thunberg. We are living in the beginning of a mass extinction. Our climate is breaking down. Children like me are giving up their education to protest. But we can still fix this. You can still fix this. To survive, we need to stop burning fossil fuels, but this alone will not be enough. Lots of solutions are talked about, but what about a solution that is right in front of us? I'll let my friend George explain.

There is a magic machine that sucks carbon out of the air, costs very little and builds itself. It's called ... a tree. A tree is an example of a natural climate solution. Mangroves, peat bogs, jungles, marshes, sea beds, kelp forests, swamps, coral reefs, they take carbon out of the air and lock it away. Nature is a tool we can use to repair our broken climate. These natural climate solutions could make a massive difference. 

Pretty cool, right? 

But only if we also leave fossil fuels in the ground. 

Here's the crazy part ... right now we are ignoring them. We spend one thousand times more on global fossil fuel subsidies than on natural-based solutions. 

Natural climate solutions get just two per cent of all the money used on tackling climate breakdown. 

This is your money, it is your taxes and your savings. 

Even more crazy, right now where we need nature the most, we're destroying it faster than ever.

Up to 200 species are going extinct every single day.

Much of the Arctic ice is gone. Most of our wild animals have gone. Much of our soil has gone. So what should we do? 

What should you do? 

It's simple ... we need to protect, restore and fund.

Protect. Tropical forests are being cut down at the rate of 30 football pitches a minute. 

Where nature is doing something vital, we must protect it. 

Restore. Much of our planet has been damaged.

But nature can regenerate and we can help ecosystems bounce back.

Fund. 

We need to stop funding things that destroy nature and pay for things that help it. 

It is that simple. Protect, restore, fund. 

This can happen everywhere. Many people have already begun using natural climate solutions. We need to do it on a massive scale. 

You can be part of this. 

Vote for people who defend nature. 

Share this video. Talk about this. 

All around the world there are amazing movements fighting for nature. Join them!

Everything counts. What you do counts.

© The Guardian