NEW YORK, N.Y. — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told world leaders at the United Nations that humanity has to “grow up” and tackle climate change.
In a speech, he said humans must stop trashing the planet like a teenager on a bender.
Johnson is due to host a major United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland in six weeks’ time. He called the event “the turning point for humanity.”
In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly, he said it’s now or never to stop global warming from becoming catastrophic.
He said humanity is acting like a teenager who thinks “someone else will clear up the mess we make because that is what someone else has always done.”
Johnson said the “adolescence of humanity is coming to an end and must come to an end,” adding that it’s time to listen to the warnings of scientists.
He said humanity isn’t only hurting the planet, but we’re also hurting ourselves and other species by not acting.
“Daily, weekly, we are doing such irreversible damage that long before a million years are up, we will have made this beautiful planet effectively uninhabitable, not just for us, but for many other species,” he said.
Johnson called for the world’s nations to limit the rise in temperatures to 1.5 degrees.
The U.K. leader also inserted some humor into his speech by referencing the Muppets.
"And when Kermit the Frog – Kermit the Frog sang, 'It's not easy being green.' Remember that one? I want you to know that he was wrong. He was wrong. It is easy. It's not only easy, it's lucrative and it's right to be green. But he was also unnecessarily rude to Miss Piggy, Kermit the Frog, I thought. But it is easy to be green. We have the technology, as we used to say when I was when I was a kid, we can do it. We have. So, in 40 days’ time, we have the choice before us."
