Let's get ready to fight for years - Greta tells climate strike demo

(ANSA) - Rome, April 19 - Sixteen-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg told a Rome rally Friday that "the basic problem is that nothing is being done to stop the environmental catastrophe.
    "We must get ready to fight for a long time. Weeks and months won't be enough, it is going to take years".
    Greta was speaking from the stage of the Fridays for the Future event in Piazza del Popolo, which police said drew some 3,500 people.
    She added that the young people there were not skipping school but were there to "change the world".
    "Some people say we are missing lesson time. We say that we are changing the world. We'll keep fighting for our future and the living planet. Ciao Roma!" "We children are not sacrificing our education and childhood so that adults and politicians can tell us what they think is politically possible in the society they have created," she went on.
    "We have not taken to the streets to take selfies and have people tell us how much they admire what we're doing.
    "We children are doing this to wake up the adults, because we want them to act, because we want our hopes and dreams back", she said.
    "We are not the ones who created this crisis," she told the crowd.
    "We were born into this world where there is an existential emergency that is being ignored, and we have decided to act against this because we are fed up of lies and broken promises", she said.
    Greta, who spoke in English, was carrying a placard saying Strike for the Climate in Swedish.