US Treasury Secretary slams Greta Thunberg, says she should 'go study'

United States Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin wants the Swedish climate teen activist Greta Thunberg to 'go study'. In a press conference at World Economic Forum in Davos on January 23, Mnuchin first asked 'who is' the 17-year-old and after a brief pause said it was a 'joke'. According to the US Treasury Secretary, the teenager should first go to college and then she can come back and explain to them. The four-day conference is currently taking place in Swiss Alps where climate change has topped the agenda. 

“Is she the chief economist? Who is she? I’m confused,” he said. Then after a pause, he said it was “a joke.” 

Mnuchin concluded, “After she goes and studies economics in college, she can come back and explain that to us,” he concluded. 

Trump would have 'loved' to meet Greta

While US official slammed Thunberg, US President Donald Trump had said in a separate press conference that he 'would have loved' to have met the teen climate activist Greta Thunberg. This comes after Thunberg indirectly slammed Trump for joining 'One Trillion Trees' initiative and said that 'planting trees is not enough'. Both Thunberg and Trump have starkly different views on climate change. Earlier, the US leader had also rejected warnings by climate activists and called them 'prophets of doom' in the keynote speech. 

Read - Greta Thunberg Denies Saying 'the World Has 8 Years To Save The Climate', WEF Apologises

Thunberg also went against Trump's statement of joining the 'One Trillion Trees' initiative. Even though the initiative aims at planting trees all over the world in order to tackle the environmental crisis, Thunberg said at the meet that “planting trees is not enough.” She further added that even though it is a good deed to plant more trees, the ongoing use of coal and fossil fuels are not helping the cause.  

Read - Swedish Activist Greta Thunberg Meets Prince Of Wales

Thunberg said, “Planting trees is good of course, but it's nowhere near enough of what is needed and it cannot replace real mitigation...My generation will not give up without a fight...Our house is still on fire.” 

The 17-year-old climate activist said that the richer countries need to get down to zero emissions much faster. She also added that the leaders are not doing anything to deal with the climate emergency. Thunberg further warned them that the time was running out and without treating it as real crisis one cannot solve the issue.   

Read - Donald Trump 'would Have Loved' To Meet Greta Thunberg At Davos

Read - Greta Thunberg Says 'planting Trees Is Not Enough' As Trump Joins Initiative

(With AP inputs)