Greta Thunberg: Girl, 9, on what inspired her to join Bristol climate change protest

Climate change activist Greta Thunberg is appearing at a protest in Bristol on Friday, where tens of thousands are expected to join her.

Nine-year-old Eliza Armstrong, from Bristol, will be attending with her brother Hamish, seven, friends and parents.

She told Sky News why it is important.

I’m really excited about going to the climate change protest with Greta Thunberg.

I’ve done some local demonstrations in Bristol before but nothing as fantastic as this – I’ve been wanting to go for a while and we’re making placards to hold up.

I’ll definitely see Greta but I don’t think I’ll be able to meet her unfortunately.

There’s going to be so many other kids there, although I’m kind of anxious to see how many people are aware and see how many have decided to come.

It will be amazing to see all the people who have stopped their work to fight against climate change.

I hope Greta’s going to do quite a convincing speech so lots of people get what she’s trying to do and what her aim is. I hope it’s really powerful and that everyone’s amazed by her.

I think adults who look down on her are underestimating her.

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She’s already written lots of books about climate change, but they’re still underestimating her and not using what she’s done to realise how much she’s achieved.

Greta’s definitely done the right thing by standing up for climate change and she’s proving nobody is too small.

Quite a few of my year are going to the protest, we’ve been talking about it all week.

It’s meant to be raining but the weather isn’t going to stop anyone, it would be a bit strange if Greta didn’t come because of the weather.

Lots of people have been planning to come it would be silly if they didn’t just because of the weather, this is why we’re fighting for climate change awareness.

My year, year four, is probably the most aware of climate change at my school.

Maybe because we’re the oldest and have an eco-council and we talk a lot about Greta and her actions.

I wasn’t as aware of climate change before but we were talking about it and how sad I was that no kids were doing anything, so it was great when Greta started protesting.

We’ve been on a few smaller protests, including one near my school.

We had lots of big, massive signs out on the pavement so that was more of a protest.

At the other one, lots of people came to school early and we were writing and drawing what we like about nature in chalk on the playground floor.

I wrote: “If the world doesn’t come first, nothing does” and “If we don’t save the planet then we can’t save anything else”, also “There is no planet B”, “recycle”, and “think of the animals”.

With my parents, I think I’ve had an influence on them, you try to make them understand.

I’ve taught them that maybe you should drive a bit less and I’ve taught them to not buy so much single-use plastic.

When they found out about Greta they stopped using so much plastic and I influenced them to get more recyclable things.

(c) Sky News 2020: Greta Thunberg: Girl, 9, on what inspired her to join Bristol climate change protest