Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was arrested by Dutch police this weekend as part of a group aiming to block The Hague's A12 highway in a move against the Dutch government's tax concessions for companies connected to the fossil fuel industry, with Shell and the airline KLM among them.
According to BBC, Thunberg and the other activists joining her timed their efforts to send a message prior to a planned debate about fossil fuel subsidies in June, carrying signage reading, "Stop fuel subsidies now!" and "The planet is dying!" An assembly of local police were said to be waiting for them at the end of their march, where Thunberg and others were taken into custody.
"It's important to demonstrate today because we are living in a state of planetary emergency," Thunberg said to press at the protest. "We must do everything to avoid that crisis and to save human lives." When asked if she was worried about the police, she responded, "Why should I be?"
Organizing similar events since she was 15, she commented on her efforts in a recent post to social media while engaged in another protest last month, writing, "Elected officials are in major positions of power, and choose to actively maintain and worsen our current extremely violent and destructive system."
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