Greta Thunberg accused of quietly deleting tweet that said ‘humanity would be wiped out’ if fossil fuels not cut by 2023

The eco campaigner has been pilloried for allegedly deleting a tweet warning “humanity would be wiped out” if action wasn’t taken by 2023.

Environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg has allegedly deleted a 2018 social media post that stated “humanity would be wiped out” if fossil fuels didn’t stop being used by 2023.

Ms Thunberg has long campaigned for an end to fossil fuels to curb a climate crisis.

On the weekend, conservative website The Post Millennial published an article stating that Ms Thunberg had deleted a June 2018 tweet “saying the world will end in 2023 after world does not”.

It’s not clear when the tweet was deleted.

A number of right-leaning commentators then jumped on the alleged deletion with one saying it showed the Swede was a “fraud”.

Millions of people have now seen other social media posts deriding Ms Thunberg for apparently deleting the tweet.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks at COP256 in Glasgow in 2021. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

The Post Millennial article included screenshots of the tweet from Ms Thunberg which read: “A top climate scientist is warning that climate change will wipe out all humanity unless we stop using fossil fuels over the next five years”.

Thunberg’s tweet linked to an article from the same year on the now defunct Grit Post website – which billed itself a “real news for the working class” - regarding a speech by University of Chicago climate scientist James Anderson.

Its headline read “Top Climate Scientist: Humans Will Go Extinct if We Don’t Fix Climate Change by 2023”.

However, like Ms Thunberg’s tweet, the article did not say that the world would end in 2023. Rather it said changes had to be made by 2023.

The alleged deleted tweet.

Professor Anderson was quoted as saying that a “World War II style transformation of industry” was necessary to “halt carbon pollution”.

“This has to be done within the next five years”.

He added that the “chance that there will be any permanent ice left in the Arctic after 2022 is essentially zero”.

That’s not been the case.

According to the United Sates’ National Snow and Ice Data Centre, in February there was 14.18 million square kilometres of ice in the Arctic.

But that is the third lowest February amount of ice on record.

According to the CSIRO, while Antarctic sea ice levels are low they are increasing strongly in some areas while declining in others.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg (C) is seen among campaigners in March in Oslo, Norway, in a protest against wind turbines built on land traditionally used to herd reindeer. (Photo by Alf Simensen / NTB / AFP)

Certainly if all the polar ice did melt it would have a disastrous effect on humanity flooding every coastal city on the planet.

The “wipe out all of humanity” quote in Ms Thunberg’s tweet is not in the Grit Post article.

It’s unclear where that line came from as Prof Anderson’s speech is no longer available, according to magazine Newsweek.

It could have been a misunderstanding of Prof Anderson’s speech or paraphrasing.

Nonetheless, Ms Thunberg did not delete a tweet saying the world would end this year.

But she may have deleted a tweet saying humanity could become extinct if action in fossil fuels was taken by this year.

Last month was the 4th warmest February on record globally since at least 1880 - preliminary @NASAGISS data

[Data/methods: https://t.co/Y7TeMNSvIJ] pic.twitter.com/Z7vCWEysvJ

— Zack Labe (@ZLabe) March 14, 2023

Despite the deleted tweet allegations, Ms Thunberg has not commented on social media about the furore.

Her last Twitter update, from Tuesday, was about a climate scientist saying how the world had just experienced the fourth warmest February since 1880.

Originally published as Greta Thunberg accused of quietly deleting tweet that said ‘humanity would be wiped out’ if fossil fuels not cut by 2023