Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s wife defended teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg after she and Mnuchin had a spat in a now-deleted Instagram post.
Actress and producer Louise Linton, 39, posted a side-by-side photo on the social media site of Thunberg and her husband on Saturday with the caption, “I stand with Greta on this issue (I don’t have a degree in economics either). We need to drastically reduce our use of fossil fuels.”
The post was deleted after approximately a half-hour, according to New York magazine correspondent Olivia Nuzzi.
Mnuchin criticized Thunberg’s call for countries to divest from fossil fuels immediately during a press briefing at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week.
“After she goes and studies economics in college, she can come back and explain that to us,” Mnuchin stated.
My gap year ends in August, but it doesn’t take a college degree in economics to realise that our remaining 1,5° carbon budget and ongoing fossil fuel subsidies and investments don’t add up. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/1virpuOyYG
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) January 23, 2020
The 17-year-old climate activist responded to the jab on Twitter stating, “It doesn’t take a college degree in economics to realise that our remaining 1,5° carbon budget and ongoing fossil fuel subsidies and investments don’t add up.”
Thunberg has become internationally known for her climate change protests, which began in earnest when she sat outside the Swedish Parliament to protest environmental degradation.
