Jane Fonda: ‘I’ve been a climate scientist for decades and decades’

Jane Fonda has worn many hats during her Hollywood career — model, actress, activist — but apparently she also considers herself a climate scientist.

“I’ve been a climate scientist for decades and decades,” Ms. Fonda told ABC News in an interview shortly before she was arrested Friday during a protest at the Capitol in D.C.

Despite her “decades and decades” of climate experience, she credited her recent activism to 16-year-old Swedish protester Greta Thunberg, who launched the Fridays for Future climate strikes.

“But it was Greta Thunberg, this little Swedish girl holding her sign every Friday in front of the Swedish parliament—that’s why I’ve chosen Friday, too—and all the student strikers all over the world who have really risked a lot and given up a lot in order to say, wake up old people, how come you’re not standing with us?” said Ms. Fonda.

It was unclear what Ms. Fonda meant when she called herself a “climate scientist.” She attended Vassar College, where she studied subjects such as physiology, but did not graduate, according to a 2006 interview in the Harvard Crimson.

Jane Fonda Says She’s Been ’Climate Scientist For Decades’ https://t.co/G3vjmgUj0p

— Marc Morano (@ClimateDepot) October 13, 2019

Jane Fonda, Climate Scientist, to the Rescue https://t.co/GI6z6rxHXE

— Watts Up With That (@wattsupwiththat) October 14, 2019

The Academy Award-winning actress said she plans to move to D.C. for several months to participate in climate protests each week called “Fire Drill Fridays.”

Ms. Fonda, 81, added: “There’s one issue that will determine the survival of our species. This is not hyperbole. This is real.”