Climate activist Greta Thunberg has taken her fight for the planet’s future to Donald Trump’s front door, marching alongside American students outside the White House.

Ms Thunberg, a 16-year-old who arrived in the US last month on a carbon emission-free sailboat, joined her US peers in a demonstration that at one point included an 11-minute “mass extinction” die-in to highlight the dire consequences of the changing climate.

“Hey, hey, ho, ho, climate change has got to go,” Ms Thunberg could be heard chanting along with the other students. The Swedish activist has gained a considerable following over the past year after she started a school strike outside her country’s parliament, sparking a global movement among students, known as “Fridays for Future”, who have followed her example.

“This is very overwhelming,” she said softly into a megaphone after the march in front of the White House, during which she walked amid the other activists. “See you next week,” she said towards the end of the event, referring to a planned 20 September global “Climate Strike” in which youth and adults are encouraged to walk out of school or work to urge more action on climate change.

Donald Trump is among a small minority of global leaders who has openly questioned the science of climate change. He has announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, a global pact to stem the rise in global temperatures, and has a policy of maximising American production of fossil fuels.

Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town Show all 18 1 /18 Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town Husky dogs pull musher Audun Salte through the town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway. Salte worries that as temperatures warm, climate change could lead to the extinction of all life on Earth. A man who likes kissing and dancing with his dogs, he has 110 of them, is concerned most about the non-humans on the planet. "If climate change should be the end of humanity, I really don't care, but if climate change is the end of any animal species who hasn't contributed anything towards the speeding up of this process, that's why I am reacting," he said. "On the highway, when people slow down to look at a car crash, climate change is like that because everyone is slowing down to look at the accident but not realising that we are actually the car crash." Reuters/Hannah McKay Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town A reindeer grazes on land. Since 1970, average annual temperatures have risen by 4 degrees Celsius in Svalbard, with winter temperatures rising more than 7 degrees, according to a report released by the Norwegian Centre for Climate Services in February. Reuters/Hannah McKay Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town The Wahlenberg Glacier in Oscar II land Reuters/Hannah McKay Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town Audun Salte prepares his huskies for sledding Reuters/Hannah McKay Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town The town of Longyearbyen in the late evening light Reuters/Hannah McKay Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town Husky dogs relax ahead of sledding Reuters/Hannah McKay Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town International director of the Norwegian Polar Institute, Kim Holmen, relaxes with a cup of tea as he travels past the Wahlenberg Glacier. Holmen has lived in the northern Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard for three decades. He describes the changes he's seen as "profound, large and rapid." "We are losing the Svalbard we know. We are losing the Arctic as we know it because of climate change," he said. "This is a forewarning of all the hardship and problems that will spread around the planet." Reuters/Hannah McKay Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town A sign warns of the danger from polar bears Reuters/Hannah McKay Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town A woman poses next to a polar bear mural in town Reuters/Hannah McKay Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town An iceberg floats near the Wahlenberg Glacier Reuters/Hannah McKay Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town Wieslaw Sawicki holds a photograph of his son 44-year-old Michal Sawicki who was killed by an avalanche in Svalbard earlier this year. He worked as a geophysicist at the Polish Polar Research Station in Hornsund on the southern side of Svalbard. The Polish scientist and meteorologist Anna Gorska died when they fell from a mountain in May. Sawicki was an experienced mountaineer, scientist and explorer on his fifth stint for the institute in the Arctic. "Unfortunately, there was a huge snow cornice which looked like it was part of the peak of the mountain," said his father Wieslaw Sawicki, who was visiting Longyearbyen to meet with the governor of the archipelago. "It collapsed with them; they both fell into the abyss." Reuters/Hannah McKay Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town Christiane Huebner plays with her dog Svea Reuters/Hannah McKay Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town A pile of antlers on a ski sled Reuters/Hannah McKay Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town An aerial view shows snow-covered mountains in Svalbard, Norway, August 3, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay SEARCH "SVALBARD CLIMATE" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES. HANNAH MCKAY Reuters/Hannah McKay Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town White wooden gravestones at risk of landslides due to the thawing permafrost underneath the ground, stand at the side of a mountain in the Longyearbyen cemetery Reuters/Hannah McKay Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town A man looks at rugs for sale in a store in town Reuters/Hannah McKay Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town A miner works inside the Gruve 7 mine, the only remaining operational coal mine on Svalbard Reuters/Hannah McKay Climate change in the world's fastest-warming town Children play at the skatepark in town Reuters/Hannah McKay

Ms Thunberg has said she does not believe she can convince Mr Trump or other climate change doubters that global warming is real, but hopes they will take briefings from actual scientists and experts in this area.

Her trip to the US comes as the United Nations is set to hold a climate action summit in New York this month, where she has been invited to deliver a speech on 23 September.

Days before that, she is set to testify before the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee and the select committee about the climate crisis, having been invited to Capitol Hill by Democrats.

Speaking on the TV show Democracy Now! this week, the 16-year-old said: “We are striking to disrupt the system.”

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Ms Thunberg has refused to fly for years, citing the large carbon footprint associated with that form of travel, and has said she is not sure when she might return to Europe.