Greta Thunberg, the Swedish schoolgirl who began speaking out on global warming at the age of 15 has inspired an international movement to fight climate change. She was named the 2019 Person of the Year by《TIME》and was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in the same year.
Greta motivates global warming campaign
The schoolgirl, who thinks the current climate is extremely dangerous, decided that she doesn’t want to live in dangerous conditions. Instead of going to school, she chose to take action.
She carried some flyers, made a large sign that read ‘SCHOOL STRIKE FOR CLIMATE’, and calmly sat down outside the Swedish parliament. Greta, who understands the importance of social media, posted photos on Twitter and Instagram throughout the day. She started to gain traction — a couple of journalists and newspapers even came to see her outside parliament that day.
Who is Greta Thunberg?
Greta Thunberg is an environmental activist. She was born in Stockholm, Sweden. Her mother is an opera singer; her father is an actor. Although neither of her parents has a background in environmentalism, her parents did teach her to be responsible for the environment and practice environmental protection in their daily lives, doing things such as turning off lights and not wasting water. Greta is smart and sensitive. She likes to read and think. Sometimes she feels like an adult. The seeds of environmental awareness sprouted early in Greta’s mind.
Greta has Asperger syndrome — a condition that affects social behavior, and one that Greta views as her “superpower”.
Gaining more traction by using social media
One day in August 2018, Greta Thunberg skipped school to protest outside the Swedish Parliament. Greta’s strike was picked up by the Swedish media, and the word started to spread. Soon enough, tens of thousands of students from around the world joined her #FridaysforFuture strikes-skipping school on Fridays to protest against climate change. The aim? To make politicians take notice and act to stop global warming.
Greta took a year-long absence from school in 2019 and continued to strive for more support for global warming. She attended major international climate conferences and took part in student protests around the world. She gave a speech at the United Nations Global Climate Action Summit in New York and even met The Prince of Wales at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Greta’s charisma became evident when, upon her arrival in the United States, millions of people around the world came together to take part in climate demonstrations. Speaking at the United Nations Climate Summit, she blasted politicians for letting down her entire generation by not acting on climate change. Calling them out for passing the buck and leaving it to the younger generation to find the answers to this global crisis.
Major governments and enterprises around the world acted way too slowly to cut carbon emissions and criticized world leaders for failing to live up to the expectations of young people. Initially, her aims focused on the Swedish government’s climate targets and called on students from around the world to ask their governments to cut emissions.
However, as she gained more and more traction, she started to call on governments all over the world to do more to reduce global emissions. She asked banks, enterprises, and governments to stop investing in and subsidizing fossil fuels, such as oil, coal, and gas.
As young as Greta is, as a climate activist, she has great ambition. She is full of charisma as a leader, not only focusing on her future environment but also using her unique methods to fight cliché issues that adults have failed to solve. In her novel way, Greta has sparked a movement.
