Greta Thunberg, a teenager from Sweden leading the global youth movement, who has been nominated for the global peace prize. Also honored as a Person of the Year in 2019 by The Times.
On 2oth AUG 2018, her action started as a solitary strike outside the Swedish parliament. Approximately a year later, around 7 Million people protested, in 6000 different locations, in 185 different countries. Sonner became the largest climate protest in history.
Subsequently, Greta Thunberg was invited to the United Nations Climate Action Summit. Where she gave a powerful, rousing speech, saying, “I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope.” How dare you?
A few years back before this all started. Greta Thunberg stated, that she became very depressed fall out of her school, and stayed home for almost a year. She doesn’t see any point in living because everything is just so wrong. She mentioned that she was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. This means she works in a big difference and sees things in black and white with a bit different perspective. Usually, Greta Thunberg doesn’t seem to enjoy social games which other people are so fond of. She focuses with laser intensity on an issue. And that is the climate issue.
She sits in front of the Swedish parliament every day continuously for three weeks, considering most people think Swedish is one of the most progressive when it comes to climate change. Most people from the parliament usually ignored her, but few appreciated her work. Some even brought food for her also some looked at her as an outsider.
As Greta Thunberg devoted her life to the issue of climate change, she refused to fly because of the carbon footprint left by the plane. Instead uses electric cars and sailboats to travel. She stopped eating meat and dairy products because of both ethical and ecological reasons. Also, she shop shopped which means don’t buy things unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Greta Thunberg was first taught about the climate crisis in the school and it was strange to her. Humans who are the animal species among others, could be capable of changing earth's climate but if it was the case, then we wouldn’t be talking about anything else. It would be our first priority.
Greta Thunberg got full support from her parents. Her father is a well-known actor and her Mother is also a well-known opera singer. And they both gave up their profession partially. Her parents realized and changed doing things that have made her daughter really happy. They stop flying and start caring about the climate. They have gone from non-vegetarian to vegan. In an interview, her father says, “Once you realize the situation, your life will change in every possible situation. And my daughter made me realize our house is falling apart.” I was so amazed I wasn’t aware of it. I was reading all the papers and stuff and just didn’t realize where we were at.
Greta Thunberg was 16 when she inspired millions to stand up for themselves. She understood everything was going in the wrong direction and now she had become a huge role model because she stood up for the climate and did something instead of just sitting around. Her words, “The climate crisis is the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced, and yet it has been ignored for decades. The older people usually say that we owe it to the young people to give them hope. But we don’t want you to be hopeful. We want you to panic. Some people don’t believe in climate crises and they don’t understand it’s real I have to say I understand them because in the beginning when I found out about it, I doubted it was true. But if it was true, we wouldn’t be talking about anything else.
It must be our priority, but it’s not.”
