The Swedish teenager Greta thunberg It has lectured the leaders of the world, it has demanded that they take urgent action to curb the impact of climate change.
The young woman’s activism has drawn attention to the critical climate situation of the planet, inspiring thousands of teens around the world. With frank and direct words in important forums and parliaments, he has bothered rulers, politicians and leaders, exposing his inaction.
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Who is Greta Thunberg?
Greta Thunberg began her movement on August 20, 2018, when she was just 15 years old. Sweden was experiencing a summer with record high temperatures
that caused more than 50 forest fires that destroyed 20 thousand hectares. It was their motivation to protest, accompanied only by a handwritten sign that read “skolstrejk för klimatet” (school strike for climate change).
He stood in front of the Swedish parliament headquarters in Stockholm to demand that the country comply with the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Her parents believed that the girl’s strike would not last long. Greta Thunberg showed them how persistent she would be to defend their cause. He demonstrated for seven hours every day until the Swedish general elections on September 9. After that date, he decided to do just one day of strike, every Friday he skips classes to continue raising awareness about the problem of climate change. “What is the use of learning if we are not going to have a future?”She asked those who questioned her about her absence from school.
Greta Thunberg’s lonely protest began to have resonance thanks to her posts on social media. Environmental organizations supported it, the media became interested and the strike began to be replicated by teenagers in other parts of the world. It became a global movement that every Friday brings together young people in 300 cities around the planet.
The teenager is not affiliated with any organization, but is the inspiration for platforms such as Fridays For Future, Juventud X el Clima and Extinction Rebellion.
With the impulse of these movements, the world student strike for the climate was carried out on March 15, 2019. There were rallies in more than a thousand cities in dozens of countries, supported by environmental organizations.
Greta Thunberg before world leaders
Greta thunberg
has Asperger’s syndrome (autism spectrum syndrome), and was also diagnosed with selective mutism. Both conditions have not prevented him from speaking in public to world leaders. He has done so by frankly telling them that his policies have compromised the future of youth, and that there is no time to waste. He has told them to consider the solutions proposed by scientists and to take action once and for all to tackle climate change.
Her first public speech was at a TedTalk in Stockholm, then she was invited to speak at the United Nations Climate Summit in Katowice, Poland.
In 2019, already 16 years old, the activist has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and before European leaders in Brussels and Strasbourg. To these and other cities, The adolescent has traveled by train, as she does not travel by plane to reduce her carbon footprint.
In the speeches and statements of Greta Thunberg the phrases stand out:
- “I am protesting climate change, because nobody seems to care what is happening. Nobody seems to be doing something. “
- “I don’t want you to be hopeful, I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear that I feel every day. And then I want you to act ”.
- “Our house is on fire, I am here to say that our house is on fire.”
- “Around the year 2030, we will have unleashed an irreversible chain reaction that will escape all human control, surely ending our civilization as we know it.”
- “I think it is hypocritical to travel in private jets to a place where they are going to talk about the climate crisis.”
- “You cannot be ‘a little sustainable’, you are sustainable or you are not.”
- “When I am old enough to be a politician, it will be too late to act.”
- “The essential problem is that nothing is being done to stop, or even reduce, the climate and ecological collapse.”
- “I want to challenge those companies and those who make decisions to real and bold climate action.”
- “Since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have to take responsibility that they should have taken a long time ago.”
Shocked by climate change
Greta Thunberg is the daughter of Malena Ernman, a renowned opera singer, and Svante Thunberg, an actor and producer. He has a younger sister, Beata Thunberg.
According to the teenager herself, At the age of eight, he heard about climate change for the first time. At their school, the teacher explained what it was and what its consequences were. He was moved by the videos he showed them, where polar bears were seen about to die, and the impact of plastic on the oceans.
The girl began to question that no one spoke of the danger of climate change. If the problem is of such magnitude that it threatens human existence itself, he wondered why rulers and leaders do not talk about it.
Her concern for the weather has been with her ever since and was one of the causes of the depression she suffered. When I was eleven. He stopped going to school and lost ten kilos in just two months. During this period, he reflected with his family about his concerns about climate change and what he could do about it. He concluded that he could act and make a difference.
Greta Thunberg has certainly made a difference. It is the symbol of a generation that wants to raise awareness in the world about how compromised the future of the planet is due to climate change.
In 2018 Greta Thunberg was named by Time magazine in the group of the 25 most influential young people in the world. The recognition did not stop there. In 2019 Time included her in the list of the 100 most influential people on the planet. “Greta is inspiring tough students and shaming listless adults,” the magazine noted.