Sixteen-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has made it her mission to lower greenhouse
gas emissions and make the world a greener, more sustainable place.
"This is not a drill.
My name is Greta Thunberg.
We are living in the beginning of a mass extinction."
The young pioneer has galvanized youths and sharply criticized world leaders for failing
to take climate change seriously.
Here is the untold truth of Greta Thunberg.
Anyone who's ever listened to Greta Thunberg probably knows that she'll tell you:
"I don't want you to listen to me, I want you to listen to the scientists."
According to The Guardian, Thunberg has been listening to climate scientists since she
was eight years old.
Stunned by the apparent indifference of adults and consumed by concerns about the future,
she later fell into a deep depression.
It's important to note that Thunberg has Asperger's syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder often
characterized by social awkwardness, difficulty interpreting social cues, and an obsessive
preoccupation with a particular interest.
As Thunberg told The Guardian:
"I overthink.
Some people can just let things go, but I can't, especially if there’s something that
worries me or makes me sad."
In school, videos of starving polar bears and pollution reduced her to tears.
She soon stopped going to school and even stopped eating.
She recalled in an interview with Dazed:
"I almost starved to death."
Eventually, Thunberg concluded that
"The best medicine against that concern and sadness is to do something about it, to try
to make a change."
She started by convincing her parents to become more climate-conscious.
She bombarded them with graphs, and got them to watch documentaries and read books.
As she puts it:
"I made them feel so guilty."
Little by little, that strategy worked.
Thunberg's mother, a popular opera singer, ultimately quit traveling by plane and her
father became a vegetarian.
Some of Greta Thunberg's conservative critics have attempted to discredit her by bringing
up her Asperger's syndrome and her past struggles with depression.
The Times Union reported that Maxime Bernier, head of the People's Party of Canada, claimed:
"[She's] clearly mentally unstable.
Not only autistic, but obsessive-compulsive, [suffers from an] eating disorder, depression
and lethargy and she lives in a constant state of fear."
Meanwhile, Daily Wire podcaster Michael Knowles went after Thunberg on Fox News, calling her
"A mentally ill Swedish child who is being exploited by her parents."
A Fox spokesperson has since told The Hollywood Reporter that Knowles will never be invited
back as a guest on the network due to this comment.
Meanwhile, Thunberg certainly doesn't see her Asperger's as a disadvantage — and she
doesn't mince words when it comes to her detractors.
As she wrote on Twitter:
"When haters go after your looks and differences, it means they have nowhere left to go.
And then you know you’re winning!
I have Aspergers and that means I’m sometimes a bit different from the norm.
And - given the right circumstances- being different is a superpower."
Civil rights icon Rosa Parks once said that
"Each person must live their life as a model for others."
Greta Thunberg says she is inspired by Parks, explaining to Rolling Stone:
"I learned she was an introvert, and I'm also an introvert."
'It's not just extroverts, we introverts can make our voices heard.'"
Thunberg's life was very different in 2018.
As she told The Guardian,
"Nothing really was happening in my life.
I have always been that girl in the back who doesn't say anything.
I thought I couldn't make a difference because I was too small."
In summer 2018, Thunberg spoke out about climate change in a huge way.
That summer, forest fires turned parts of the Swedish landscape into a sweltering hellscape
amid a record-setting heatwave.
Thunberg wanted to make parliament take notice in the lead-up to the national elections.
She found inspiration in the Parkland, Florida students who led a nationwide school walkout
to protest the epidemic of school shootings and gun violence engulfing the U.S.
As she told The Guardian, she started by making a protest sign:
“I painted the sign on a piece of wood and, for the flyers, wrote down some facts I thought
everyone should know.
And then I took my bike to the parliament and just sat there.
The first day, I sat alone from about 8.30am to 3pm – the regular schoolday.
And then on the second day, people started joining me.”
In September 2019, Thunberg and a number of other young activists really went the extra
mile.
According to The Conversation,
"With 15 other children, Greta Thunberg has filed a UN complaint against 5 countries."
Those countries are France, Germany, Turkey, Argentina, and Brazil.
And the young activists — whose ages range from 9 to 17-years-old — aren't looking
for a payday.
Instead, they want to force these five countries — in cooperation with other nations — to
set legally binding emission reduction targets.
"I hope it will have a good outcome.
But we also have to prepare ourselves for the worst."
The legal framework that allowed the activists to even attempt this complaint is laid out
in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The convention requires participating countries to act within the best interest of children
when taking any legislative action which concerns their well-being.
According to UNICEF:
"Children will bear the brunt of climate change"
as droughts and extreme weather events increase and diseases spread more rapidly.
According to Time,
"Castigating the powerful has become routine [for Greta Thunberg]."
Since her ascension to the world stage, she's traveled far and wide to warn world leaders
about how far behind they are on preventing an impending climate disaster.
She's spoken to the UK Parliament, to the U.S. Congress, and at a climate conference
in Poland.
And when she speaks, she doesn't mince words.
During a fiery speech at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Thunberg asserted:
"Our house is on fire."
She then proceeded to verbally torch the billionaires in attendance for focusing on wealth at the
planet's expense.
In the United States, she famously tore into the United Nations, her eyes blazing with
urgency:
"How dare you!
You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words."
Elsewhere in the speech, she said:
"All you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth."
She also warned that
"The eyes of all future generations are upon you and if choose to fail us, I say we will
never forgive you."
While she certainly has her fair share of detractors, many high-profile figures listened
to her words and encouraged her to keep speaking.
Pope Francis praised her efforts, met Thunberg in person, and reportedly told her:
"God bless you, continue to work, continue.
Go along, go ahead."
Meanwhile, she also had a memorable meetup with Barack Obama in September 2019:
"You and me, we're a team.
Do you know about fist bumping?
Do you believe in fist bumping?"
"Yes."
Greta Thunberg's efforts to counteract rising global temperatures have angered some right-wing
media figures.
In fact, Media Matters took the time to compile a list of some of her biggest detractors.
Steve Milloy, who was part of Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency transition
team, tweeted:
"Greta the Climate Puppet leads a twisted cult."
Meanwhile, Fox News host Laura Ingraham likened Thunberg to a character from Children of the
Corn.
"I can't wait for Stephen King's sequel, Children of the Climate."
As The Guardian reports, Greta Thunberg certainly practices what she preaches.
For one thing, she maintains a vegan diet, and as Oxford University researcher Joseph
Poore concluded:
"A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth,
not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use."
Thunberg also walks the walk with the smallest carbon footprint she can reasonably manage.
When traveling long distances on land, she exclusively uses trains, which is generally
considered far more environmentally friendly than air travel.
According to Business Insider, Thunberg took a 65-hour round trip train ride between Switzerland
and Sweden in 2019.
When she needed to cross the ocean to visit the United States, she traveled on a solar-powered,
zero-emissions yacht — and according to CBS, it had no kitchen, bathroom, refrigerator,
or heater.
"It is insane that a sixteen-year old would have to cross the Atlantic Ocean to make a
stand."
When pressed about whether she would try to change President Donald Trump's mind about
climate change, Greta Thunberg told reporters:
"I mean, my message to him is just, listen to the science and he obviously doesn't do
that."
She went on to add:
"If no one has been able to convince him about the climate crisis and the urgency, why would
I be able to?"
Thunberg's stance is understandable.
In 2012, Trump tweeted that,
"The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S.
manufacturing non-competitive."
As president, Trump has uprooted green policies put in place by Barack Obama.
In September 2019, the Independent reported that:
"[Trump has] rolled back or attempted to roll back 85 environmental regulations."
Those regulations include rules designed to protect people from asbestos, air pollution,
unclean water, and lead paint.
Trump might not listen to science, but he apparently listened to Thunberg's UN speech.
In response, he tweeted:
"She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future.
So nice to see!"
Thunberg responded with some irony, temporarily changing her Twitter bio to read:
"[I'm] a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future."
It can't be easy pushing for a greener world, especially when others push back.
The road gets rougher when you enter the realm of politics.
Success often feels like a long shot.
As Greta Thunberg told Dazed in May 2019,
"Of course it's difficult to think about the climate crisis, but that is not an excuse
for not doing anything.
Even if there's no hope, we have to do everything in our power to stop this."
Despite the size of the challenge — and despite her many detractors — Thunberg has
continued to soldier forward.
That's one of the many reasons she's been nominated for a Nobel Prize … and why the
Right Livelihood Foundation awarded Greta Thunberg an award of their own creation: an
"alternative Nobel Prize."
In a statement, the foundation explained that,
"[She won the award] for inspiring and amplifying political demands for urgent climate action
reflecting scientific facts."
According to CBS, that prize comes with $103,000 in cash.
Upon accepting the honor, Thunberg said in a statement,
"I'm deeply grateful for being one of the recipients of this great honor.
But of course, whenever I receive an award, it is not me who is the winner.
I am part of a global movement of school children, youth and adults of all ages who have decided
to act in defense of our living planet.
I share this award with them."
In 2019, Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced her Green New Deal
resolution, which says that
"It is the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal [...] to achieve
net-zero greenhouse gas emissions through a fair and just transition for all communities
and workers."
The resolution also claims the United States has a responsibility to provide clean air
and clean water, among other things.
Donald Trump promptly responded by firing off a sarcastic tweet:
"I think it is very important for the Democrats to press forward with their Green New Deal.
It would be great for the so-called “Carbon Footprint” to permanently eliminate all
Planes, Cars, Cows, Oil, Gas & the Military - even if no other country would do the same.
Brilliant!"
Some publications have suggested that Greta Thunberg also objects to the resolution.
In September 2019, The Atlantic reported that,
"[Greta Thunberg] rejects specific policy proposals such as the Green New Deal, instructing
politicians instead to 'listen to the science."
Meanwhile, Forbes reported that, during Thunberg's speech to Congress,
"No one seemed to notice Greta Thunberg’s critique of the Green New Deal [...]. Though
Thunberg did not utter the words 'Green New Deal,' she characterized partisan efforts
that envision an idealized future as unhelpful dreams."
But these analyses might be missing the mark.
When Thunberg spoke to Congress, she was urging them to listen to scientists, not just her,
and calling for swift action to be taken.
She wasn't calling out a specific piece of legislation.
In fact, the Green New Deal literally cites climate science in the text.
In the United States, the policy proposal is one of the boldest steps yet toward prioritizing
a proactive response to climate change, so of course she would support it.
Incidentally, Thunberg actually met Ocasio-Cortez in person in September 2019, and they clearly
got along very well.
In a far-ranging conversation published in The Guardian, Thunberg told the congresswoman:
"Thank you so much for standing up and offering hope to so many people, even here in Sweden."
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