Greta Thunberg - Her Claim to Fame

A teenaged girl from Sweden, she has propelled herself towards the cause of climate change, with a momentum and focus worthy of a seasoned, successful and strong activist. At a young age of 16, her drive and fearless activism, to the extent of staging a demonstration alone, have made her a youth icon. She is now formally an environmental activist, winning honours and attending UN meetings. Although she had been trying to raise her voice for saving the environment previously as well, one incident provided the thrust and put the spotlight on her in the international arena. In August 2018, failed persuasions to involve others did not deter her, and when nobody was ready to accompany her, she herself staged a demonstration outside the Swedish Parliament, proclaiming the need for stronger and more urgent action to save the climate. With this event, she began her first ‘School Strike for Climate’ in front of the Swedish Parliament, which is now an international movement against climate change.

Her Work and Efforts

Thunberg in front of the Swedish parliament, holding a School strike for the climate sign, Stockholm, August 2018. Bicycle in Stockholm with references to Thunberg: ‘The climate crisis must be treated as a crisis! The climate is the most important election issue!’ 

She had been sensitive to, and aware of, the issue of climate change, and won an essay competition, organised by a Swedish newspaper called Svenska Dagbladet, on climate change in May 2018. Winning the essay shows how keenly she understood and felt for the issue. In the essay, she termed the climate situation as the biggest crisis in human history that made her, and her generation, feel unsafe. Simultaneously, she had followed the actions of some students in United States of America – Agitated by shootings in schools in USA, a lot of students, in February 2018, had declined to go to school and organised a march to demand stricter gun control. This inspired Greta to have the idea of mobilising students to go on strike! She wanted students to refuse to attend school in protest of climate change.

Her prize-winning essay was published by the newspaper and that brought her in the notice of some people and organisations. Fossil Free Dalsland, a group working towards saving the climate, invited Thunberg to participate in some of their meetings. This brought her in some contact with how other like-minded people were working and she made her first attempts to mobilise people to participate in a strike. Her idea did not gain much popularity, but undaunted, she decided to go ahead anyway. This is when it all began, and then there was no turning back, either for Thunberg, or for the world! Thunberg could not be ignored anymore!

Timing

The pertinence and relevance of her act, when juxtaposed on the environmental situation and climatic events then, was magnified manifold. Summers in Sweden that year, in 2018, were marred by heatwaves and wildfires. They were also the hottest in more than 250 years, stressing the extent of damage to the climate and an urgent wake-up call. The Swedish general elections were also about to take place and Thunberg wanted the government to take strict action to reduce carbon emissions as per the Paris Agreement. Hence, the timing of her three-week protest during school hours every day, was very apt.

She continued her protests outside the parliament even after the elections, staging them once a week, on Fridays, instead of everyday. This kept the momentum going and was a constant reminder for the government.

Social Media to Spread the Word

Being aware of the power of social media, Thunberg used this method also to try and mobilise people. She posted her photo of protesting outside the Parliament on Instagram, Twitter and other platforms. Her hopes for outreach were soon answered and lots of users recognised her act, began following her and themselves shared her photos further on the internet, maximising outreach. Some NGOs, activists, journalists and photographers reached the site of her protest, met her, and shared more photos and write-ups about her work and demands. This brought much more attention and recognition for what she was doing. A company called We Don’t Have Time (WDHT), whose founder had met her at the site, posted her video on their website. This video had as many as 88,000 viewers in a short span of time. Thunberg’s own Twitter account had reached 200,000 followers.

Local reporters too published stories on her, which were internationally distributed. Her idea of protest and school strike, which was earlier not supported by others, now was recognised as a powerful method. They now wanted to join her!

Her Followers and Supporters

By December 2018, her school strikes had reached 270 cities with over 20,000 students participating in them! This data shows the wildfire support she received after the initial hitch. It was her determination to pave the road alone anyway that ultimately won the battle! Students across the world were now participating in school strikes and knew the name ‘Greta Thunberg’.

Besides these strikes, she was now invited on international and powerful forums, to talk about the issue of climate change and her demands. She gave public speeches across Europe and thus mobilised even more people. Even the Secretary-General of United Nations supported and recognized her cause. 224 academicians signed an open letter that supported the school strikes, recognising that students had a right to make their voices heard, especially when adults had failed them in securing a safe and clean future for them. This was a turning point, where her protests shifted from highlighting the issue to actually getting something done regarding the issue. The support had reached the centres of governing bodies, that could make international decisions and strategies to safeguard the climate. All this had happened by February 2019.

In June 2019, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who had submitted the Green New Deal to the U.S. House of Representatives, and Thunberg had a discussion through a video link. Two like-minded icons were now connected to each other. They both felt the lack of representation of voice of youth, and they discussed strategies for outreach.

Speech On Climate Summit at UN

‘You Have Stolen My Dreams and My Childhood’: Greta Thunberg Gives Powerful Speech at UN Climate Summit. The most recent of her efforts was an impassioned and strong speech at the United Nations during the Climate Action Summit on September 23, 2019. The jist of her speech was that adults were at fault for the current situation of the environment and now they had no right to appeal to the youth and children to save the world for them. Repeating the words “How dare you?” four times, she implored the adults to urgently do something themselves instead of coming to young people for hope to correct the faults of adults.

Her speech was not just based on feelings and emotion, it was also backed by clear scientific data, with more than 30 years of research used to make her point about the causes and effects of global warming. She made it clear that it was the prerogative of the politicians to work on this, especially when they were well aware of the facts. She informed all the high-profile people present that all young people knew that adults were to be blamed for the situation and that the adults were not doing anything about it.

Setting an Example

Although she is telling the politicians and all adults to do their duty towards the environment, she herself is not backing out from walking the talk herself. She is going to travel to the United States of America, not by flight, but by a sailboat, one of the most non-polluting and energy-efficient modes of travel over such long distances. Through her actions she wants to make a point and provide solutions for the current predicament regarding global warming.

She is popularising another concept – ‘Flygskam’ i.e. ‘shame of flying’. Yet again she is using social media and Google trends informs us that it is working well. People are catching on to these words that Thunberg is adding on as hashtags. Another one is ‘Tagskryt’, which implies ‘being proud of using the train’.

She needs to travel to the US for her address at the UN, and this is the mode she is using, trying to be most carbon-neutral, even packing freeze-dried vegan food, that can be prepared easily. With her food choice, even young people may take it as a message to make responsible choices. Her boat is designed to have engines, but they will be used only in the case of an emergency, otherwise using the power of wind on the sails of her boat. Hence, no motor will be used unless there is an emergency. Moreover, the backup engines will not be powered by fossil fuels. All aspects of the journey, such as safety measures, backup vessels, docking etc. have been planned in such as way that are as carbon-neutral as possible. There will be no backup vessels, only backup engines, which too will not be powered by fossil fuels. It is expected that this journey itself will attract a lot of media attention, and she would have made her point even before her actual address at the United Nations!

Her Parents

Her mother, Sara Magdalena ‘Malena’ Ernman (born 4 November 1970) is a Swedish opera singer as well as an actor, hence of an artistic and creative nature. She has been good in her field of work, representing her country at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009. However, her daughter’s convictions were strong enough to motivate even her to support her daughter and leave her prolific career of the world of opera, as the aviation involved negatively affected the environment.

Her father, Svante Thunberg (born 10 June 1969) is a Swedish author, arts manager and producer, and actor, hence, like her mother, also of creative and artistic nature. He too has joined his daughter in her efforts and will be sailing with her to the US.

Greta Thunberg Quotes

Narrating what she is doing, sharing her stories, is powerful, but not as powerful and moving as listening to or reading her own words! Following are some of her quotes, clearly driving home her message:

1. ‘I will instead let them know change is coming whether they like it or not.’
2. ‘For 25 years, countless people have come to the U.N. climate conferences begging our world leaders to stop emissions, and clearly that has not worked as emissions are continuing to rise. So I will not beg the world leaders to care for our future’
3. ‘For way too long, the politicians and the people in power have gotten away with not doing anything at all to fight the climate crisis and the ecological crisis’
4. ‘We need to get angry and understand what is at stake. And then we need to transform that anger into action and to stand together united and just never give up.’
5. ‘I don’t see myself as a leader, or icon, or the face of a movement.’
6. ‘Many people say that Sweden is just a small country, and it doesn’t matter what we do, but I have learned you are never too small to make a difference.’
7. ‘You don’t listen to science because you are only interested in solutions that will enable you to carry on like before. Like now. And those answers don’t exist anymore.’
8. ‘You lied to us. You gave us false hope. You told us that the future was something to look forward to. And the saddest thing is that most children are not even aware of the fate that awaits us.’
9. ‘For way too long, the politicians and the people in power have gotten away with not doing anything to fight the climate crisis, but we will make sure that they will not get away with it any longer. We are striking because we have done our homework and they have not.’
10. ‘We showed that we are united and that we, young people, are unstoppable.’

Criticisms for Her

By August 2019, Scientific American was reporting that Thunberg’s detractors have ‘launched personal attacks’, ‘bash (her) autism’, and ‘increasingly rely on ad hominem attacks to blunt her influence.’ Swedish opinion writer Paulina Neuding invoked mental health issues to question the idea that Thunberg should be leading climate change activism.

Writing in The Guardian, Aditya Chakrabortty said that columnists including Brendan O’Neill, Toby Young, the blog Guido Fawkes, as well as Helen Dale and Rod Liddle at The Spectator and The Sunday Times had been making ‘ugly personal attacks’ on Thunberg. As part of its climate change denial, Germany’s right wing Alternative for Germany party has attacked Thunberg ‘in fairly vicious ways’, according to Jakob Guhl, a researcher for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. British businessman Arron Banks released a post on Twitter appearing to wish harm upon Thunberg as she began her transatlantic voyage warning that ‘Freak yachting accidents do happen in August’.

Banks’ comments outraged a number of MPs (Member of Parliament), celebrities and academics. Tanja Bueltmann, founder of EU Citizens’ Champion, said Banks had ‘invoked the drowning of a child’ for his own amusement, and noted that most of those attacking Thunberg ‘are white middle-aged men from the right of the political spectrum’. Writing in The Guardian, Gaby Hinsliff, said Thunberg has become ‘the new front in the Brexit culture war’ arguing that the outrage generated by personal attacks on Thunberg by Brexiteers ‘gives them the welcome oxygen of publicity’. British philosopher Julian Baggini said ‘thuggish’ personal criticisms of Thunberg are indicative of ‘a moral and intellectual bankruptcy’.

Essayist Steve Silberman, writing in Vox, points out that being on the autism spectrum enables Thunberg to be fearless in her rhetoric. In an interview with Suyin Haynes in Time magazine, she addressed the criticism she has received online saying: ‘It’s quite hilarious when the only thing people can do is mock you, or talk about your appearance or personality, as it means they have no argument or nothing else to say.’

Amazing Fact to Conclude

At 16, she would be the youngest recipient of the $930,000 award won by the likes of Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter and Mikhail Gorbachev. She would be the first to win the prize for environmental work since former U.S. vice president Al Gore shared it in 2007 for raising awareness of climate change.   

Works Cited

1. Thunberg, G. (2018). Winning the essay competition: On climate change. Svenska Dagbladet.
2. Chakrabortty, A. (2019). Greta Thunberg has become a pin-up for leftists and neurotypicals alike. The Guardian.
3. Silberman, S. (2019). Greta Thunberg speaks fearlessly about autism. Vox.