Greta Thunberg turns 18: how the climate activist became an icon

Greta Thunberg turns 18: how the climate activist became an icon

In recent years, no teenager has been more in the limelight of world public opinion than Greta Thunberg. Now the young Swede is coming of age, but he remains a role model for millions of children around the world.

Over and over again Greta Thunberg pointed out that it could not be the responsibility of children to save the earth from impending climate catastrophe. “I am too young for this. We children shouldn’t have to do that, ”the young Swede said on Facebook in early 2019 when online hatred and conspiracy theories against her first came to a head. Or shortly thereafter in the British House of Commons: “I know many of you don’t want to listen to us, you say we are just children. But we are simply repeating the message of unified climate science, ”he said.

Thunberg is no longer a child. The world famous climate activist will turn 18 on Sunday. In Sweden, too, this is associated with coming of age and a number of rights: driving alone, for example, getting married, and choosing what will be particularly important to you. “Every election is a climate election,” Thunberg has often said. You can now cast your own vote, including in the upcoming Swedish parliamentary elections in late summer 2022.

In the fight against the climate crisis, which he literally sat at the helm in the summer of 2018, nothing changes for Thunberg when he comes of age. She continues to insist that the climate and environmental crisis must be treated as a real crisis, immediately. “The most important thing is to understand that we have to reduce emissions in the here and now, not in 2025, 2030 or whatever. The emissions we are causing now determine our future, “he recently told the Swedish newspaper” Svenska Dagbladet “. Even if you can withdraw at any time, you cannot think of doing so:

The Stockholm native, who was born on January 3, 2003, has been concerned about the issue of climate change for a long time. According to his own statements, he first heard about environmental degradation and global warming when he was eight years old. This led to worries that resulted in depression in childhood.

It started with a piece of wood

In the summer of 2018, she and her father bought a piece of wood on which she wrote “Skolstrejk för klimatet” (school strike for the climate) in big black letters. At the beginning of the new school year, the then 15-year-old girl crouched in front of the Reichstag in Stockholm to call on Swedish politics to strengthen climate protection and follow the Paris climate targets. As a sign of the urgency of his concern, Thunberg skipped school, initially every day, then only on Fridays.

His action quickly spread on social media. The Fridays for Future climate movement emerged, and Thunberg’s solo silent protest unfolded over months, with large international protests in which millions of people around the world took to the streets in search of greater climate protection, following suit. of Thunberg. And the girl, not even 1.60 meters tall, proved: “No one is too small to make a difference.” No one is too small to make a difference.

Since then, no one has raised the profile of environmental and climate issues as effectively as the teenager from Stockholm. No one has become such a great role model for millions of people, mainly young people around the world, and hardly anyone has been inundated with so much hatred and insults, especially on the Internet.

These experiences have also shaped Thunberg. Now strongly protect your privacy. Interviews with her have gotten weirder, and when they do, she cautions to focus on climate issues rather than on her as a person: rising temperatures, more violent natural disasters, rising sea levels. That’s what it’s supposed to be about.

Now she is using her fame more to draw attention to the struggle of other climate protectors, Vanessa Nakate from Uganda, for example, or fellow campaigners in the Philippines or South America.

Thunberg is actually reserved, has a calm voice and a subliminal sense of humor, for example when talking about Donald Trump. She has Asperger’s, a form of autism that she describes as a benefit. To them, many things are simply black or white, and there is often no middle ground for them, he says. In relation to the impending climate catastrophe, this means: A little global savings is simply not possible. “There are no gray areas when it comes to survival.” And so Thunberg launched into the climate fight in full force for years.

Corona slowed down climate academies

In 2019, the climate protests it inspired reached their climax for the time being, in 2020 this was temporarily limited by Corona. Thunberg kept fighting. I met Angela Merkel in the summer to speak to the Chancellor about EU climate policy with close colleagues such as Luisa Neubauer from Germany and Anuna from Wever and Adélaïde Charlier from Belgium. Thunberg made a special trip to Berlin for this, immediately before starting his high school at home in Stockholm after a year out of school, during which he had sailed to the United States for his climate fight.

To this day, Thunberg has not been able to capture everyone with his message. His vegan lifestyle, which forgoes new clothes and air travel, is too radical for some. But even if you don’t agree with everything Thunberg says or does, you should admire her courage and determination, her fellow Swede Björn Ulvaeus, the Abba star, once said about her. Thunberg was “like a deeply thoughtful, defiant Pippi Longstocking,” she said. “I think Astrid Lindgren would have liked Greta.” (aargauerzeitung.ch)