GRETA THUNBERG

SHAHABAZ SIDHICK 35
AMANA PARVIN 4
• Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg born 3 January
2003 is a Swedish environmental activist who is known for
challenging world leaders to take immediate action for
climate change mitigation. Thunberg initially gained notice
for her youth and her straightforward speaking
manner,both in public and to political leaders and
assemblies, in which she criticises world leaders for their
failure to take what she considers sufficient action to
address the climate crisis.
• Thunberg's activism began by persuading her parents to adopt lifestyle choices that reduced their
own carbon footprint. In August 2018, at age 15, she started spending her school days outside the
Swedish Parliament to call for stronger action on climate change by holding up a sign reading
Skolstrejk för klimatet (School Strike for Climate). Soon other students engaged in similar protests in
their own communities. Together they organised a school climate strike movement under the name
Fridays for Future. After Thunberg addressed the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference,
student strikes took place every week somewhere in the world. In 2019, there were multiple
coordinated multi-city protests involving over a million students each. To avoid energy intensive
flying, Thunberg sailed to North America where she attended the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit.
Her speech there, in which she exclaimed "How dare you", was widely taken up by the press and
incorporated into music.
• Her sudden rise to world fame made her both a leader in the activist community and a target for
critics, especially due to her age. Her influence on the world stage has been described by The
Guardian and other newspapers as the "Greta effect". She received numerous honours and awards,
including an honorary Fellowship of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, inclusion in Time's 100
most influential people, being the youngest Time Person of the Year, inclusion in the Forbes list of The
World's 100 Most Powerful Women (2019), and three consecutive nominations for the Nobel Peace
Prize (2019–2021).
• Some of her main activist moments are strike at riksdag, social media activism, sabbatical year, UN
Climate action summit, autumn global climate strikes, participation at COP25, etc.
Strike at the Riksdag

• In August 2018, Thunberg began the school climate strikes and public speeches for which she has
become an internationally recognized climate activist. In an interview with Amy Goodman from
Democracy Now!, she said she first got the idea of a climate strike after school shootings in the
United States in February 2018 led to several youths refusing to go back to school.[17] These teen
activists at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, went on to organize the
March for Our Lives in support of greater gun control. In May 2018, Thunberg won a climate change
essay competition held by Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. In part, she wrote "I want to feel
safe. How can I feel safe when I know we are in the greatest crisis in human history?"

• After the paper published her article, she was contacted by Bo Thorén from Fossil Free Dalsland, a
group interested in doing something about climate change. Thunberg attended a few of their
meetings. At one of them, Thorén suggested that school children could strike for climate
change.Thunberg tried to persuade other young people to get involved but "no one was really
interested", so eventually she decided to go ahead with the strike by herself.
• On 20 August 2018, Thunberg, who had just started ninth grade, decided not to attend school until
the 2018 Swedish general election on 9 September; her protest began after the heat waves and
wildfires during Sweden's hottest summer in at least 262 years. Her demands were that the Swedish
government reduce carbon emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement, and she protested by
sitting outside the Riksdag every day for three weeks during school hours with the sign Skolstrejk för
klimatet (school strike for climate).

• Thunberg said her teachers were divided in their views about her missing class to make her point. She
says: "As people, they think what I am doing is good, but as teachers, they say I should stop.
Social media activism

• Thunberg posted a photo of her first strike day on Instagram and Twitter, with other social media
accounts quickly taking up her cause. High-profile youth activists amplified her Instagram post, and
on the second day she was joined by other activists. A representative of the Finnish bank Nordea
quoted one of Thunberg's tweets to more than 200,000 followers. Thunberg's social media profile
attracted local reporters whose stories earned international coverage in little more than a week.
• One Swedish climate-focused social media company was We Don't Have Time (WDHT), founded by
Ingmar Rentzhog. He said her strike only began attracting public attention after he turned up with a
freelance photographer and posted Thunberg's photograph on his Facebook page and Instagram
account, and a video in English that he posted on the company's YouTube channel. Rentzhog
subsequently asked Thunberg to become an unpaid youth advisor to WDHT. He then used her name
and image without her knowledge or permission to raise millions for a WDHT for-profit subsidiary, We
Don't Have Time AB, of which Rentzhog is the chief executive officer. Thunberg received no money
from the company and terminated her volunteer advisor role with WDHT once she realized they were
making money from her name.
• After October 2018, Thunberg's activism evolved from solitary protesting to taking part in
demonstrations throughout Europe; making several high-profile public speeches, and mobilizing her
growing number of followers on social media platforms. After the December 2018 general elections,
Thunberg continued to strike only on Fridays. She inspired school students across the globe to take
part in student strikes. That month, more than 20,000 students had held strikes in at least 270 cities.

• Thunberg spoke out against the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) 2020 and Joint
Entrance Examination 2020 entrance exams, which are being conducted in India in September. She
said that it is unfair for students to appear for exams in the middle of a global pandemic. She also said
that the students of India have been deeply impacted by the floods that hit states such as Bihar and
Assam, which cause mass destruction for the citizens.
• On 3 February 2021, Thunberg tweeted in support of the ongoing 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest.
Effigies of Thunberg were burned in Delhi by nationalists who were against the farmer protests;
activists were also critical about international interference in India's internal matters. Greta
Thunberg's tweet received criticism from the Indian government, which said that it was an internal
matter. In her initial tweet Thunberg linked to a document which provided a campaigning toolkit for
those who wanted to support the farmers' protest. This toolkit contained advice on hashtags and how
to sign petitions but also included suggested actions beyond those directly linked to the farmer's
protest. She soon deleted the tweet, saying the document was "outdated" and linked to an
alternative one to enable anyone unfamiliar with the ongoing farmers protests in India to better
understand the situation and make decisions on how to support the farmers based on their own
analysis.The 22-year-old Indian climate activist who edited the toolkit, Disha Ravi, was arrested under
the charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy on 16 February.
Position on climate change

• Thunberg asserts that humanity is facing an existential crisis because of global warming and
collectively holds her generation's former adults and current elders responsible for creating the
problem She uses graphic analogies (such as "our house is on fire") to highlight her concerns and
often speaks bluntly to business and political leaders about their failure to take concerted action.
• Thunberg has said that climate change will have a disproportionate effect on young people whose
futures will be profoundly affected. She argues that her generation may not have a future any more
because "that future was sold so that a small number of people could make unimaginable amounts of
money." She also has said that people in the Global South will suffer most from climate change, even
though they have contributed least in terms of carbon dioxide emissions. Thunberg has voiced
support for other young activists from developing countries who are already facing the damaging
effects of climate change. Speaking in Madrid in December 2019, she said: "We talk about our future,
they talk about their present."
• Speaking at international forums, she berates world leaders that too little action is being taken to
reduce global emissions. She says that lowering emissions is not enough, and says emissions need to
be reduced to zero if the world is to keep global warming to less than 1.5 °C. Speaking to the British
Parliament in April 2019, she said: "The fact that we are speaking of "lowering" instead of "stopping"
emissions is perhaps the greatest force behind the continuing business as usual."In order to take the
necessary action, she added that politicians should not listen to her, they should listen to what the
scientists are saying about how to address the crisis.
• More specifically, Thunberg has argued that commitments made at the Paris Agreement are
insufficient to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, and that the greenhouse gas emissions curve
needs to start declining steeply no later than 2020—as detailed in the IPCC's 2018 Special Report on
Global Warming of 1.5° C.In February 2019, at a conference of the European Economic and Social
Committee, she said that the EU's current intention to cut emissions by 40% by 2030 is "not sufficient
to protect the future for children growing up today" and that the EU must reduce their CO
• 2 emissions by 80%, double the 40% goal.
• Thunberg reiterated her views on political inaction in a November 2020 interview where she stated
"leaders are happy to set targets for decades ahead, but flinch when immediate action is needed."