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In this article, Julia Wilson discusses the environmental activist, global sensation, and the youngest person ever to receive Time's Person of the Year: Greta Thunberg.
greta thunberg
greta thunberg
By Julia Wilson
By Julia Wilson
There are countless significant environmental activists, but arguably one of the most notable is 19-year-old Greta Thunberg. The Swedish advocate is widely known for challenging world leaders to take instant measures of action toward climate change mitigation. In 2019, at just 16 years old, she became the youngest person ever to receive the title of Time’s Person of the Year, breaking the record 24-year-old Charles Lindbergh had held since 1927. Thunberg became a worldwide sensation in the blink of an eye, and inspired many people who were waiting for someone like her to challenge the system.
In Aug. of 2018, Thunberg started a global movement by camping out in front of the Swedish Parliament, grasping a white sign reading “School Strike for Climate''. Her yellow raincoat captured the scarce light in the fog-filled air, contrasting the sorrowful expression on her face. She was determined to make a difference, and she did. On the first day of her strike, she was alone, sitting on the cold pavement. On the next day, a kind stranger joined her strike-- a simple gesture, yet it changed everything. Over the next few days, a handful more came-- a small group of people protesting for what they believed in. First, it was one, then ten, then 40. Then thousands. Afterward, Thunberg inspired more than four million people to join a global climate strike on Sept. 20, 2019, which was the largest climate protest ever recorded. As stated by TIME, millions flooded the streets of Germany, Johannesburg, Papua New Guinea, London-- everywhere. The signs they held spread all throughout social media with one in London saying: “The World Is Hotter Than Young Leonardo DiCaprio”, and one in New York: “The Dinosaurs Thought They Had Time, Too”. Hundreds held signs with similar quotes, and even ones with Thunberg’s face plastered on poster boards. “Make the World Greta Again”, they said. People were angry, and she was just the spark.
From Vogue
From The Times
Even though Thunberg’s mindset is well beyond her years, she is barely even an adult. She loves horses and her dogs (Moses and Roxy), sweatpants and velcro sneakers, and makes matching bracelets to share with her younger sister. She often wears her golden brown hair pulled in two braids and is usually found in her blue hoodie or yellow raincoat. Even though she is young, her focus and demeanor portray a maturity years beyond her age. She speaks in direct, uncomplicated sentences, ignores small talk, and seemingly cannot be flattered or distracted. She does not seem to be impressed by celebrities, and pays no attention to her own growing fame. All of these factors may have helped to make her a global sensation, in part, perhaps, because she is so different from most celebrities. She is not the leader of any political party, a scientist, a billionaire, or anything that has access to traditional levels of influence. She is only a teenage girl, but her face has become a symbol of hope for millions. Somehow, she has become the most compelling voice of arguably the most important issue we will face in our lifetime: the climate crisis.
When she was eleven, Thunberg was diagnosed with several conditions, one being Asperger’s syndrome. She does not operate on the same emotional register as neurotypical people do, and that helps to explain why she has fixated so heavily on the climate. “I see the world in black and white, and I don’t like compromising,” she told TIME. She says she is grateful in some ways for her diagnosis because, without it, she would not be so focused on her goal. In the same year, Thunberg’s primary school teacher played a video for her class that showed starving polar bears, harsh weather, and flooding. Her teacher then explained that it was all happening because of climate change. Although her classmates were then able to move on, Thunberg fell into a severe depression, barely spoke for months, and ate so little she had to be hospitalized; her growth was stunted because of that time of malnutrition. Ever since then, Thunberg was determined to make a difference.
From Teen Vogue
From Complex
On another note, it seems relevant to mention that Thunberg also ended 2022 with "one of the greatest tweets in history", according to The Guardian. After Elon Musk bought Twitter, he reinstated many suspended accounts, one of them being the infamous social media personality, businessman, kickboxer, and professional misogynist, Andrew Tate. Tate sent a hostile tweet to Thunberg bragging about his massive sports car collection and said that if she gave him her email address, he would send her a list of all their emissions. Thunberg, then, replied with just nine words that clearly stung Tate so much he decided to reply with a video in an attempt to reassert his masculinity. Not long after, he and his brother were arrested by Romanian authorities for sex trafficking and other grisly allegations. It was later revealed that a Romanian pizza box shown in his video (maybe) helped the police to pinpoint his location. "This is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes", she tweeted a few days later. So, the 19-year-old environmental activist's tweet essentially caused Tate's arrest, strangely enough.
Greta Thunberg is a global sensation who inspires young people to rise up against climate change. She has been fighting with such urgency that she set a precedent for what needs to be done in order to save the planet before it is too late. While there is still a long way to go, Thunberg’s determination has inspired millions of people, and has challenged political leaders to rethink some of the damaging effects humans have on the planet. Now that it’s time for New Year's resolutions, what can you do to help the earth, big or small?
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