GRETA THUNBERG

Greta Thunberg (Estocolmo, 3 de xaneiro de 2003) é unha activista polo clima que en agosto de 2018, cando tiña 15 anos, comezou a manifestarse fronte ao parlamento sueco, cun cartel no que escribiu “Folga escolar polo clima” que pedía accións máis contundentes ante a emerxencia climática. 

Greta comezou a aprender sobre o cambio climático cando tiña 8 anos, e non entendía por que se facía tan pouco ao respecto, o que lle causou unha depresión: aos 11 anos, deixou de comer e de falar con ninguén excepto cos seus familiares máis achegados, case ata o punto de precisar hospitalización. Máis adiante foi diagnosticada con síndrome de Asperger, trastorno obsesivo compulsivo e mutismo selectivo. Saíu a relucir que fora acosada sen piedade no colexio durante anos, e que outros nenos se burlaban dela e a atacaban por ser diferente. Empuxábana, tirábana ao chan, atraíana a lugares estraños, dábana de lado sistematicamente, e en ocasións conseguía agacharse chorando no baño ata que os profesores a obrigaban a saír ao patio outra vez. Os pais informaron ao colexio, pero eles culparon a Greta porque varios nenos repetiron que se comportaba de xeito estraño, falaba demasiado baixo e nunca saudaba. Finalmente cambiou de colexio; alí veu unha película sobre a contaminación no océano que tamén lle afectou profundamente.

Para ela, o activismo supuxo o camiño á súa recuperación, pois gradualmente volveu a comer, e comezou a aprender cunha extraordinaria motivación. Durante dous anos Greta tentou que a súa familia cambiase os seus hábitos para reducir o seu impacto ecolóxico, volvéndose veganos, reciclando e deixando de voar. Cando finalmente conseguiu que o fixeran, empezou a crer que sería capaz de cambiar as cousas.

A Greta ocorréuselle a idea de facer unha folga escolar despois dun tiroteo nunha escola de Florida en 2018, cando uns activistas adolescentes organizaron a manifestación “March For Our Lives” para conseguir un maior control de armas nos Estados Unidos. En maio dese ano, gañou un concurso de redacción sobre o cambio climático dun xornal sueco, e despois diso un grupo ecoloxista púxose en contacto con ela. Nunha das súas reunións, suxeríronlle que os estudantes podían facer unha folga escolar, e ela tentou involucrar a outros mozos sen conseguilo, polo que optou por facela ela soa.

Decidiu facer a folga sentando fronte ao parlamento tódolos días en horario escolar dende o 20 de agosto ata as eleccións xerais suecas do 9 de setembro de 2018, despois dun verán cheo de olas de calor e incendios incontrolados. A súa petición era que o goberno sueco reducira as súas emisións de carbono segundo o Acordo de París.

O primeiro día da folga puxo unha foto nas redes sociais, que foi compartida por xoves activistas de alto perfil, e o segundo día outros activistas uníronse a ela, o que daría lugar ao movemento Fridays For Future. Pronto a súa historia apareceu na prensa local e en menos dunha semana apareceu nos medios internacionais.

A partir de outubro, Greta comezou a participar en manifestacións por toda Europa, a dar discursos en público e a mobilizar aos seus seguidores nas redes sociais. Despois das eleccións xerais de setembro comezou a facer folga só os venres, inspirando a estudantes de todo o mundo a participar en folgas de estudantes. Ese mes, máis de 20.000 estudantes manifestáronse en máis de 270 cidades.

Greta deu un discurso na Conferencia das Nacións Unidas sobre o Cambio Climático de 2018 que deu a volta ao mundo. “¿Por que debería estudar para un futuro que pronto pode deixar de existir, cando ninguén está facendo nada para salvar ese futuro? ¿E que sentido ten aprender feitos cando os feitos máis importantes claramente non significan nada para a nosa sociedade? "

Na primeira metade de 2019 uniuse a varias protestas de estudantes en Europa, e foi convidada a falar en varios foros e parlamentos. No Foro Económico Mundial dirixiuse aos parlamentos europeo, británico e francés, e neste último varios políticos da dereita boicoteárona. "Os adultos seguen dicindo que llo debemos aos mozos, darlles esperanza, pero eu non quero a vosa esperanza. Non quero que teñades esperanza. Quero que sintades pánico. Quero que sintades o medo que sinto eu tódolos días. Quero que actuedes. Quero que actuedes como fariades nunha crise. Quero que actuedes coma se a casa estivese ardendo, porque así é."

Durante eses meses, continuou facendo a súa protesta cada venres fronte ao parlamento sueco, acompañada ocasionalmente por outros estudantes, sen que o seu activismo interferise co seu traballo escolar.

En xullo de 2019 a revista Time anunciou que Greta tomaría un ano sabático para viaxar a América e reunirse con representantes do movemento polo clima. En agosto Greta navegou durante dúas semanas a través do Océano Atlántico dende Plymouth, en Inglaterra, ata Nova York, no iate Malizia II, equipado con paneis solares e turbinas submarinas. En setembro participou no Cumio das Nacións Unidas sobre a Acción Climática en Nova York. Alí, nunha conferencia de prensa presentada por UNICEF, anunciou xunto con outros quince xoves activistas que presentaran unha denuncia ante o Comité dos Dereitos do Neno contra cinco nacións que non están cumprindo cos obxectivos de redución de emisións aos que se comprometeron no Acordo de París: Arxentina, Brasil, Francia, Alemaña e Turquía.

En setembro, participou en varias protestas polo clima en varias cidades de Canadá, e liderou a manifestación da Folga Mundial polo Clima do día 27 en Montreal. Máis de catro millóns de persoas en todo o mundo acudiron ás folgas escolares dos días 20 e 27. Nos Estados Unidos, participou en máis protestas en varias cidades, comezando os seus discursos por recoñecer as inxustizas sufridas polos pobos indíxenas aos que orixinalmente pertencía esa terra.

Greta pretendía asistir á Conferencia das Nacións Unidas sobre o Cambio Climático que ía celebrarse en Chile, pero este evento tivo que trasladarse a Madrid debido a grandes protestas civís. A través das redes sociais, Greta comunicou que necesitaba que alguén a  levara a través do Océano Atlántico, algo que se ofreceron a facer unha parella de australianos no seu catamarán La Vagabonde. En novembro Greta embarcouse en Hampton, Virxinia, cara a Lisboa. Dende Lisboa viaxou a Madrid para falar na Conferencia e unirse aos activistas locais de Fridays for Future.

En xaneiro de 2020, volveu ao Foro Económico Mundial en Davos, e en marzo acudiu a unha reunión extraordinaria da Comisión do Medio Ambiente do Parlamento Europeo.

En Galiza, os activistas de Fridays For Future decidiron sumarse xunto con outras organizacións e colectivos á creación da plataforma do Movemento Galego Polo Clima, que se presentou en setembro de 2019 en Compostela, para reivindicar ante os representantes públicos, entre outras peticións, a declaración da emerxencia climática.

Durante a pandemia por COVID-19, pediu aos líderes mundiais que fixeran máis para afrontar a traxedia da distribución desigual das vacinas. Mentres unha de cada catro persoas dos países ricos fora vacinada, nos países máis pobres só unha de cada 500 recibira unha dose. Isto fixo que apareceran novas variantes e prolongouse a pandemia. A través da súa fundación, doou 100.000 euros para apoiar a COVAX. "É completamente inmoral que os países ricos vacinen a xente nova e sá, se iso supón non vacinar ás persoas en risco e aos traballadores sanitarios dos países en desenvolvemento e pobres. Esta é unha proba moral", dixo. "Non podemos separar a crise sanitaria da crise ecolóxica e do cambio climático. Todo está interconectado de moitas maneiras".

Ao longo da pandemia e posteriormente, Greta seguiu criticando aos líderes mundiais polas súas promesas de abordar a crise climática en diversos foros, e tamén aos organizadores das conferencias climáticas, dicindo: "Convidan a mozos escollidos por conveniencia a reunións para finxir que nos escoitan. Pero non o fan".

En febreiro de 2022, tras a invasión de Ucraína por parte de Rusia, Thunberg protestou en apoio aos ucraínos. En xuño de 2023, pediu que Rusia fose castigada por ecocidio, ou o crime de destrución masiva do medio ambiente.

En 2024, a crise climática intensificouse gravemente. En 2023, o mundo experimentou un máximo histórico de emisións de efecto invernadoiro, e en 2024 vimos o ano máis caloroso xamais rexistrado e o primeiro en superar o obxectivo de 1,5 graos. Greta pensa que as conferencias sobre o clima só producen ganancias marxinais sobre o papel, e son lugares onde a xente que ten o poder e os responsables da crise climática se reúnen para facerse greenwashing a sí mesmos. Os países máis vulnerables non están suficientemente representados, fronte a un gran número de lobistas dos combustibles fósiles. 

Por exemplo, Acerbaixán, que foi o país anfitrión da Conferencia das Nacións Unidas sobre o Cambio Climático en 2024, usou as protestas medioambientais debido á existencia de minas para establecer un bloqueo humanitario en Artsaj e Armenia, e empregou a conferencia para facer greenwashing a estas violacións dos dereitos humanos. Ademais, Acerbaixán é un petroestado que exporta cantidades enormes de petróleo a Israel, e é unha parte fundamental da máquina de guerra israelí.

Nos últimos anos, Greta foi detida e arrestada pola policía en numerosas ocasións, en manifestacións e protestas en diversas cidades. As protestas estaban relacionadas co cambio climático: en contra das subvencións aos combustibles fósiles, en contra das minas, ou pedindo a retirada de turbinas eólicas de pastos para renos; pero tamén se trataba de protestas pro-Palestina. 

As protestas de Greta en contra do xenocidio en Gaza supuxeron que tivese que facer fronte a unha forte oposición, que se sumou á que xa encaraba antes. Como consecuencia, perdeu a moitos amigos e recibiu todo tipo de insultos en moitísimos lugares en internet. Pero pensa que se ti como activista non estás incómoda, estás facendo algo mal. Foi acusada de antisemitismo, cando o xenocidio que leva a cabo Israel non está vinculado co pobo xudeu; e estase usando a palabra "antisemitismo", que é un problema grave para os xudeus, con obxectivos políticos. Trátase de reivindicar dereitos humanos para todos, especialmente para aqueles máis marxinados, coma os Palestinos.

Greta afirma que a razón pola que se converteu nunha activista pola xustiza climática é esencialmente porque lle importan os seres humanos. E independentemente de cal sexa a causa do sufrimento dos humanos, como a crise climática, a guerra, a opresión ou o xenocidio, ela loitará en contra desas causas. Pensa que a crise climática está construída sobre inxustizas, sacrificando ecosistemas e ás futuras xeracións para que uns poucos continúen obtendo beneficios inimaxinables. Estas emerxencias están interconectadas, e se os activistas polo clima non somos capaces de denunciar a marxinalización, a opresión, e a matanza da xente, non deberíamos chamarnos activistas polo clima. Sería puro racismo poñerse a escoller a loita que apoiamos.

Greta opina que outra presidencia de Donald Trump, que non cre no cambio climático, será unha catástrofe. É obvio que os nosos sistemas non están funcionando en favor da maioría, e xusto agora os movementos alternativos están cada vez máis silenciados, demonizados e reprimidos. A xente continúa sendo atraída polo populismo de dereitas e o fascismo en todo o mundo. Pero tamén hai que lembrar que o xenocidio en Palestina sucedeu baixo a administración de Joe Biden e Kamala Harris, con cartos e complicidade americana, e mentres non cambie nada fundamentalmente, os Estados Unidos seguirán sendo unha potencia mundial imperialista, hipercapitalista, que vai a continuar levando ao mundo a esta catástrofe climática, e ao racismo e a desigualdade. Non podemos deixar que isto nos afunda aínda máis na apatía e na desesperación; debemos organizarnos  e encher as rúas e resistir, porque non hai outra opción.

En canto a outros políticos do mundo que a puxeron no punto de mira polo seu activismo, Greta opina que o feito de que se sintan ameazados por ela é unha sinal moi positiva, porque significa que estamos marcando unha diferenza. Doutro xeito, non perderían o tempo facendo iso.

Foi nominada ao Premio Nobel da Paz tódolos anos entre 2019 e 2023. Recibiu varios doutoramentos honoríficos por varias universidades, e é autora e coautora de catro libros: Ninguén É Demasiado Pequeno Para Marcar A Diferenza (2019), A Nosa Casa Está En Chamas (2020), A Funda De Ideas Verdes (2021), e O Libro Do Clima (2022).

Texto publicado orixinalmente: 3/09/2019

Texto actualizado: 3/01/2024

Greta Thunberg (Stockholm, January 3, 2003) is a climate activist who in August 2018, when she was 15, began to demonstrate in front of the Swedish parliament, with a poster in which she wrote "School strike for climate" calling for stronger action on climate emergency.

Greta started learning about climate change when she was 8, and she couldn't understand why so little was being done about it, which caused her a depression: at age 11, she stopped eating and talking to anyone except her closest relatives, almost to the point of requiring hospitalization. She was later diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder and selective mutism. It came to light that she had been mercilessly bullied in school for years, and that other children made fun of her and attacked her for being different. They pushed her, knocked her down, lured her into strange places, systematically shunned her, and she sometimes managed to hide crying in the bathroom until teachers forced her out into the playground again. Her parents informed the school, but they blamed Greta since several children repeated that she behaved strangely, spoke too softly and she never said hello. She finally changed schools; there she watched a film about ocean pollution that also upset her deeply.

For her, activism was a way for her recovery, as she gradually started eating, and began to learn with an extraordinary drive. For two years Greta tried to get her family to change their habits to reduce their ecological impact, becoming vegan, recycling and stopping flying. When she finally got them to do it, she began to believe that she would be able to change things.

Greta came up with the idea of ​​going on a school strike after a shooting at a Florida school in 2018, when teenage activists organised the March For Our Lives demonstration to get more gun control in the United States. In May of that year, she won an essay contest on climate change for a Swedish newspaper, and after that an environmental group contacted her. At one of their meetings, she was suggested that students could go on a school strike, and she tried to involve other youths without success, so she chose to do it on her own.

She decided to go on strike sitting in front of the parliament every day during school hours from August 20 until the Swedish general election on September 9, 2018, after a summer full of heat waves and wildfires. Her request was that the Swedish government reduce its carbon emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement.

On the first day of the strike she posted a photo on social media, which was shared by young high-profile activists, and on the second day other activists joined her, which would begin the Fridays For Future movement. Soon her story appeared in the local press and in less than a week it appeared in the international media.

From October, Greta began participating in demonstrations across Europe, giving public speeches and mobilizing her followers on social media. After the September general election she began to strike only on Fridays, inspiring students from all over the world to take part in student strikes. That month, more than 20,000 students demonstrated in more than 270 cities.

Greta gave a speech at the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference that went around the world. “Why should I be studying for a future that soon may be no more, when no one is doing anything to save that future? And what is the point of learning facts when the most important facts clearly mean nothing to our society?”

In the first half of 2019 she joined several student protests in Europe, and was invited to speak at various forums and parliaments. At the World Economic Forum she addressed the European, British and French parliaments, and in the latter several right-wing politicians boycotted her. “Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people, to give them hope, but I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is.”   

During those months, she continued to protest every Friday in front of the Swedish parliament, occasionally accompanied by other students, without her activism interfering with her school work.

In July 2019 Time magazine announced that Greta would take a sabbatical year to travel to America and meet with representatives of the climate movement. In August Greta sailed for two weeks across the Atlantic Ocean from Plymouth, England, to New York, aboard the yacht Malizia II, equipped with solar panels and underwater turbines. In September she participated in the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York. There, at a press conference hosted by UNICEF, she announced along with fifteen other young activists that they had filed a complaint before the Committee on the Rights of the Child against five nations that are not meeting the emission reduction targets they committed to in the Paris Agreement: Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey.

In September, she participated in several climate protests in several cities in Canada, and led the Global Climate Strike demonstration on September 27 in Montreal. More than four million people worldwide attended school strikes on the 20th and 27th. In the United States, she participated in more protests in several cities, beginning her speeches with a recognition of the injustices suffered by indigenous peoples to whom that land originally belonged. 

Greta intended to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Chile, but this event had to be moved to Madrid due to major civil protests. Through social media, Greta communicated that she needed someone to take her across the Atlantic Ocean, something an Australian couple offered to do on their catamaran La Vagabonde. In November Greta embarked in Hampton, Virginia, for Lisbon. From Lisbon she traveled to Madrid to speak at the Conference and join local Fridays for Future activists.

In January 2020, she returned to the World Economic Forum in Davos, and in March she attended to an extraordinary meeting of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee.

In Galiza, Fridays For Future activists have decided to join together with other organizations and groups in the creation of the platform of the Movemento Galego Polo Clima, which was presented in September 2019 in Compostela, to claim before public representatives, among other requests, the declaration of climate emergency.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she called on world leaders to do more to address the tragedy of unequal vaccine distribution. While one in four people in rich countries had been vaccinated, in poorer countries only one in 500 had received a dose. This led to new variants emerging and prolonged the pandemic. Through her foundation, she donated €100,000 to support COVAX. “It is completely immoral for rich countries to vaccinate young and healthy people if it means not vaccinating people at risk and health workers in developing and poor countries. This is a moral test,” she said. “We cannot separate the health crisis from the ecological crisis and climate change. Everything is interconnected in many ways.”

Throughout the pandemic and  beyond, Greta continued to criticize world leaders for their promises to address the climate crisis in various forums, and also the organizers of climate conferences, saying: "They invite cherry-picked young people to meetings to pretend they are listening to us. But they are not."

In February 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Thunberg protested in support of the Ukrainians. In June 2023, she called for Russia to be punished for ecocide, or the crime of mass destruction of the environment.

In 2024, the climate crisis rapidly escalated. In 2023, the world experienced an all-time high in greenhouse gas emissions, and in 2024 we saw the hottest year on record and the first to beat the 1.5 degree target. Greta believes that climate conferences only produce marginal gains on paper, and those are places where people in power and those responsible for the climate crisis gather to greenwash themselves. The most vulnerable countries are underrepresented, facing a large number of fossil fuel lobbyists. 

For example, Azerbaijan, which hosted the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference, used environmental protests over mines to establish a humanitarian blockade of  Artsakh and Armenia, and employed the conference to greenwash these human rights violations. Furthermore, Azerbaijan is a petrostate that exports huge amounts of oil to Israel, and is a key part of the Israeli war machine.

In recent years, Greta has been detained and arrested by the police on numerous occasions, at demonstrations and protests in various cities. The protests were related to climate change: against fossil fuel subsidies, against mines, or calling for the removal of wind turbines from reindeer pastures; but they were also pro-Palestine protests.

Greta's protests against the genocide in Gaza meant that she has to face strong opposition, adding to the one she already confronted before. As a result, she has lost many friends and received all kinds of insults in many places on the internet. But she thinks that if you as an activist are not uncomfortable, you are doing something wrong. She has been accused of anti-Semitism, when the genocide that Israel is carrying out is not linked to the Jewish people; and the word "anti-Semitism", which is a serious problem for Jews, is being used for political purposes. It is about claiming human rights for everyone, especially for the most marginalized, such as Palestinians. 

Greta says that the reason she became an activist for climate justice is essencially because she cares about human beings. And regardless of what the cause of human suffering is, such as the climate crisis, war, oppression or genocide, she will fight against those causes. She believes that the climate crisis is built on injustice, sacrificing ecosystems and future generations so that a few can continue to reap unimaginable benefits. These emergencies are interconnected, and if we climate activists are not capable of denouncing the marginalization, the oppression, and the killing of people, we should not call ourselves climate activists. It would be pure racism to pick and choose the fight we support.

Greta believes that another presidency of Donald Trump, who does not believe in climate change, will be a catastrophe. It is obvious that our systems are not working in favor of the majority, and right now alternative movements are increasingly silenced, demonised and repressed. People continue to be drawn to right-wing populism and fascism around the world. But we must also remember that the genocide in Palestine happened under the administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, with American money and complicity, and until nothing fundamentally changes, the United States will remain an imperialist, hypercapitalist world power, that will continue leading the world to this climate catastrophe, and to racism and inequality. We cannot let this sink us even further into apathy and despair; we must organize and fill the streets and resist, because there is no other option.

As for other politicians around the world who have put her in the spotlight for her activism, Greta believes that the fact that they feel threatened by her is a very positive sign, because it means we are making a difference. Otherwise, they wouldn't waste their time doing this.

She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year between 2019 and 2023. She has received several honorary doctorates from various universities, and is the author and co-author of four books: No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference (2019), Our House Is On Fire (2020), Green Ideas Slipcase (2021), and The Climate Book (2022).

Text originally published : 3/09/2019

Updated text: 3/01/2024