Greta Thunberg, born on 3rd January 2003 is a Swedish environmental activist who has gained international recognition for promoting the view that humanity is facing an existential crisis arising from climate change.
Thunberg is known for her youth activism and her straightforward speaking manner, both in public and to political leaders and assemblies, in which she criticizes world leaders for their failure to take sufficient action to address the climate crisis.
Taking a break from her final years of secondary school, Greta Thunberg recently shared with public she has decided to return to school after a year off campaigning to curb climate change. Let’s have a look at her year out of school. Here’s what she did in her year off.
August 2019: Sailing to New York
Her break from the classroom started in August 2019 with a 3,000-mile (4,800km) voyage across the Atlantic.
Then aged 16, she sailed from Plymouth to New York on a zero-emissions yacht, to speak at UN climate summits in New York City and Chile. and she wanted to make sure the carbon footprint of her travel was as small as possible.
“Our war on nature must end,” she said after arriving in the Big Apple.
Early September 2019: That UN speech
While in the US, Greta Thunberg’s spoke at the United Nations Climate Action Summit.
It was a speech that demanded action, and she told the audiences:
“I shouldn’t be up here.”
“I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean,
“Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.”
For Full Speech: http://www.npr.org/2019/09/23/763452863/transcript-greta-thunbergs-speech-at-the-u-n-climate-action-summit
Greta also bumped into US President Donald Trump, but didn’t appear to be his biggest fan.
Late September 2019: Global Climate Srike
From the USA to Canada – Greta led a rally as part of the Global Climate Strike in Montreal.
Hundreds of thousands of people joined marches across Canada, and almost a hundred other events took place in cities and towns across the world.
It all started with school strikes, inspired by Greta Thunberg’s “Fridays for Future” movement.
Officials in Montreal said around 315,000 people gathered, making it one of the most attended environmental marches in history.
She also called out her social media critics.
“The haters are as active as ever”, she said.
“Going after me, my looks, my clothes, my behaviour and my differences”. Anything, she says, rather than talk about the climate crisis.”
December 2019: A second boat trip
Greta had stayed in the Americas to speak at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which had been due to take place in Chile.
Because of big civil unrest there it was moved to Spain, but Greta wasn’t about to grab her boarding pass and hop on the next flight.
Instead, after making a social media appeal for a lift across the Atlantic she was offered a ride by a family of YouTubers who post videos about their journey around the world.
“We need to work together to make sure that we secure future living conditions for humankind, and that we fight for not only ourselves but for our children and for our grandchildren and for every single living being on Earth,” she told the crowd after arriving.
2020: Taking on Trump and the EU
In January she joined the most powerful economic leaders on the planet at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.
It was there she once again caught the attention of President Trump. Both spoke at the convention, but their message couldn’t be further apart.
In March it was another big meeting, the European Parliament’s Environment Committee, where she criticized the EU’s plan for tackling climate change, telling Members of European Parliament it amounts to “surrender”.
And not even a global pandemic could stop Greta Thunberg’s protests. In March she announced plans for a “Digital Strike”.
‘The Greta effect’
No changes to any government’s policies on climate change have been directly attributed to Greta or her activism, but some believe her work in bringing the topic to public attention has been significant.
At the end of 2019, science magazine The New Scientist said that 2019 was the year the public “finally woke up to climate change,” largely thanks to the work of Greta and the Extinction Rebellion protest group.
Major politicians, like UK Environment secretary Michael Gove and former Labour leader Ed Miliband have praised the impact of her work, often known as “The Greta Effect.“
And perhaps most significantly, Greta shared a stage with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, where he promised billions would be spent on tackling climate change.
While it’s back to school for now, don’t bet on Greta letting the world’s politicians off the hook. After all, as she’s promised in the past, “we’ll be watching you.”
