Greta Thunberg – A Swedish Environmental Activist

Who is Greta Thunberg?

Greta Thunberg is a Swedish environmental activist. She is a motivational teenager who has made several protests to talk about issues related to global warming and drastic climate change. She is a blunt young lady who addresses the problems straightforwardly with the people as well as the government.

Personal Life

Greta Thunberg is born to Malena Ernman and Svante Thunberg. Her mother is a Swedish opera singer and her father is an actor. Her family is deeply involved in the entertainment industry.

History of Greta Thunberg

Thunberg first heard about climate change in 2011 at the age of 8. She was upset about how so little was being done about it. She became depressed and lethargic three years later. Eventually, she stopped eating and drinking. She was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and selective mutism. However, she does not view her autism as an illness, rather her superpower.

Thunberg challenged her parents to lower the family’s carbon footprint for two years by becoming vegan and giving up flying. This meant her mother had to give up her international career as an opera singer. The family story is recounted in the 2018 book titled Scenes from the Heart.

Thunberg began the school climate strikes and public speeches in 2018 by which she has become an internationally recognized climate activist. Thunberg published a collection of her climate action speeches in a book titled No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference. She published it in May of 2019. She donated the earnings of the book to charity.

Initiative

Thunberg took time off school in August of 2018 at a young age of 15. She went to demonstrate outside the Swedish parliament. Furthermore, she held up a sign calling for stronger climate action. Soon, other students followed her initiative and engaged in similar protests in their communities. Later, they organized a school climate strike movement together. It was under the name Fridays for the Future. Student strikes took place every week somewhere in the world after Thunberg addressed the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference. Furthermore, there were at least two coordinated multi-city protests in 2019 involving over one million pupils each.

The people know Thunberg as a blunt-speaking girl. Her speaking manner is the same both in public and to political leaders and assemblies. Furthermore, she urges immediate action to address what she describes as the “climate crisis”. Thunberg persuaded her parents at home to adopt several lifestyle choices to reduce their carbon footprint. These choices included giving up air travel and not eating meat.