Who is Greata Thunberg, the teenage activist of climate crisis?

On September 20, people all over the world heeding to a call for mass protests by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg took to the streets. The protestors asked governments to declare a climate change emergency and take definitive action.

In India, protests were held in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata. Though in India the movement is yet to garner wider appeal, around the world there have been massive protests demanding respective governments for tangible action on climate change.

The protests, supported by Extinction Rebellion, a climate change group, and Thunberg’s ‘Fridays for Future’ are striking across the world between Sept. 20 and 27.

So, who is Greta Thunberg?

In August 2018, Thunberg who had just started ninth grade, decided to not attend school until the 2018 Swedish general election on August 9. It was after Sweden had its hottest year in 262 years as a result of wildfires and heat waves. She wanted those contesting in elections to take climate change seriously and for them to take notice, she began to protest in front of Swedish Parliament Riksdag demanding that the government reduce carbon emissions in accordance with the Paris Accord. She sat with the protest slogan Skolstrejk för klimatet (school strike for the climate) for three weeks. She also handed out leaflets that stated: "I am doing this because you adults are shitting on my future”.

"The symbolism of the climate strike is that if you adults don't give a damn about my future, I won't either," she explained. Soon enough, many started to join her protest. By the second week, her message and photos started to go viral on social media. After the elections got over, she would protest on Fridays alone and that initiated for ‘Fridays for Future’ protests.

As her movement gained prominence, she was invited for conferences and talks where she would get to raise and speak her concerns.

She has said that she first got the idea of striking after she heard about youngsters refusing to go to school after the February 2018 school shootings in the United States. She then won a climate change essay competition held by Swedish newspaper. After she won, she was was contacted by Bo Thorén from Fossil Free Dalsland, a group interested in climate change. But, after attending several of their meetings, she realised no one was really interested in doing anything constructive. That’s when she decided to protest herself.

Known to be a reticent activist, Greta was diagnosed with Asperger's, a form of autism. She has told BBC that she sees that as a gift. “I don't easily fall for lies, I can see through things. If I would've been like everyone else, I wouldn't have started this school strike for instance," she added.

In a few months after her protest gained traction, she gave a speech at the UN climate conference in Poland in December 2018, which went viral. In her speech she said, “If a few children can get headlines all over the world just by not going to school, then imagine what we could all do together if we really wanted to.”

“But to do that, we have to speak clearly, no matter how uncomfortable that may be. You only speak of green eternal economic growth because you are too scared of being unpopular. You only talk about moving forward with the same bad ideas that got us into this mess, even when the only sensible thing to do is pull the emergency brake. You are not mature enough to tell it like is. Even that burden you leave to us children. But I don’t care about being popular. I care about climate justice and the living planet. Our civilization is being sacrificed for the opportunity of a very small number of people to continue making enormous amounts of money,” she pointed out in her UN speech.

She accused the dignitaries of stealing the future of their children in front of their eyes though everyone keeps saying that they love their children. She said fossil fuels have to be kept in the ground and there needed to be a focus on equity.

“If solutions within the system are so impossible to find, maybe we should change the system itself. We have not come here to beg world leaders to care. You have ignored us in the past and you will ignore us again. We have run out of excuses and we are running out of time. We have come here to let you know that change is coming, whether you like it or not. The real power belongs to the people,” she told the leaders at the UN summit.

Then in December, she took a train to Davos, Switzerland, slept in a tent and told the rich and powerful that the house is on fire.

Soon enough the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres supported her strikes by stating that, “My generation has failed to respond properly to the dramatic challenge of climate change. This is deeply felt by young people. No wonder they are angry.”

She then helped organise a massive protest in March 2019 demanding action against climate change.

As she has sworn off flying, she set sail on a 60-foot sailboat on loan from Monaco's royalty to reach America to attend the United Nations Climate Action Summit, which is scheduled to take place in September 2019 at the UN’s headquarters in New York. She was accompanied by her father Svante Thunberg, and co-skippers Pierre Casiraghi––grandson of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco and Grace Kelly––and professional sailor Boris Herrmann.

The sailboat named Malizia II is designed to be emission-free, and is equipped with solar panels, hydro-generators and an onboard lab for measuring CO2 levels. While she doesn’t expect everyone to take a boat, she said that she believes it’s time for people to come together to fight climate change.

The protest on September 20 was called by Greta saw the participation of more than 4 million people in 161 countries and 5000 locations around the world. The date was chosen because it was the Friday before the UN climate action summit where Greta Thunberg will speak.