Many of those who change the world or, at the very least inspire others to change the world, are often the ones who are left alone while pursuing their dreams. The fact is that they are left alone because their dreams are so unimaginable to those around them. Many will protest, many will advocate, and many will, like someone who regularly writes essays and articles for a political website, have hardly anybody pay attention to them.
But it’s not the glory of being noticed that drives these individuals to make a change and educate others; it’s the chance to make a difference. Then where does this drive, this passion, this need to make a difference come from?
That is an answer that is different for everybody. It could be trauma, abuse, neglect, or, in one woman’s case, being part of a generation that has been given the strenuous task of leading the way in the battle against the world’s biggest challenge. It is a battle that has birthed many losses and victories--a battle that none of them should have to partake in--and a battle that needs to be won. These fighters come in all shapes and sizes, all races and nationalities. Anyone can fight, but only the fearless will win. So, when one talks about why people believe in what they do or fight for the things they fight for, the answer may just be far more complex than anyone could ever realize.
When it comes to the life of a teenager, many often forget just how much stress can be put on one’s shoulders. Growing older, essentially needing to have the entirety--or at least a large portion--of one’s future worked out, and so many other things mean that life just isn’t the easiest for a teenager. At fifteen years old, the life of a teenager is still brand new. And for a fifteen-year-old diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and depression, finding the courage to change the world is such a feat by itself.
Greta Thunberg was born on January 3, 2003, in Stockholm Sweden. Her father, Svante Thunberg, is a descendant of Svante Arrhenius--the scientist that first began the discussions around the world about the greenhouse effect and its impact on the earth--and her mother, Malena Ernman is a very famous opera singer in Sweden. When Thunberg was only eight years old, she learned about climate change and soon changed many of the habits she had developed throughout her life; she became a vegan and soon stopped traveling by airplane altogether (2). But the years that led to Thunberg’s internationally-known activism were anything but simple.
“She was slowly disappearing into some kind of darkness,” her mother writes in the book Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis. “She stopped playing the piano. She stopped laughing. She stopped talking. And she stopped eating” (3). By the time she was eleven years old, Thunberg had gone mute. She was soon diagnosed with “high-functioning” autism. After losing 10 kg (22 lbs.) in only two months, Thunberg returned to school where she was bullied and harassed by many of her peers--something her school did not take the time to look into. “The school isn’t sympathetic,” her mother stated, “the understanding of the situation is different. It’s Greta’s own fault, the school thinks” (3).
When she was in school, Thunberg watched a movie in class about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch a 22,369,362 square mile (roughly twice the size of the state of Texas and three times the size of France) and 88,185-ton collection of 1.8 trillion pieces of garbage and debris located off the west coast of the United States of America. It is estimated that around 700 marine species and birds come into contact with the kinds of debris found in the garbage patch, and the type of rubbish quickly leads to death for the aquatic life when the species become tangled up in the waste with no way to get out and even try to eat the garbage (4). When Thunberg was shown this movie in school and scenes of starving polar bears in the Arctic, she had a much different reaction than her classmates.
“I cried through all the movies. My classmates were concerned when they watched the film, but when it stopped, they started thinking about other things when it stopped. I couldn’t do that. Those pictures were stuck in my head” (5). Thunberg continued, “I kept thinking about it, and I just wondered if I am going to have a future. I became very depressed and stopped going to school. When I was home, my parents took care of me, and we started talking… I told them about my worries and concerns about the climate crisis and the environment. And it felt good to just get that off my chest” (5).
Given this incredibly new worldview, Greta’s parents soon adopted her activism towards fighting climate change, too. Eventually, the entire family gave up flying, and her father even became a vegetarian. Still, her father often asked Greta new questions about the climate crisis and questioned Greta’s activism altogether. However, the passionate girl she was, Greta always had an answer to any question her father had, offering scientific explanations and the chance to learn more with her through documentaries and books. Greta had become an entirely new person… the little girl who had become physically weaker as time went on and had issues being what the average person would call “normal” was on the verge of shaking things up (5).
Near this time in Parkland, Florida, a well-known tragedy was playing out, just like so many before it. On Valentines Day, 2018, 17 adults and children were killed in one of America’s most tragic school shootings in American history. While this may be a horribly common occurrence, the reaction to it was nothing short of extraordinary. The students found themselves advocating for change more than ever before, pushing for legislative action to happen in the American government that would help prevent school shootings from ever happening again or, at the very least, limit the number of times they happened throughout the country (5). On March 24, 2018, millions of people, young and old--but a majority young--gathered together to protest the lack of legislative action towards gun control present in 2018 (7). Inspired by the school walkout, an event that saw Parkland students walking out and skipping school to protest, that took place weeks before the March For Our Lives protest, Greta decided it was time to advocate for another vital change: climate legislation.
She wore an oversized yellow raincoat and carried a wooden board painted white with the words “Skolstrejk för klimatet” (School Strike for Climate) painted in black and found herself sitting alone outside of the Swedish parliament in Stockholm. At first, only a few stopped by and asked her what she was doing, Greta answering with the truth. Not many people paid attention to her in the beginning, but as the Fridays passed--Friday being the day out of the week she would skip class and sit outside of the Swedish parliament--more and more people decided to join her. Soon, the hashtag #FridaysForFuture spread across social media, and more and more students joined Greta’s movement. By December 2018, people worldwide from Australia to the United States of America held their school strikes and protests. Greta joined these climate strikes, often traveling by train and boat; she also found herself attending many different climate conferences across the world. Greta’s next opportunity to speak was at a venue like none she had been to before--the 2019 UN Climate Summit in Brooklyn, New York.
A five-person crew--Greta, her father, filmmaker Nathan Grossman, Boris Herrmann, and Pierre Casiraghi--traveled the 3,000+ mile journey from Plymouth, England, to New York during hurricane season. There were no showers or air conditioners on the boat as well as no kitchen leading the crew to eat freeze-dried and vacuum-packed meals. The yacht itself was propelled by underwater turbines and was equipped with solar panels to power communicative technology (8). While her eventual appearance at the climate summit was celebrated by legislators and leaders like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, another strong voice for young people in the fight against climate change, many others criticized Greta as much as they could. Steve Milloy, a member of the Trump transition team, called her “the ignorant teenage climate puppet” which is only one example of the language that was levelled against her (9).
At the UN Climate Summit, world leaders gathered to discuss and debate how to handle not just one country’s but the entire world’s climate change struggle. The goal, laid out by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, was to develop “concrete, realistic plans” to ensure that there were zero greenhouse gas or carbon emissions in the world by 2050--a plan that would have to entail developing new systems to create eco-friendly manufacturing and other industrial processes. When Greta spoke at the climate summit, she spoke with rage, defiance to the leaders around her, and passion; one of her most significant statements was how it was utterly wrong that the leaders around her were looking to the young people of the world to solve the issues that they were not responsible for (10). Greta declared:
"You all come to us young people for hope... you have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words, and yet, I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning
of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you... You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. But young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of future generations are upon you, and if you choose to fail us, I say, we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this." (10)
Although Greta essentially told off the entire collection of world leaders, many cheered her on as they felt her words through and through. However, many others did not care to understand, including the former president of the United States and world leader who never seemed to understand what young people are truly capable of fully, Donald Trump. Even after actress Roma Downey celebrated Greta’s accomplishment in receiving the title of TIME Magazine’s 2019 Person Of The Year, Trump proceeded to tweet, “So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old-fashioned movie with a friend! Chill, Greta, Chill!” As ironic as it was to tweet the words “Chill, Greta, Chill!”, Greta did not let it phase her as she proceeded to change her Twitter bio to “A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend” (10).
Greta again demonstrated her defiance against the leaders who failed to acknowledge her and her generation during the 2020 election. When Donald Trump had tweeted the words “STOP THE COUNT!” on November 5, 2020--an addition to his non-stop claims of voter fraud that have no objective evidence--Greta shot back with a tweet reading, “So ridiculous. Donald must work on his anger management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Donald, Chill!” (10).
Greta always fights back against the harsh criticism she faces when advocating for the scientifically-proven need for change. Even when doctored photos showing her next to the Islamic State members and with anti-Semitic influencers appeared in the media, she continued her fight. “It’s, of course, annoying that people spend their time doing things like this when they could be doing something useful instead,” she stated in an interview. “But there will always be
people who find something to complain about.”
Currently, Greta is still finding ways to advocate for change and holding masked protests. While a new American president means promises for better environmental policy and a helping hand to the earth, Greta has criticized Biden, stating that while he is making change, it is not nearly enough--a statement that proves that today and far into the future she will continue to be resolute in her battles, ruthless in the best ways, and relentless to save the world.
Reflection
When I first saw Greta Thunberg speak at the UN Climate Summit, I was instantly captivated. Growing up in the heartland, I was vaguely aware that our environmental policy studies were not adequate. In fact, the only accurate environmentally friendly advice I think I received as a student was to recycle scrap paper and maybe a few small details from the single required agriculture class. However, a healthy mix of Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got me invested in environmental studies.
When I first started pursuing my degree in political science, I didn’t know what I was doing. It was right after George Floyd’s death, and I wanted to learn why, in the wealthiest country in the world, in the country that people called “the greatest”, in a country called “the land of opportunity”, everything was...not so great. I had many questions: Why is police brutality happening? Why do we see Black people being killed at disproportionate rates? Why don’t we follow science together as a nation? Why are the winters in the midwest now getting shorter and much less cold? Why do songs like “American Idiot” just make sense with the current state of affairs?
My very first essay while pursuing my degree in political science was a testament to an environmentally friendly policy known as the National Environmental Policy Act--a 27-page essay denouncing Donald Trump’s efforts to essentially get rid of it as well as explaining why it was needed in this country called “America Needs NEPA”--the very first real essay I ever wrote. At that moment, I knew that my main goal in life would be to help protect the environment. To me, it’s relatively easy to understand; the science is right there for everyone to see with facts that are so striking and clear that I could probably end this reflection with a ten-page discussion about the earth’s different climate zones, how water vapor is technically the leading cause of climate change (a), how honestly easy it would be to begin fixing the issues, and how while I very badly want a daughter in the future, I’ve thought to myself that if things are only going to continue to get worse and worse… is there a point? Would she even have a planet to live on?
With all the questions, personal and scientific, and the need for us young people to do something about climate change, I must admit that I'm a bit scared as to what will happen next. However, I know for a fact that if one girl halfway across the world can inspire the rest of my life, there is no doubt that in my mind that whole generation can be inspired in the same way as well. Greta, and many just like her, have taught us that just about anyone can begin a protest, even when there are many things keeping us from living "normal" lives. Anyone can advocate for change and make a difference and even find themselves speaking in front of a crowd of world leaders demanding that change takes place.
It's up to us--all we have to do is get to it and do it.
Footnotes
a. It’s fascinating as to why that is… perhaps I should even write something about that.
Sources & Links
Greta Thunberg: Who is she and what does she want? | BBC News
Greta Thunberg’s mother reveals teenager’s troubled childhood | The Guardian
What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? | The Ocean Cleanup
How the Parkland students pulled off a massive national protest in only 5 weeks | CNN US
Greta Thunberg sets sail for New York on zero-carbon yacht | The Guardian
Greta Thunberg Trolls Trump with His Own Diss: ‘Chill Donald, Chill!’ | People
Online haters are targeting Greta Thunberg with conspiracy theories and fake photos | USA Today
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