Greta Thunberg, The Young Activist Who Wants To Save The World
Greta Thunberg may not be able to save the world from the impending climate disaster, but this 16-year-old girl has managed to awaken an entire generation, as well as become a symbol for her ability to challenge “rich men in gray suits”. We will probably not see results in the immediate future, but in the future this movement born from the Fridays for future could lead to an improvement in the state of the planet and ecosystems.
Sometimes society really needs media figures like Greta. Many of us don’t like leaders, we much prefer symbols. This young Swedish activist through her utterances and appearances has initiated an overwhelming phenomenon. She is the “green” girl who wants to change the world; the voice capable of awakening the souls of thousands of people.
Of course Greta doesn’t talk about anything new, nothing most of us don’t already know. Climate change is real, it is happening now and the consequences can be irreversible. However, Greta Thunberg manages to get the message across differently. She likes her youth, the strength of her speeches, her serious and provocative behavior and, above all, the iron commitment that she herself attributes to Asperger’s syndrome.
Either way, this young girl has become an icon that has made climate change a major concern for boys.
Who is Greta Thunberg?
Greta Thunberg was born in Sweden on January 3, 2003. Her family is well known in the entertainment world. Her mother, Malena Ernman, is a singer and mezzo-soprano, her father Svante Thunberg, a well-known actor, as well as her grandfather, Olof Thunberg. Given the media power of her family environment, one might think that Greta’s actions are the well-orchestrated result of a planned strategy.
However, as her parents have often explained, Greta has always been very sensitive to environmental issues. Added to this is the Asperger’s syndrome he suffers from, which tends to make every hobby, interest or concern often become an obsession. As in this case.
It was she who persuaded the parents to become vegetarians. At the age of 11 he suffered from a profound depression due to climate change. She felt distraught to see how the major countries of the world perpetrated policies that were harmful to the environment. In eighth grade, she refused to go to school. He wanted the Swedish government to reduce carbon emissions under the Paris Agreement.
In parallel, he has also suffered from selective mutism, developed obsessive-compulsive disorder and cannot help but worry about the Earth, its balance, its defense and its well-being.
No one is too small to change the world
This year Greta published the book Nobody is Too Small to Make a Difference. He recently crossed the Atlantic on a sailboat to attend the climate change conference in New York in an effort to raise public awareness of the need to reduce air travel to avoid CO2 emissions.
Once again, he grabbed the attention of media around the world, filled the front pages and coined hashtags. He has awakened consciences by talking again about rich men who do not care about future generations because, according to him, they will already be dead before the planet collapses.
It should be emphasized that she is the one who writes her speeches and that she started going on strike alone at school every Friday, until, slowly, her classmates joined her. After a few months, the Fridays for future in defense of the climate crossed the Swedish borders to reach the whole world.
New times, new leaders
We are witnessing a transformation that no longer sees in the symbols similarities with the Luther Kings or the Gandhis. Today the protagonists are the new generations, such as Malala or Greta Thunberg herself.
The battle for the climate crisis needs people like you, committed girls and boys with clear goals. We hope, therefore, that his message will not remain unheard and that our young people know how to interpret the change, what today’s adults have not been able or wanted to grasp.
