On this cold and rainy morning, I joined Greta Thunberg in front of the Swedish parliament for her climate strike.
It is just 29 weeks ago that she sat there for the first time. All alone, since nobody she had asked wanted to join her. But she didn’t give up and she is now the founder of an international youth movement that challenges the world’s leaders to act on climate change.
Her ‘Fridays For Future’ protest has inspired and mobilised hundreds of thousands of students all over the world. Together they ask us, the grown-ups, to look into the mirror. We have to shamefully admit that our generation made a mess of our global environmental responsibilities, as well as quite a few other tasks to keep this planet a liveable place.
Today, on International Women’s Day, she was awarded as ‘Woman of the Year’ by two Swedish newspapers.
Many famous, inspiring leaders would never have been recruited if you would have asked a specialised agency to find you a new leader. And I guess that 16-year old Greta would not have met any of the criteria a recruitment office would use to search for a new inspiring global leader. But for me, and millions of others, she is a source of inspiration. Her direct communication is the wake up call that the world needs. Especially now that we have nearly run out of time to act.
Last November, I saw her speak at the Stockholm TEDx event, not far from where her climate strike had started in the summer. The huge conference hall seemed even more intimidating when the small, then 15-year old, Greta walked on stage. But she captivated the audience with the most clear call for climate action I had ever heard. There is no time to lose for a rapid reduction of greenhouse gas reductions, we don’t need to wait for more research, and all of us, including our leaders, need to act now.
Soon after, she travelled by public transport to COP24 in Katowice, where she told world leaders to stop behaving like children: “you are not mature enough to tell it like it is, even that burden you leave to us children”.
When she arrived by train in Davos, she told the world’s business leaders it is insane for a record 1500 of them to arrive by private jet to discuss climate change.
The movement that Greta started is still growing. On Friday 15 March, 860 actions are planned in 75 countries, and the list is still growing.
This massive youth movement seems to become an intergenerational conflict at a scale that we have not seen since the late 1960s. While politicians tell them to go back to school, there is no stopping them and it may soon be about more than just climate change.
While Greta keeps focussed on the climate message, other young people will add governance, economy, equality, justice and power relations on Generation Greta’s wish list for change. Politicians better pay attention.
Every year on 10 December, I am surprised that we still don’t have a Nobel Prize for the Environment. But until that issue is resolved, I hope that Greta Thunberg will be this years’ Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Every year on 10 December, I am surprised that we still don’t have a Nobel Prize for the Environment. But until that issue is resolved, I hope that Greta Thunberg will be this years’ Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Links
- How Greta Thunberg’s Lone Strike Against Climate Change Became A Global Movement
- Youth climate strikers: 'We are going to change the fate of humanity'
- Climate Change Sceptics Push To Ban Teaching Global Warming Facts
- Youth Climate Strikers: 'We Are Going To Change The Fate Of Humanity'
- Climate Action Helps Companies Build Reputations And Attract Investors
- Young Climate Strikers Can Win Their Fight. We Must All Help
- How A 7th-Grader’s Strike Against Climate Change Exploded Into A Movement
- Climate Change: Young People Striking From School See It For The Life-Threatening Issue It Is
- The Guardian View On Teenage Activists: Protesters Not Puppets
- 'I Feel Very Angry': The 13-Year-Old On School Strike For Climate Action
- David Wallace-Wells On Climate: ‘People Should Be Scared – I'm Scared’
- Using The Big Freeze To Deny Climate Change... Stupidity Or Cynicism?
- The Economics Of Climate Change
- The Human Survival Summit: The Next Wave Of Climate Change Protests Is Coming
- Imagining A Davos For The Many That Was Actually Serious About Climate Change
- Greta Thunberg Dresses Down More Global Elites For Climate Inaction
- Teenage Activist Takes School Strikes 4 Climate Action To Davos
- Katharine Hayhoe: 'A Thermometer Is Not Liberal Or Conservative'
- How Your Brain Stops You From Taking Climate Change Seriously
- ‘Grown-Ups Have Failed Us’
- 2018: The 8 Biggest Moments In Climate Change
- Parenting The Climate Change Generation
- Intensifying Climate Change Protests 'Could Rival Vietnam War Activism'
- UN Climate Talks Set Stage For Humanity’s Two Most Crucial Years
- The Guardian View On COP24: While Climate Talks Continue, There Is Hope
- Climate Change: Five Things We've Learnt From COP24COP24 Poland
- 15-Year-Old Greta Thunberg Speaks Truth To Power In Katowice
- Children Demand Climate Change Action Through Protests And Lawsuits
- Climate Change: 'World At Crossroads' Warning As Key Talks Begin
- Australian Students Stage School Strikes Over Climate Change Inaction
- Yes, Prime Minister, I'm Striking From School: Consider It A Climate Lesson
- 'We'll Be Voting Soon': Students Take On PM Over Climate Change
- Why Aren't They Doing Anything?: Students Strike To Give Climate Lesson
- How Extreme Weather Is Shrinking The Planet
- Australian Students Plan School Strikes To Protest Against Climate Inaction
- The Fifteen-Year-Old Climate Activist Who Is Demanding A New Kind Of Politics
- The Swedish 15-Year-Old Who's Cutting Class To Fight The Climate Crisis
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