Her story began when she decided
to play truant at school. It was not a rebellion against the system. It was her
protest against the plunder of the climate that generations had done before
her. Greta Thunberg first went on her school strike for the climate in front of the
parliament in Sweden in August more than a year ago. The climate crusader began
her lone protest and gained international attention for its singularity.
She gained further fame when she
spoke at the U.N. Climate Talks in Poland in December 2018.
Credit:
Connect4Climate
Greta’s steadfastness has
inspired students across the globe. They identified with her concern for her
protest against the plunder that continues unabated, fuelled by the greed of
large corporations.
Students in their tens of
thousands from Germany, the UK, Japan, and Australia and many more countries
joined the climate crusader. This climate crusader’s campaign was to force
these big corporations to agree to emission norms.
The symbolic protest once a week
was seen as a chance to unite the students of the world to strike on the 15th
of March every year. Greta says she had
to do something to protest against climate change. She saw that no government
was willing to agree to anything that had anything to do with the issue of
climate change.
This teenager had made her voice
heard. Her impassioned words have instilled fear in the hearts of the
governments who had so far agreed to disagree on everything that concerned the
changing climate.
Greta feels her Asperger’s, a form of autism, has gifted her with the ability to see reality from a different perspective than most. She says she saw through the lies and half-truths the governments and corporations have fed to the population in their countries.
Greta was inspired by the story
of Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her seat to
a white person in a bus sparked protests throughout America and changed
American society forever.
She believes that like Rosa, she
too is an introvert. Taking up her story, Greta feels that one person can make
a whole lot of difference. Greta has been skipping lessons every Friday since
she began her unique protests.
This young climate crusader is
yet to attain the age of voting, but the unique force of her protest came to be
heard across the globe. Her sincerity has earned her acclaim worldwide.
It isn’t every day that we come across 16-year-old children delivering a global movement millions have gotten behind.
She says that we are spending
beyond our means as if there is no tomorrow. But there is a very dark tomorrow
for the unfortunate children who inherit this doomed planet.
The authorities have to agree to
drastic actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Otherwise, world
temperatures will rise by 1.5℃, enough to expose around 350 million people to
drought and push 120 million towards poverty. Scientists and researchers have
warned about this for years. But Greta managed to get the world’s attention to
it. The 2019 UN climate summit remains deadlocked even after 2
weeks of hectic negotiations and was attended by 200 nations. Only a compromise
deal was agreed upon.
In the 17 months since her
protest in front of the Swedish Parliament, the climate crusader has berated
heads of state at the U.N. for their casual attitude and stirred millions to
join the global climate strike on September 20, 2019.
Thunberg doesn’t profess to have any instant solutions. But she has succeeded, through the climate strikes, in drawing attention to an immediate problem that has affected every single inhabitant of the planet. Thus forcing world leaders to make commitments.
The climate crusader says that she is one of the many faces of the concern to save the planet, not a leader. She wants the world leaders to listen to the scientific evidence and not to her. Stating it is time to hit the panic button, because only urgency will save the planet before it reaches the point of no return.
