Have you ever wondered why it is so hot today, even though it is not summer? Then after an hour or two, there will be heavy rainfall, then, it will be hot again.
This phenomenon is what we all called climate change. This is just one of the effects of global warming.
This article introduces one of the prominent young climate change activists, Greta Thunberg, and her campaigns and advocacies.
What Will I Learn?
Greta Thunberg: Biography
Greta Thunberg is an environmental and climate change activist from Sweden. In 2018, when she was 15, she gained international attention. Outside the Swedish Parliament, she was campaigning about climate change. Her school strike spread rapidly worldwide, making her more, in particular, a popular spokeswoman for environmental issues. Greta Thunberg also founded her movement known as Fridays For Future, also called School Strike For Climate.
Also, Greta Thunberg flew around the world, campaigning to leading political figures. She notes that she is not aligned with any political movement but insists on why immediate action needs to be taken to reverse an impending environmental catastrophe. But how is she doing this? I will let you know first about her personal life. We can learn how this young girl started to be so concerned about conserving our planet instead of enjoying her childhood life.
Early Life
Her full name is Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg, and she was born on January 3, 2003, in Stockholm, Sweden. Her mother is an opera singer Malena Ernman, and her father is an actor Svante Thunberg. Greta Thunberg also has a sister named Beata Ernman Thunberg, which is currently a 15-year-old singer. According to her TEDx talk in November 2018, she was just eight years old when she got aware of all climate change.
Greta Thunberg got depressed about climate change because there are only minimal climate action done. In August 2014, her mother, Malena Ernman, and her father began their own opera named Xerxes. But then their daughter Greta Thunberg became critically ill. She was 11 years old when she has diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and selective mutism. It made her stop talking and eating that time that she lost weight.
By having selective mutism, Greta Thunberg described her condition as speaking if needed only. However, Greta Thunberg did not consider her disorder as a handicap but her superpower. In the year 2018, Scenes From The Heart was released. It describes Greta Thunberg and her family life. Their parents handled her condition and her sibling’s attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to be environmental activists.
Activism
People with Asperger syndrome appear to focus intensely on one idea or goal. So, for Greta Thunberg, her focus has been all about climate change. We all know everything started in our home. Same with Greta Thunberg. She initiated her work by recycling, being vegan, avoiding travel by airplane, and persuading her parents about lowering their carbon footprint. She even showed her parents graphs and data to prove her concern.
Her parents do not know all about this climate change and global warming, but due to their daughter’s persistence, they started to research and read books about the topic. Her parents began to change their lifestyle. Even her mom gave up being an opera singer to support her daughter because it includes traveling worldwide by airplane. At first, her parents did not support Greta Thunberg; they are both happy for their daughter because she was able to fight her depression through her climate change activism.
School Protest
Because of her parents’ presence, Greta Thunberg got confidence that she can change and encourage all people to immediately prevent climate change. When she was a 15-year-old teenager, she skipped school for almost three weeks. She did this before the Swedish election in September 2018 to sit outside the nation’s parliament with a sign reading “Skolstrejk för Klimatet” (School Strike for Climate) after the 2018 European drought and heatwaves.
To make a substantial effect, Greta Thunberg sought to persuade legislators to fix climate change. However, she was alone for the first day of the strike, more and more activists campaigning with her every subsequent day. Her story gained international fans around the world, and was recognized to be a climate activist. She was also put in the headlines. She said she had been motivated by the teen activists who had planned the March for Our Lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
One of her demands was that the Swedish government lessen its carbon emissions under the Paris agreement as a climate activist. Two days before the general election, Greta Thunberg declared that she would continue to protest every Friday until the government worked with the Paris agreement. She introduced the FridayForFuture slogan, which received global attention. She encouraged all young people all over the planet to engage in student strikes.
As she promised, she went on strike every Friday after the elections, traveling to the Swedish Parliament to protest the lack of action. While doing it, her activism did not stop her from catching up with her homework on other days, despite taking one day off a week for demonstrations. According to her father, Svante Thunberg, she remained in the top 5 of her class.
Social Media
On social media, her work soon spread to all other kids of her generation. It also received extensive attention from the newspapers. The school strikes spread across the globe quite rapidly and be in headlines. On Instagram and Twitter, Greta Thunberg posted her image on her first strike day. High-profile youth activists supported her Instagram post, and the others joined her on the second day.
We Don’t Have Time (WDHT) was one of the Swedish climate-focused social media company. Ingmar Rentzhog, the founder, claimed Greta Thunberg only started to be in headlines after he appeared with his freelance photographer. Then without permission and awareness of Greta Thunberg, they used her name and image to raise millions of donations. Afterward, when she learned about WDHT making money from her name, she left her volunteer advisor position with WDHT.
Her pictures are also available online. You can definitely get some high-resolution images at Getty Images. Though this young 17-year-old activist has fans worldwide, the wrath of those who felt threatened by her activism cannot be avoided. There are different social media and created magazine cover of her by a parody site created against her. But her fans cannot be stopped. This is probably what we called The Greta Effect. This is the term used to define the effect of climate change activism, particularly among young people. She has also been invited to some online shows like The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Protests and Speeches Worldwide
Greta Thunberg received a variety of invitations that have been issued to talk about climate change. She addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and the European Parliament and the Italian, French, UK, and US legislatures. Her speech at the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) summit meeting was viral. Greta Thunberg commented that not mature enough to tell it like it is to the world leaders participating.
At the World Economic Forum in January 2019, Thunberg gave a speech in which she stated: Our house is on fire. Pope Francis praised her in a brief meeting with Thunberg and urged her to proceed. Thunberg took a sabbatical year from a school in July 2019, Time magazine reported, hoping to fly to the Americas and meet people from the climate movement. On a two-week trip by sailboat campaigning, This 17-year-old activist traveled to New York City to continue paying attention to the work needed to resolve the climate crisis.
On 20 September, she engaged in school strikes organized almost 1 million fans in the U.S. and shortly after speaking at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York City on 23 September 2019. Greta Thunberg was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 by members of the Swedish parliament. Thunberg has been named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the year. Also, she was supposed to receive the 2019 Nordic Council Environment Prize but rejected it.
In early 2020, behavioral changes were needed to fight Coronavirus. Greta Thunberg announced that we change our actions in a crisis and adjust to new conditions for society’s greater good. Greta Thunberg and fellow climate activists met in Berlin on August 20, 2020. They subsequently announced preparations on September 25, 2020, for another global climate strike. She finished her gap year from school on August 24, 2020, when she returned to the classroom and students across Sweden.
Age
She was born on January 3, 2003, in Stockholm, Sweden. As of this writing, she is a 17-year-old climate activist.
Height
Based on CelebsHeight.org, Greta Thunberg is 4 feet 10 inches tall.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is Greta Thunberg’s net worth?
If you are now one of the fans, you might be wondering if she earns something about being a climate activist. Just to be cleared, we just learned that this young 17-year-old activist is not doing this just for the sake of the money. But surely, she is getting some rewards and donations for her action. She even donating her prize money. According to Media, Entertainment, Arts, Worldwide, or MEAWW, she donated her prize money of $100,000 to UNICEF to help fight Coronavirus. Also, through her foundation, she donated €1 million or $1.1 million prize money she got from Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity 2020.
Also, her social media accounts reached 4.1 million Twitter followers/fans and 10.2 million Instagram followers/fans that might also allow her to earn some money from ad revenue money. She is also an actress and known for some blockbuster movies like Pearl Jam: Retrograde (2020), Countdown to Year Zero (2019), and Balkowitsch (2020). A magazine named People With Money surfaced a digital magazine cover of her face. It stated that she is one of the highest-paid activists on earth. However, HITC reported this is just coming from a parody site.
So what is Greta Thunberg s net worth? The nearest estimated amount is around $1 million, according to Idol Persona.
What is Svante Thunberg s net worth?
At this period, the total wealth of Savante Thunberg is uncertain. There is not much discussion from Savante Thunberg about his net worth. Like other Hollywood stars, Savante Thunberg does not reveal his net worth. No public records of Savante Thunberg and his wife’s earnings have been released to the public. But one of Sweden’s celebrities is Savante Thunberg.
How much did Greta Thunberg yacht cost?
According to the interview of Sky News with Malizia, the maker of the boat, she crossed the Atlantic in a sailing yacht to join the US protests and engage in a meeting of the United Nations. She is making a two-week non-stop voyage on a 60 ft Malizia II yacht, one of the world’s fastest ocean sailing vessels. With the goal of making the voyage zero-carbon, the boat was equipped with solar panels and underwater turbines that generate electricity onboard. It has no toilets, kitchen or privacy-so Greta is in for an awkward ride. The construction cost of the boat is higher than €4m or $4.7 million.
Conclusion
Does Greta Thunberg make a difference?
For me, yes, because before, global warming and climate change were rarely to be topics all over the world. There are some initial protests about our environment, but they are not getting much attention, unlike what she did. From being recovered to depression to persuading her family and more people, It only shows us that she is not doing it for the sake of fame and money. She is doing everything she can as a human act.
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