As Greta Thunberg rose to international fame, she became an influential but unofficial leader of climate activism.
However, despite being severely criticized and often mocked for her youthful inexperience as well as being diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, Greta Thunberg has been able to cause an effect large enough to warrant being referred to as the ‘‘Greta effect’’ by the Guardian and other similar publications.
She has many achievements: she is also included in Time’s list of 100 Most Influential People in the World; being named Time Youngest Person of the Year in 2019, Forbes’ List of 100 Most Powerful Women in the same year and Nobel Peace Prize nominee.
A Symbolic Climate Change Campaigner
Talking about the climate crisis, people can often hear the voice of Greta Thunberg who stated that the generation of baby boomers and the generations that followed them created this problem. She uses examples such as comparing the planet to a house on fire as a way of driving home the point that something must be done. Thunberg has been heavily criticized most especially business and political leaders for lack of concrete actions to climate matters.
Some of the current projects that are currently being spearheaded by Greta Thunberg include education Climate Justice, and Direct Action. Interacting with “The Climate Book” published in 2022 which is compiled from various authors and presented by her, one gets the feel that she is now gravitating towards producing materials useful for activism regarding the issue of climate change.
Greta Thunberg’s Home and Life
Greta Thunberg is still a resident of Stockholm, Sweden where she continues to lead an environmentally friendly life. She is a part-time minimalist, a no-flyer, and maintains a vegan diet with an aim of living an eco-friendly life.
Global Influence: Teenage climate activist Greta was also TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year of 2019 which made her the youngest person on record to be given this title. This award recognizes her effort and dedication for putting out climate change into the limelight.
Awards and Recognition: In addition to Time, she has received many other awards such as Right Livelihood Award and Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award proving that she has significant impact on activism.
Net Worth: Though the exact numbers may differ, people tend to talk about Greta Thunberg’s net worth mainly because of her high profile. But she has contributed most of her earnings toward funding climate initiatives and therefore emphasizes her cause against climate change than lobbying for more riches.
Controversies: Thunberg’s activism hasn’t been without controversy though. Her vocal condemnation of global leaders and political fiascos, apart from engaging in political controversies which include her latest stand on Palestine has been accused of sidelining her environmental campaign.
Personal Challenges: Greta has publicized her Asperger and she considers it not as a disorder but a gift as it enables her view things in simple binary form with no political connotations other than climate emergency.
Meet Greta Thunberg’s famous Parents
Greta Thunberg’s parents are Malena Ernman and Svante Thunberg.
The candidate of this thesis, Malena Ernman, is an example of the Swedish opera singer who has been singing at different countries’ productions. She is also an activist in the climate change event and has also written about her family’s approach to climate change.
Svante Thunberg is an actor and an author and has also taken an active part in environmental issues or rather has started engaging in the environmental issues due to the influence of Greta Thunberg. He is christened after the famous scientist from Sweden, Svante Arrhenius who was among the first persons to prophesy that burning of fossil fuels could cause global warming.
All Most Famous Speeches Most Famous Speeches of Greta Thunberg
Some of Greta Thunberg speeches are as follows; Among them, some of the powerful speeches that were delivered are as follows; Here are some of her most famous speeches, based on her activism and the attention they received:
United Nations Climate Action Summit, 2019 – The one where she scolded the world leaders with “How dare you?” In this speech, Thunberg scolded world leaders for not doing enough to address climate change crisis and its impact it will have on the younger generation. This particular speech was critical in asserting her as one of the frontline activists in climate change.
Speech to the House of Commons, 2019 – In this she said that the future was sold to the highest bidder and called for systemic change not just personal change and although she called for the latter, she also stated that people also needed to change.
2019, US Congress – she encouraged America to ‘do the impossible’ by saying that ‘giving up can never ever be an option’. This speech was part of her bring climate change to power campaign in the United States which is one the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world.
Annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2020 Now she just said, “Our house is still burning” addressing the ongoing indifference toward climate change. She said that something had to be done soon and also condemned the forum because of its emphasis on economic gains to the detriment of the natural environment.
European Parliament in Brussels, 2020 – At a moment she describes a proposed climate law as “This climate law is surrender,” she explained the insufficiency of political solutions being offered at the time and the physical climate truth that can’t be negotiated.
Youth4Climate event in Milan, 2021 – While not as famous as her speech at the United Nations, this was also part on the visions of the build up to COP26 where she kept on calling for youth participation and more climate action.
These speeches are not only well-known for their messages, but also Thunberg’s manner how she addresses her audience: she does not shy away from leaving the listeners uncomfortable and even ‘calling’ them to change, stressing on science and lack of reactions from the authorities. That is why her speeches cause the audience’s sympathy – she gracefully combines the spirit of a young woman offended by the existing system and demanding scientific research and global action right now.
For this, Greta Thunberg has won several awards and she is globally recognized for her efforts in environmental activism.
Right Livelihood Award (2019): Also known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’, Greta Thunberg was awarded this for a reason that helped her to ‘raise awareness and foster political demands on the climate emergency in line with the scientific reality’. As much as Greta Thunberg, and other winners took home the amount of $103,300, which is equal to one hundred and three thousand, three hundred US dollars.
Ambassador of Conscience Award (2019): This award was presented to her by Amnesty International in view of her activism in the climate change struggle category.
Time Person of the Year (2019): Greta Thunberg was recognised as the youngest person in the history of Time magazine to be chosen as Person of the Year, which confirms her enormous role on the international level.
Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity (2020): She collects the one million euros prize for her capacity to enthuse the young generations in the matter of climate change. Greta Thunberg said that she will be donating the cash award that she will be receiving to charitable initiatives that will fight the climate and ecological crisis.
Honorary Doctorate (2023): While she was not given a conventional award in the form of a prize, she was awarded an honorary doctorate in theology by the University of Helsinki which speaks of the impact she had beyond the conservationist activism.
These awards demonstrate Greta Thunberg’s impact on the global climate activism, her ability to mobilise different generations, and her contribution to making climate change an important global issue.
Controversies and Criticisms
Greta’s learning has not been an empty road; it still faced a number of opponents. This has made people question on what she decided to mix climate activism with other political stand which resulted to controversies.
Greta Thunberg is without doubt one of the most prominent activists of the recent years. The journey of a lone womanizer to a global icon should be able to inspire the young one Make the change. Even though, she uses unorthodox tactics and expands political participation; representational strategies that are open to interpretation; and though her message has not lacked controversy and her followers are quite radical, she still delivers the unequivocal message of the need to address climate change on the global level.
Living in Stockholm, persisting with the advocacy, and grappling with the systems of the world, ThunGreta is arguably incomparable and an astoundingly inspirational figure eminently for the world prompting to listen, to act, and maybe, to dare like she does!
Although Ms Thunberg has not proposed any effective environmental solitaire, she is acknowledged to have educated people globally regarding climate change especially the young people.
It is funny that many people refer to this as ‘the Greta effect’.
Broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough told her: “You have awakened the world I am very thankful to you.”
Climate change: ‘Greta effect’ has young people making voices heard digitally.
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