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All About Greta Thunberg, the Young Activist Who Sparked a Global Movement at 15 Years Old
Greta Thunberg was 15 years old when she did a solo strike outside the Swedish parliament to demand action on climate change
She sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in 2019 to make a statement about the need to take action
She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and named TIME's Person of the Year in 2019Greta Thunberg was only 15 years old when she sparked a global movement.
The political activist gained global attention in 2018 when she did a solo school-day strike outside the Swedish parliament to demand action on climate change. The following year, she traveled from Sweden to Washington, D.C. and made a groundbreaking speech at the U.N. Climate Action Summit, where she told world leaders they were failing young people.
In the 2020 book I Know This to Be True: Greta Thunberg, the activist explained that her passion for activism is rooted in her early school days.
'I think my concern about the environment and climate change began in school, when I was maybe 8 or 9-years-old,' she said. "I saw and heard these horrible stories about what humans had done to the environment, and what we were doing to the climate, that the climate was changing."
Thunberg continued, "I just couldn't understand how we could just continue not caring about this."
In the years since, her activism has taken new shapes as she has entered adulthood. Most recently, Thunberg set out on an aid boat to Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war, which has since been seized by Israeli forces.
From the early days of her activism to her awards and accolades, here's everything to know about Greta Thunberg.
In December 2018, Thunberg gained notoriety when she told leaders at the United Nations COP24 Climate Summit in Poland that they 'are not mature enough to tell it like is.'
'Even that burden you leave to us children,' she said in her speech. 'But I don't care about being popular. I care about climate justice and the living planet.'
'For 25 years, countless people have come to the U.N. climate conferences begging our world leaders to stop emissions, and clearly that has not worked as emissions are continuing to rise. So I will not beg the world leaders to care for our future,' Thunberg added. 'I will instead let them know change is coming whether they like it or not.'
In August 2018, Thunberg started a global movement after she organized walkout protests with her classmates against Sweden's inaction on climate change. She walked out of her classes every day for three weeks.
Thunberg later continued her strike every Friday, posting about the walkouts on social media and encouraging other students around the world to participate in order to motivate lawmakers.
Her #FridaysForFuture went viral and encouraged similar protests around the world, including the United Kingdom, where nearly 10,000 students skipped school to protest in February, according to The Guardian.
After Fridays for Future sparked a wave of young people speaking out about the cause, Thunberg led the Global Climate Strikes, which took place over a week in September 2019.
In March 2019, the young activist was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for her international work in fighting climate change.
That October, the award instead went to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, but many people on social media continued to recognize her work.
'How @GretaThunberg did not win the #NobelPeacePrize is beyond me,' one user wrote at the time. 'She has inspired a generation & proven that you're never too young to make a difference. Climate change is affecting the planet & the world's leaders need to realise that our actions speak louder than words.'
While she didn't receive the Nobel Peace Prize, Thunberg won the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity in July 2020. She was awarded the equivalent of $1.15 million, which she then donated to organizations helping to make change amid the global climate crisis and pandemic.
On her way to speak to U.S. Congressional members and the United Nations Climate Action Summit, Thunberg decided to sail across the Atlantic in a two-week zero-emissions voyage to further make a statement about the need to take action. She set off from the U.K. and ended her journey in New York City on Aug. 28, 2019.
'It is insane that a 16-year-old would have to cross the Atlantic Ocean to make a stand,' she told CBS News when she arrived. 'The climate and ecological crisis is a global crisis, the biggest crisis that humanity has ever faced, and if we don't manage to work together and to cooperate and to work together despite our differences, then we will fail.'
Thunberg has been open about her Asperger's syndrome diagnosis, something critics have used to discredit her activism. However, the teen isn't fazed by her 'haters' and calls her diagnosis a 'superpower.'
'When haters go after your looks and differences, it means they have nowhere left to go. And then you know you're winning!' she wrote on X in August 2019. 'I have Aspergers and that means I'm sometimes a bit different from the norm. And – given the right circumstances- being different is a superpower."
During an October 2019 conversation with PEOPLE, the activist again called her Asperger's her "superpower," and went on to say that "being different is a good thing."
'It's something we should aspire to be," she added.
In December 2019, Thunberg was named TIME's Person of the Year, making history as the youngest person to receive the honor.
Former TIME editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal announced the news while appearing on the Today show, saying, "She became the biggest voice on the biggest issue facing the planet this year."
'Her rise and influence has been really extraordinary,' Felsenthal continued. 'She was a solo protester with a hand-painted sign 14 months ago. She's now led millions of people around the world, 150 countries, to act on behalf of the planet.'
In addition to being a young activist, Thunberg is also an accomplished author. In 2018, she released Our House Is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis, which she co-wrote alongside her parents and sister.
In 2019, she released No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, which is a collection of her speeches.
The following year, I Know This to Be True: Greta Thunberg was released as part of a larger series featuring interviews with modern world leaders.
Most recently, in 2022, Thunberg released The Climate Book, which became a New York Times bestseller.
According to the synopsis, the activist gathered knowledge from over 100 experts, including geophysicists, oceanographers, meteorologists and more, while also "sharing her own stories of demonstrating and uncovering greenwashing around the world."
Read the original article on People
