GRETA THUNBERG: The sixteen year old with a powerful message

By Grace Cooper.

Climate change. A term thrown around so carelessly that the earth dying seems like little to no concern for most people. Disregarding our destructive actions is becoming all too common, so common that we are running out of time.

Greta Thunberg is one of the few of us fighting for a change. At just sixteen years old, she’s left a more influential mark on society than those in authority (those with the responsibility to save our planet). From emotive speeches to denotative media appearances, Greta Thunberg is holding the future of our earth in her hands.

At 8 years old, Thunberg first learnt about global warming and her immediate question was why was nothing being done to stop it - a question that many of us should be asking ourselves. The fear and anxiety it caused her triggered a depression leading to a diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome, OCD and selective mutism. The now climate activist encouraged her parents to lessen their carbon footprint through veganism and no longer travelling by plane.

At age 15 she began protesting the lack of action being done about global warming by spending her school days outside the Swedish parliament. She held a sign declaring that she was on a “school strike for the climate” which caught the attention of other students who became involved in similar activities in their own communities. These strikes then led to an organised school movement strike for the climate named “Fridays For The Future”. She first had the idea of striking for the climate after school shootings in the United States led to several students refusing to go back to school. In May 2018 she won an essay competition about climate change which led to her getting contacted by fossil free dalsland an activist group for global warming. At the meetings, it was suggested that all school children strike for climate change however this idea fell through so Thunberg went on with this idea herself.

From then on, she’s appeared numerous times in the media to spread her message. It is impossible to open a newspaper and not see her name crop up, or open the Twitter app and not find her trending. Greta Thunberg is leaving her mark, and hopefully for the better. One change at a time we may be able to salvage the earth and with Greta’s disturbance to the oblivious fabrication many of us have set up for ourselves, we may be able to stop the inevitable loss of our planet.