Greta Thunberg

In just a few months, Greta Thunberg went from being one of the daughters of the Swedish opera singer Lanea Ernman and the actor Svante Thunberg to becoming one of the most influential people worldwide in the fight against climate change.

In August 2018, when she was fifteen years old, Thunberg began dedicating part of her free time after school to protesting in front of the Swedish parliament, holding a sign calling for stronger climate action. Soon, other students joined similar protests and together they organized a school climate strike movement called Fridays for Future.

1. Depression, autism, selective mutism, and Asperger’s syndrome

Thunberg is known for her forceful way of speaking and defending her principles, both in public and when addressing leaders and political assemblies demanding immediate action to tackle what she describes as the “climate crisis.” This conviction also led Thunberg to convince her parents to adopt new environmentally respectful lifestyles. To reduce their own carbon footprint, they stopped, to name just a couple of examples, flying and eating meat.

What not many know is that all this began when Thunberg first heard about climate change in 2011, at the age of eight. At that time, Greta could not understand why so little was being done about it. Three years later, she was affected by depression and stopped speaking and eating. Eventually, she was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and selective mutism.

2. The Greta Thunberg effect

After the general elections in her country, Sweden, in September 2019, Thunberg continued protesting every Friday, which drew international attention and inspired young students worldwide to join student strikes. Since December 2018, young people from 270 cities in various countries across the five continents have joined these demonstrations.

The young Swede has been a source of inspiration for many of her school-age peers in what has been described as the “Greta Thunberg effect.” In the summer of 2019, according to Nielsen Book Research, the number of books for children published about the climate crisis doubled, with a similar increase in sales of such books. Publishers attribute this to the “Greta Thunberg effect.”

This effect also extends to fortunes of wealthy philanthropists and investors from the United States, who have donated more than half a million dollars to support various school strike groups.

The last president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, reported that in the next financial period from 2021 to 2027, 1 out of every 4 euros spent within the EU budget will be allocated to measures to mitigate climate change.

Climate issues also played an important role in the European elections of May 2019, as the green parties nearly doubled their vote to finish in second place with 21%, increasingly able to influence the new European parliament.

3. Leather armchair and first-class travel

Like almost everyone, Greta has followers and, equally, detractors. The Thunberg family has also been subject to criticism, controversies, and accusations.

One of the most thorny and significant concerns refers to a leather armchair shown in a photo of mother and daughter in their living room. It was not long before the first reports appeared online pointing out that the mentioned armchair was worth more than 6,000 euros and was the work of the late American designer Charles Eames. It was made of leather and rare woods, which for its opponents showed that animal skin and numerous trees were needed to make it. This led them to label the activist’s attitude as hypocritical.

Another controversy involving Greta concerns a photo she posted on her social media of herself on a supposedly crowded train of the German train company Deutsche Bahn.

Traveling on overcrowded trains through Germany. And I’m finally on my way home! pic.twitter.com/ssfLCPsR8o

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) December 14, 2019

The company replied to Greta’s tweet as follows: “Dear Greta, thank you for supporting us railway workers in the fight against climate change. We were glad you traveled with us on Saturday on ICE 74. And that is with 100% sustainable electricity. It would have been even nicer if you had also mentioned how kind and competent you were served by our team in your first-class seat.”

4. Greta leaves the Climate March in Madrid

One of her most recent public appearances was precisely in our country: the closing of the Climate March in Madrid held on December 6, 2019, on the occasion of the UN Climate Summit taking place in the capital.

The 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg had to leave the march advised by her security team due to the crowd of people around her that prevented her from moving forward.

Thunberg arrived in the Spanish capital after 36 days of low-pollution travel by electric car, boat, and train. To get there, she crossed the United States by electric car and train, then made the 21-day crossing to Europe aboard a catamaran owned by a wealthy Australian couple (which has also earned her some criticism) who share their high-seas adventures on Youtube.

Her journey ended with a train trip to Madrid. This could not be a zero-emission trip since the train tracks were not fully electrified. It was necessary to use the diesel engine for two hours of the journey, precisely between the Portuguese border and Salamanca, covering about 200 kilometers.

5. A girl from South Sudan to Greta: “They have stolen your childhood?… We will trade it with you.”

A digital media outlet recently published what appears to be a letter that a girl from South Sudan dedicates to Greta Thunberg explaining the problems she and other girls like her suffer daily in a displaced persons camp. The letter, which begins with a comparison between living in Sweden and in the displaced persons camp, is full of emotion, reproaches, and ironic comparisons between Greta’s life and that of this young South Sudanese girl:

1.- “Sorry, but you have to be shameless to say they have stolen your childhood…”

2.- “Look, Greta: I want to think that you are simply a puppet in the hands of strange interests…”

3.- “…the ones who have stolen childhood are us…”

4.- “…we would love to have many more cows farting into the atmosphere all day because that way we would have access to the proteins that could prevent millions of our children from dying of malnutrition.”

5.- “…we have reserved a spot for you in tent number 1,587 of our refugee camp so you can rest a while without polluting…”

6.- “…to avoid polluting the environment, don’t bring your phone, glasses, pads, toothbrush, or anything whose making process has contributed to CO2 emissions.”

The letter ends with: “They have stolen your childhood? Don’t worry, because all of us, to do you a favor: WE WILL TRADE IT WITH YOU.”