Thunberg gave an emotional appeal in which she scolded the leaders with her repeated phrase, “How dare you.” She also said that the representatives of different countries are failing young people because of their inaction to address global heating and that “young people are starting to understand” their “betrayal.” She was not bothered by what Trump said to her or what anti-Thunberg propagandists spread about her. She just speaks her mind, and this time it was about Farmers protest. The Delhi police cyber cell has registered an FIR to investigate an “international conspiracy” to defame the country. Soon after the news of the FIR came out, Greta tweeted: “I still #StandWithFarmers and support their peaceful protest. No amount of hate, threats or violations of human rights will ever change that. #FarmersProtest”
Born on 3 January 2003 in Stockholm, Thunberg is the daughter of opera singer Malena Ernman and actor Svante Thunberg. As a child, she was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and selective mutism. She was also depressed and lethargic, stopped talking and eating a few years back. She never considered her autism as an illness but instead, she called it her superpower. Greta learnt about climate change at the age of 8 and started an awareness campaign from her own home by asking her parents to lower the family’s carbon footprint and adopt a vegan lifestyle. Not only that, her mother had to give up her international career as an opera singer following Greta’s insistence to avoid flying as much as possible. On Tuesday, several foreign individuals including International pop star Rihanna and climate activist Greta Thunberg extended their support to farmers protesting on the Delhi borders areas.
Later, she started school climate strikes and public speeches due to which she became an internationally recognized climate activist. She used to take time off school to demonstrate outside the Swedish parliament, holding up a sign calling for stronger climate action. With other students engaged in similar protests, she organized a school climate strike movement under the name Fridays for Future. Thunberg sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in August 2019 from Plymouth, UK, to New York, US, in a 60 ft racing yacht equipped with solar panels and underwater turbines, which lasted for 15 days. In May 2019, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine, which named her a “next-generation leader” and noted that many see her as a role model.
This is not the first time that Greta had appeared at the international platform. She had also attended the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference. After the UN Climate Action Summit in New York City, Greta will also attend the COP 25 Climate Change Conference in Santiago, Chile, which will be held in December. In response, the Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday said that the government has passed the laws “after a full debate and discussion” and has “initiated a series of talks” to address the farmers’ issues. The statement also condemned the violence that broke out during the protests on Republic Day.
For about two years, Thunberg challenged her parents to lower the family’s carbon footprint and overall impact on the environment by becoming vegan, up cycling, and giving up flying. She has said she tried showing them graphs and data, but when that did not work, she warned her family that they were stealing her future.] Giving up flying in part meant her mother had to give up her international career as an opera singer. When interviewed in December, 2019 by the BBC, her father said: “To be honest, (her mother) didn’t do it to save the climate. She did it to save her child because she saw how much it meant to her, and then, when she did that, she saw how much (Greta) grew from that, how much energy she got from it. Thunberg credits her parents’ eventual response and lifestyle changes with giving her hope and belief that she could make a difference. The family story is recounted in the 2018 book Scenes from the Heart. Thunberg’s activism started after convincing her parents to adopt several lifestyle choices to reduce their own carbon footprint. In August 2018, at age 15, she started spending her school days outside the Swedish Parliament to call for stronger action on climate change by holding up a sign reading Skolstrejk för klimatet (School strike for climate). Soon, other students engaged in similar protests in their own communities. Together, they organised a school climate strike movement under the name Fridays for Future. After Thunberg addressed the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference, student strikes took place every week somewhere in the world. In 2019, there were multiple coordinated multi-city protests involving over a million students each. To avoid flying, Thunberg sailed to North America where she attended the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit. Her speech there, in which she exclaimed “how dare you”, was widely taken up by the press and incorporated into music. Her sudden rise to world fame has made her both a leader and a target for critics. Her influence on the world stage has been described by The Guardian and other newspapers as the “Greta effect”. She received numerous honours and awards including an honorary Fellowship of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, inclusion in Time’s 100 most influential people, being the youngest Time Person of the Year, inclusion in the Forbes list of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women and two consecutive nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. Thunberg believes that humanity is facing an existential crisis because of global warming and holds the current generation of adults responsible for creating the problem.
