Greta Thunberg, the young climate change activist from Sweden first came to prominence in August 2018 when she began her first ‘skolstrejk för klimatet’‘or school strike for climate change outside the Swedish government building.
Greta Thunberg claimed she took her inspiration from the school walkouts in protest against gun laws after the Parkland school shootings.
The strikes started out with just Greta on her own but soon garnered more supporters and a lot more attention
Who is Greta Thunberg?
Greta Thunberg first heard about climate change in 2011, when she was aged just eight. She claimed that she could not understand how adults seem to be doing so little about this threat to humanity. When Greta was 11 she began to develop feelings so strongly about climate change inaction that she slipped into a period of depression, which after a discussion with her parents, they decided to become vegan and give up flying altogether.
Greta’s father is Svante Thunberg, a nobel prize-winning scientist and author as well as an actor. Her mother is Malena Ernman, one of Sweden’s most famous opera singers.
Greta was diagnosed with asperger’s syndrome in her teens, she does not see this as a disability but more like a “super power”.
“I overthink. Some people can just let things go, but I can’t, especially if there’s something that worries me or makes me sad”
Greta has also been also been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder and selective mutism.
Rise to fame
Greta Thunberg began giving speeches in her unique somber tone. In her speeches she scolded us adults for passing on the mess that is climate change onto the next generation.
Speaking of super powers
In her book Scenes from the Heart, Greta’s mother makes a very strange claim about Greta:
“She can see carbon dioxide with the naked eye. She sees how it flows out of chimneys and turns the atmosphere into a rubbish tip.”
This would be very impressive, making Greta the only person in the world with this ability. Or the result of an overactive imagination, i’ll leave that one for you to decide.
Extinction rebellion
Extinction rebellion is a socio-political movement who use non-violent resistance to compel action from governments on climate change.
Their protests are designed to disrupt traffic in an attempt to bring awareness to the climate crisis.
Greta Thunberg in the news
Greta Thunberg was recently in the news for her “zero emissions” cross transatlantic yacht which was not exactly zero emissions when you consider that to return the yacht back to Europe, four crew members will have to fly to New York to bring the bloody thing back.
What’s next?
Ireland is one of the worst offenders in the EU when it comes to waste, in particular our plastic waste. We will all have to take recycling a lot more serious.
This video may surprise some (myself included) when it comes to what is and isn’t recyclable.
Either way the future looks like it will be a lot more conservative when it comes to waste. We will have get used recycling more, producing less emissions and not getting a decent slug from your paper straw.
Producer: Sean Dempsey
Music: bensound.com
Let us know what you think below or drop us an email
