Greta Thunbergs journey: starting the climate change movement | Teen Ink

Greta Thunbergs journey: starting the climate change movement

January 6, 2022
By dua_azhar23 SILVER, Lahore, Other
dua_azhar23 SILVER, Lahore, Other
9 articles 0 photos 0 comments

The name ‘Greta Thunberg’ has become a household name and concerns about climate change are at an all-time high due the inspirational efforts made by Greta Thunberg an 18 year old climate activist. Greta Thunberg, who is passionate, wise and mature beyond her years, has already accomplished more in the name of climate change than many long-term activists and politicians. Our Earth teeters on the cliff of destruction and repair, and this young Swedish activist stands in the center, trying to keep everything in control.

It all started on the first Friday of August 2018, when she protested the government's lack of response to the climate catastrophe in front of the Swedish parliament building. At the age of just 15 Greta Thunberg started her climate change movement and tweeted, ‘”We kids most often don’t do what you tell us to do. We do as you do. And since you grown-ups don’t care about my future, I won’t either. My name is Greta and I’m currently in ninth grade. And I am school striking for the climate untilthe day of the election .’’ Since then Greta Thunberg has held strikes every Friday and invites students from her school to protest about a number of different climatic issues and has called this movement, the Fridays for Future campaign.  By November 2018, around 17,000 students across 24 countries took part in the Friday school strikes and Greta Thunberg started speaking at renowned events such as the UN climate talks in Poland. After this her influence grew exponentially and as she continued to hold strikes and talk on high profile events the amount of people participating in the Fridays for Future campaign reached 2 million people across 135 countries and she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in March 2019. As her influence grew she won more titles and awards such as being named one of the most influential people by the Times magazine in May 2019. After this she faced quite a lot of opposition from top tier politicians and lawmakers as they question her credibility and described her as a "Nobel prize of fear". To this Greta Thunberg expressed that you cannot argue with science and continued her campaign as she spread awareness about the scientifically backed up ideologies in regard to climate change she believes in. 


By august of 2019 the amount of people striking for climate change increased to 3.6 million and Greta Thunberg who is against flying took a zero emission yacht from the UK to the US to attend a UN climate action summit. Greta Thunberg than gave a scathing address to world leaders at the United Nations meeting on September 23, 2019, accusing them of "stealing my dreams and my childhood with your false promises." After that Greta Thunberg was announced one of the four winners of the 2019 Right Livelihood Award, which is known as the Swedish version of the Nobel Peace Prize. As Covid - 19 grew Greta Thunberg continued her awareness campaigns but instead of going on the streets to protest she started an online campaign with the hashtag ‘ClimateStrikeOnline’. In June of 2020, Greta Thunberg and the Fridays for Future launched a crowd funding campaign to assist Brazil in the climate crisis. During the entirety to Covid, Greta Thunberg not only continued her awareness about severe climatic conditions but also used her position and influence to help Covid situations in highly affected areas. Such can be seen in April 2021 when she refused to attend the COP26 in Glasgow due to unequal vaccine distribution because of which UK government offered to vaccinate all participants. Greta Thunberg also donated 100, 000 euros to WHO to help with COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme and continued to spread awareness about both the climatic conditions and the importance of vaccination/dangers of coronavirus. The most recent of her works was on November 2nd 2021 when she protested outside the COP26 climate negotiations in Glasgow and claimed that world leaders had "taken us absolutely nowhere" and change can only be brought from the outside through the works of civic activists. "Change won’t come through conferences like #COP26 unless there is substantial public pressure from the outside," she said. 


Greta Thunberg is one of the most accomplished climatic activists and an inspiration to many. Her journey has been a very successful one with around 20 million people currently following the Future for Fridays movement and protesting against/ spreading awareness about the world’s current climatic conditions. As someone who bases all of her ideologies on science, every single things she protests for is a critical cause and while many people and politicians have opposed her views and criticized her for her actions, she continues to be a leading activist and an inspiration to many. It is high time that we also assist her in this never ending battle against climate change. Unless you are a firm believer in Elon Musk's ambition to turn Mars into another habitable planet, keep in mind that there is no such thing as a 'Planet B' in this universe.



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