As 2019 continues to progress, Greta Thunberg has often been seen as the face of future generation’s fight against climate change. Her scathing speech at the UN perfectly encapsulates her stance on the issue as she proclaims, “this is all wrong. I shouldn’t be here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean, yet you all come to us young people for hope”. This statement is the very crux of her anger and disappointment at the current state of the world. Why should the children of the world be fighting for their future, when it was destroyed by the generations that came before them? 

Before the speech, footage was circulated of Donald Trump making his entrance in the recent UN climate change summit shows Greta, with her signature long blonde braids, just behind him. You may have noticed that she was staring at him with unabashed fury in her eyes. Greta’s low-carbon lifestyle means that she refuses to fly and had sailed two weeks across the ocean in a solar-powered yacht to be at the summit, only to be met by this president that seems to symbolize this capitalist mindset that she is so against. It’s clear from this scene alone that she is a force to be reckoned with.

Photo taken from CTV News

Greta’s Past

Thunberg had learned about climate change at the age of 8 years old in her home country of Sweden. Even then, she was unable to fathom the fact that so little was being done. She was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, and fell into a crippling depression a couple of years later as she struggled to common ground with her peers. While many conservative newscasters and pundits have criticized her for this, she has often called it her superpower. And superpower it is, as she has single handedly started a movement and inspired youths around the world to get involved and put pressure on their own political representatives to treat climate change with urgency.

The movement started off as her idea to strike from her school on Fridays in order to protest against her government, calling it “Fridays for Future”. What began as one person continuously skipping school in protest, has now evolved into a phenomenon that has rallied young people to action. The war against climate change continues to rage on, but Greta will rage along with it. Using the word war seems fitting when put into the context of Greta Thunberg and her legacy as an activist. Anything less terrifying and more positive would evoke hope. And hope is not what she is after. Hope is the fodder that world leaders and corporations use to keep people complacent. No, she doesn’t want to represent hope for the future. What she represents instead is a fire. A guiding light that will scorch whoever gets in the way of her path to save our planet.

Our Future

What may have started as a small gesture by a quiet, young girl in Sweden is now catching on the rest of the world. It is this anger, determination, and readiness to do something that she is spreading to the world’s youth like wildfire. Along with other youths fighting for climate justice such as Mari Copeny, Isra Hirsi and many more, Greta spreads the realization that there are rallies across the world that we are all able to attend and things that we can all do to contribute. They also spread an awareness of people in power that are exploiting a world that they won’t even have to live in. Hope may be a by-product of this sensation but action is what instigates necessary changes.

Thanks for reading!
Sam