PERSON: Greta Thunberg


Position

Climate Activist
Biography

Greta Thunberg (born January 3, 2003, Stockholm, Sweden) Swedish environmental activist who worked to address the problem of climate change, founding (2018) a movement known as Fridays for Future (also called School Strike for Climate).<br> <br> Thunberg’s mother was an opera singer, and her father was an actor. Greta was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, which is now considered an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It is characterized by abnormalities in social interactions (as in classic autism) but with normal intelligence and language development. People with Asperger syndrome tend to focus deeply on one idea or interest, and Thunberg’s cause became climate change. She first learned about the issue when she was approximately eight years old, and within a few years she changed her own habits, becoming a vegan and refusing to travel by airplane. (Both livestock and airplanes emit a large amount of the gases that contribute to global warming.)<br> <br> Seeking to make a greater impact, Thunberg attempted to spur lawmakers into addressing climate change. For almost three weeks prior to the Swedish election in September 2018, she missed school to sit outside the country’s parliament with a sign that stated “Skolstrejk för Klimatet” (School Strike for Climate). Although alone for the first day of the strike, she was joined each subsequent day by more and more people, and her story garnered international attention. After the election Thunberg returned to school but continued to skip classes on Fridays to strike, and these days were called Fridays for Future. Her action inspired hundreds of thousands of students around the world to participate in their own Fridays for Future. Strikes were held in such countries as Belgium, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Finland, Denmark, France, and the Netherlands.<br> <br> [Https://www.britannica.com/biography/Greta-Thunberg]
ClipsBank
Full
Compact
NewsBase
Full
Compact
RadioBank
Full
Compact
PodBank
Full
Compact
TranscriptBank
Full
Compact
No data found