Teen activist Greta Thunberg takes her youth climate campaign to Washington

Barely a year ago, Greta Thunberg sat alone outside the Swedish parliament each week, holding a handwritten sign that read “School Strike for Climate.”

After taking a solar-powered boat from
England to New York to attend the United
Nations Climate Action Summit, Thunberg
discussed what activists need to do.

But by the time the 16-year-old arrived in the United States in late August after a two-week ocean voyage on a zero-emissions boat, she was an icon of the youth climate movement. She has published a book, given barn-burning speeches before audiences of the world’s political and business leaders and been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. This coming Friday, she plans to lead a protest in New York ahead of a United Nations summit on climate action. Hundreds of thousands of students across more than 150 countries have said they plan to walk out of school in solidarity with her.

Before her latest strike, in front of the White House on Friday, Thunberg sat for an interview with The Washington Post. She spoke about how the climate debate is different in the United States, whether she considers herself an optimist and how she approaches the criticism that has accompanied her meteoric rise over the past year.

Read the story from The Washington Post by Sarah Kaplan and Brady Dennis - “Teen activist Greta Thunberg takes her youth climate campaign to Washington."

Greta Thunberg, schoolgirl climate change warrior: ‘Some people can let things go. I can’t’

Greta Thunberg cut a frail and lonely figure when she started a school strike for the climate outside the Swedish parliament building last August. Her parents tried to dissuade her. 

 Greta Thunberg … ‘I have always been that
girl in the back who doesn’t say anything.’ 

Classmates declined to join. Passersby expressed pity and bemusement at the sight of the then unknown 15-year-old sitting on the cobblestones with a hand-painted banner.

Eight months on, the picture could not be more different. The pigtailed teenager is feted across the world as a model of determination, inspiration and positive action. National presidents and corporate executives line up to be criticised by her, face to face. Her skolstrejk för klimatet (school strike for climate) banner has been translated into dozens of languages. And, most striking of all, the loner is now anything but alone.

Read the story from The Guardian by Jonathon Watts“ -  "Greta Thunberg, schoolgirl climate change warrior: ‘Some people can let things go. I can’t’.”