Schoolgirl, to climate change warrior: Why is Greta Thunberg in the news in India?

Her tweet came soon after international pop star Rihanna, too, tweeted in support of the farmers agitation, sharing an article and asked, “Why aren’t we talking about this?! #FarmersProtest.”

Greta Thunberg is a Swedish teenager who skipped school and has since become a leading voice, inspiring millions to fight climate change across the world. Last month, she was also featured on a new Swedish postage stamp, in recognition of her work. In the stamp, Thunberg, who turned 18 on January 3, 2021, is pictured standing on a clifftop, with swifts flying around her.

She grew up in Stockholm. Her mother, Malena Ernman, is an opera singer and former Eurovision Song Contest participant, while her father, Svante Thunberg, is an actor. He is a descendant of Svante Arrhenius, a scientist who created a model of the greenhouse effect. She has a younger sister.

Thunberg, who has Asperger’s syndrome, says she learned about climate change when she was eight. In 2018, she won an essay competition on climate change organised by a local newspaper. In August that year, she cut a frail and lonely figure when she started a protest for the climate outside Swedish parliament building. Though her parents tried to dissuade her, she was steadfast in her determination of continuing with the protest till the Swedish government met the carbon emissions target agreed by world leaders in Paris, in 2015. Sitting on the cobblestones, he held a hand-painted banner that read: “School Strike for Climate”.

Her protests went viral on social media and support for the cause began to grow. Similar protests began across the world, with the hashtag #FridaysForFuture. By December 2018, over 20,000 students worldwide lent support to her by joining protests. She took part in more protests in Europe, choosing to travel by train to limit the impact on the environment.

She took off from school in 2019 to continue campaigning, attend climate conferences, and join student protests around the world. In September 2019, she addressed a UN climate action summit in New York, where she blamed politicians for relying on young people to seek answers to climate change.

She was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. She has also spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Greta feels governments and businesses worldwide aren’t moving fast enough to cut carbon emissions. She has been campaigning and asking governments across the world to do more to cut carbon emissions.