The Greta Effect: Teen activist's globetrotting gap year electrified climate change debate, brought it to youth
Greta Thunberg has returned to her normal life as she joins her school back after taking a year-long break to spread awareness on climate change. The 17-year-old posted a picture of herself on her Instagram page where she was seen with her bicycle and school bag. In the caption, Greta wrote: “My gap year from school is over, and it feels so great to finally be back in school again!” Almost a year ago, in New York, the Swedish environmental activist had said that "I should be in school." And, nearly after a year, she is. Many people on Instagram commended the young activist with one writing, “If they need a climate teacher youll be perfect”. A second user said: “Your service to humanity will never be forgotten. Thank you Greta” while another added, “Keep on learning and keep on making changes!”
For the last twelve months, Greta has lived a very different life from the children of her age. A number of kids enjoy a nice boat trip while taking a gap year, but the 17-year-old was much interested in some work. She sailed from Plymouth to New York on a zero-emissions yacht and arrived in New York in August 2019 after a 3,000-mile (4,800km) voyage across the Atlantic to participate in UN climate summits in New York City and Chile. Soon after arriving in New York City, the then 16-year-old said: “Our war on nature must end. I want to thank everyone... who is involved in this climate fight, because this is a fight across borders, across continents.”
In September, Greta spoke at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in America. The event was attended by several prominent leaders, including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Her speech was all about confronting the world leaders and asking them to do more to tackle climate change.
“You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that, because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil and that I refuse to believe."
She added at the time: “My message is that we'll be watching you. This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. Yet I am one of the lucky ones. People are suffering.”
After her powerful speech at the summit in the US, Greta moved her movement to Canada, where she led a rally as part of the Global Climate Strike in Montreal. The rally was joined by hundreds of thousands of people across Canada while close to a hundred other events took place in cities and towns around the world.
Initially, the strike was started as school strikes with Greta's "Fridays for Future" movement. However, it soon took a bigger form as officials in Montreal said it was attended by around 315,000 people. The figures reportedly placed the Montreal event on the list of one of the most attended environmental marches in history. “It is very moving to see everyone, everyone who is so passionate to march and strike. It is a very good day, I would say,” she said at the time.
In December 2019, Greta took another boat trip. She was due to go to Chile to attend the climate change summit, but at the last minute the venue was shifted to Spain because of political unrest. But since the teenager wanted to leave a minimal carbon footprint of her travel, she made a social media appeal for a lift across the Atlantic. She was offered help by a 26-year-old British sailor Nikki Henderson.
"We need to work together to make sure that we secure future living conditions for humankind, and that we fight for not only ourselves, but for our children and for our grandchildren and for every single living being on Earth," Greta told the crowd after arriving at her destination.
And at the beginning of 2020, Greta joined the most powerful economic leaders on the planet at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Among the attendees was US President Donald Trump, who had a very different message from Greta. In March again, the young girl attended another big meeting, the European Parliament's Environment Committee. “When your house is on fire, you don't wait a few more years to start putting it out. And yet this is what the Commission is proposing today," she told the committee at the time. Branding the EU’s climate law “surrender", she said: “This climate law is surrender. Nature doesn't bargain, and you cannot make deals with physics.”
However, when Covid-19 embroiled most of the world, Greta was unstoppable as she announced plans for a "Digital Strike". Though the youngster had dedicated around a year telling world leaders to adopt a more ambitious plan to tackle climate change, changes to any government's policies on climate change have not been accredited to her. But there are people who believe that Greta has done great work in bringing the topic to public attention.
Her efforts were recognized by ‘New Scientist’, which stated at the end of 2019 that people “finally woke up to climate change," majorly because of the work of Greta and the Extinction Rebellion protest group. Prominent politicians like UK Environment secretary Michael Gove and former Labour leader Ed Miliband have also praised the teen girl for her impact on climate change, popularly known as "The Greta Effect."