Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg, born on January 3, 2003, is a Swedish activist who has become a prominent voice in the fight against climate change and for social justice. Rising to global attention in 2018, at age 15, after initiating a solo school strike outside the Swedish parliament, she inspired the worldwide Fridays for Future movement. Thunberg's activism extends beyond climate issues, encompassing human rights and global justice, with her voicing support for Ukraine, Palestine, Armenia, and Western Sahara. Central to Thunberg's environmentalism is her commitment to veganism, a lifestyle choice she advocates as a crucial step towards mitigating climate change and promoting animal welfare.
Early Life and Awakening to Climate Change
Greta Thunberg was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to opera singer Malena Ernman and actor Svante Thunberg. Her paternal grandfather was actor and director Olof Thunberg. Thunberg says she first heard about climate change in 2011, when she was eight years old, and could not understand why so little was being done about it. The situation depressed her, and as a result, at the age of 11, she largely stopped talking, severely restricted her eating, and lost ten kilograms (22 lb) in two months. Eventually, she was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and selective mutism. In one of her first speeches demanding climate action, Thunberg described her selective mutism as meaning she "only speaks when necessary". She struggled with depression for almost four years before she began her school strike campaign.
The Rise of a Climate Activist
In August 2018, 15-year-old Greta Thunberg caught the world’s attention when she campaigned outside the Swedish parliament demanding stronger governmental action against climate change. In May 2018, Thunberg won a climate change essay competition held by Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. In part, she wrote: "I want to feel safe. After the paper published her article, Thunberg was contacted by Bo Thorén from Fossil Free Dalsland, a group interested in doing something about climate change. Thunberg attended a few of their meetings.
In December, after Sweden's 2018 general election, Thunberg continued to school strike - but only on Fridays. She inspired school students across the globe to take part in her Friday school strikes. On Fridays, Greta Thunberg participates in the #FridaysForFuture, a movement she started after striking for climate change in front of the Swedish parliament. She joins thousands of student strikers from all around the world to demand for a more sustainable future. Even when she is traveling to different countries to give speeches or attend conferences, she continues to strike at wherever she is every Friday.
Thunberg's activism quickly gained momentum, leading to invitations to speak at international forums and parliaments. Her powerful speeches, including her impassioned "How Dare You?" address at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit, resonated with audiences worldwide, solidifying her position as a leading voice for climate action.
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Thunberg's Veganism: A Moral and Environmental Imperative
Thunberg's environmentalism runs through the heart of every decision she makes. Around the world, animal agriculture is destroying the environment. It’s a leading driver of deforestation, and emits 14.5 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions, among other environmental issues. Because of this, Thunberg has been vegan for many years. Thunberg's veganism is not merely a personal dietary choice but a deeply held conviction rooted in both environmental and ethical considerations.
The Environmental Impact of Animal Agriculture
Thunberg emphasizes the significant role of animal agriculture in driving climate change. Factory farming (animal agriculture) accounts for a greater proportion of greenhouse gas emissions (at 18%) than land, air and sea transportation combined. It also causes severe damage to the environment in terms of water and land resources used. It’s estimated that animal farming is responsible for 20%-33% of all freshwater consumption in the world today, and, livestock covers 45% of the world’s total land.
Ethical Considerations: Animal Welfare
Beyond the environmental implications, Thunberg is also a huge animal lover. She advocates for veganism due to her deep concern for animal welfare. "Every year we kill more than 60 billion animals, excluding fish, whose numbers are so great that we only measure their lives by weight,” she says. “What about their thoughts and feelings? Some animals plan for the future and forge friendships that last for decades. They play, they help each other, they show signs of what we call empathy. “It is heartbreaking to know all this,” she adds.
Influencing Family and Promoting Plant-Based Diets
For about two years, Thunberg challenged her parents to lower the family's carbon footprint and overall impact on the environment by becoming vegan, upcycling, and giving up flying. She has said she showed them graphs and data, but when that did not work, she warned her family that they were stealing her future. Giving up flying in part meant her mother had to abandon international ventures in her opera career. Interviewed in December 2019 by the BBC, her father said: "To be honest, [her mother] didn't do it to save the climate. She did it to save her child, because she saw how much it meant to her, and then, when she did that, she saw how much [Greta] grew from that, how much energy she got from it." Thunberg credits her parents' eventual response and lifestyle changes with giving her hope and belief that she could make a difference.
Last year, she teamed up with the animal rights organization Mercy For Animals to release a video encouraging more people to take up a plant-based diet. Thunberg's advocacy extends to encouraging others to adopt plant-based diets. She understands that individual choices, when multiplied across a large population, can contribute to significant positive change.
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Thunberg's Message: Connecting the Dots
Greta, who in 2019 became TIME’s magazine’s youngest person of the year, wanted to show the links between the climate, ecological and health global crises, links she says people don’t normally see.
Thunberg's film begins with her wearing a mask talking about COVID-19. One of the many examples of zoonotic diseases caused by animal exploitation. She says: “Up to 75% of all new diseases come from other animals.” There may be still many things we don’t’ know about the exact way these pandemics originate. In a future vegan world, there would not be factory farms, animal markets, zoos and wildlife trade. In such a world, the conditions for the emergence of such diseases would be greatly reduced.
Greta explains more in the film: “83% of the world’s agricultural land is used to feed livestock. “IF WE CONTINUE, WE WILL RUN OUT OF LAND AND FOOD. IT JUST DOESN’T MAKE SENSE.
Any climate campaigner who follows Greta’s activism and lobbying will learn an important message by watching this film. It’s not all about fossil fuels or government policies. It’s also about your choice of food. Animal agriculture is one of the forgotten “villains” by many environmentalists who still haven’t switched to the diet vegans eat. “When we think about the villains of the climate crisis, of course, we picture fossil fuel companies. But agriculture and land use together are about one-quarter of our emissions. And the food that vegans eat is a plant-based diet. “It doesn’t have to be like this. If we change towards a plant-based diet, we can save up to 8 billion tonnes of CO2 every single year. “WE NEED A SYSTEM CHANGE.
Concrete Actions and Advocacy
Thunberg doesn't just talk about the problem; she actively seeks solutions. In November 2022, hundreds of young people marched to the Stockholm District Court with one mission: to hold the Swedish government accountable for its lack of action on the climate crisis. There, they filed a lawsuit with the court, which they hope will prove that Sweden is violating people’s human rights by not doing enough to prevent environmental disasters. During the march, Thunberg-a globally-renowned environmentalist who shot to fame aged just 15-held a sign that read “Nu stämmer vi staten,” which translates to “Now, we are suing the state.” She has written books, including “The Climate Book,” which was released in October 2022. Just recently, she appeared at London’s Southbank Center Literature Festival to promote her book launch. There, she said to the audience: “The climate crisis is a ticking clock that is rapidly approaching the countdown’s end.” With reference to young activists, she added: “We are still here, and we are not planning on going anywhere.
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A Global Movement
Thunberg's impact extends far beyond her individual actions. In 2018, after Thunberg’s social media posts about her protests started to go viral, thousands of young people wanted to join her activism. Just two months after that first sit-in, she was joined by 20,000 students, who held similar strikes around the world. Since then, Fridays For Future has grown exponentially. It has spread to every single continent, and more than 14,000,000 young people have been involved in its climate action.
She inspired a global movement of young climate activists, demonstrating the power of individual action and collective mobilization. Her work has sparked the "Greta effect," influencing environmental awareness and youth engagement worldwide.
Challenges and Criticisms
Thunberg's activism has not been without its challenges and criticisms. She has faced scrutiny from various sources, including those who question her methods, motives, or the scientific basis of her arguments. Effigies of Thunberg were burned in Delhi by Hindutva nationalists who opposed the farmers' protests. Thunberg's tweet was criticized by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Indian government, which said that it was an internal matter. Despite these challenges, Thunberg remains steadfast in her commitment to climate action and her belief in the importance of veganism as a key component of a sustainable future.