Ella Whelan
spiked.com
The rise of child climate activists is a truly strange development.
Greta Thunberg – the stern 16-year-old voice and face of the recent school climate-strike movement – has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Thunberg first made headlines when she skipped school on 20 August last year in her hometown in Sweden to protest outside parliament, holding a homemade placard reading ‘skolstrejk för klimatet’ (school strike for climate). Since then, she has inspired schoolkids across the world to ‘strike’, missing school to protest against what they argue is a climate crisis.
spiked.com
The rise of child climate activists is a truly strange development.
Greta Thunberg – the stern 16-year-old voice and face of the recent school climate-strike movement – has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Thunberg first made headlines when she skipped school on 20 August last year in her hometown in Sweden to protest outside parliament, holding a homemade placard reading ‘skolstrejk för klimatet’ (school strike for climate). Since then, she has inspired schoolkids across the world to ‘strike’, missing school to protest against what they argue is a climate crisis.
Thunberg says the prospect of global warming and a changing climate
frightened her – and so she decided to speak out. In a clip that has
since gone viral, from Thunberg’s special address to the World Economic Forum in January,
she says: ‘Adults keep saying: “We owe it to the young people to give
them hope.” But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I
want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And
then I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I
want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is.’
Despite her fear of the future, Thunberg is having a good time – not every 16-year-old girl has her own Wikipedia page, gets invited to give TED talks, speaks to European commissioners, or goes to Davos. She has come to symbolise a new movement, with youngsters echoing her mantra: ‘Why should I go to school to study if there is no future?’ Politicians have celebrated her bravery, activists have saluted her conviction, and greens everywhere have kicked themselves for not doing something similar when they were in their teens.
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Despite her fear of the future, Thunberg is having a good time – not every 16-year-old girl has her own Wikipedia page, gets invited to give TED talks, speaks to European commissioners, or goes to Davos. She has come to symbolise a new movement, with youngsters echoing her mantra: ‘Why should I go to school to study if there is no future?’ Politicians have celebrated her bravery, activists have saluted her conviction, and greens everywhere have kicked themselves for not doing something similar when they were in their teens.
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