Greta Thunberg, Climate Activist

Twitter photo

Greta Thunberg is a climate activist. A hero like no other. 

The teen made international headlines since launching a school strike against climate change in her home country of Sweden this year. Every Friday, she protests outside the parliament building in Stockholm instead of attending school. 

“I like school, and I like learning”, said the 15-year-old but will only end her strike when Sweden starts cutting carbon emissions by 15 percent a year. She is very clear on what she must do! 

Then she added: “Why should we be studying for a future that soon may be no more? This is more important than school, I think”. 

Her initiative has inspired thousands of students across the globe to do the same.

I had blogged about Australian students who go on strike for climate change – read it here

@ http://helpvictor.blogspot.com/2018/11/australian-schoolchildren-go-on-strike.html. 

Thunberg has shamed climate change negotiators at the COP24 UN climate summit in Katowice, Poland this month. "You are not mature enough to tell it like (it) is", she said. 

"Even that burden you leave to us children. But I don't care about being popular. I care about climate justice and the living planet". 

Here is Greta Thunberg's speech @ TEDxStockholm, published on December 12, 2018 – she is adamant that the world can only be saved by changing the rules:

The climate talks had resulted in nearly 200 nations agreeing to a set of rules that will govern the Paris Agreement on climate change, which aims to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-Industrial levels. 

Even the negotiators know they're not doing nearly enough to reach that goal and avoid disastrous effects of climate chance, which include the end of coral reefs, rising seas, stronger superstorms and deadlier heatwaves. 

Thunberg and other young people emerged as among the strongest moral voices at the talks, which went into overtime amid disputes about the scientific consensus on global warming, which has shown for decades that burning coal, oil and gas wreaks havoc on people and the planet. 

Twitter photo @jdsutter 

Two Fridays ago, students did leave their classes and walked into that very same conference in Poland – holding signs that, together, read: "12 years left". 

That's a reference to the latest dire report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which says global climate targets could become impossible in just 12 years. 

The report says emissions need to be cut about in half by 2030, which would require a near-complete overhaul of the global energy system. 

As Małgorzata Czachowska, one of the Polish students inspired by Thunberg said: "Adults sometimes forget about the young people".