Greta Thunberg. At 16, she advocates for climate change that moves the world

Maybe in August of last year, when she put her backpack on the floor and sat alone on the sidewalk of the Swedish Parliament with a cardboard sign stating "School strike for bad weather",
Greta Thunberg could not imagine everything that would happen next.

The truth is that at 16, this long-haired teenager and yellow pilot became the icon of
fight against global warming. Today, millions of young people around the world are following and doing together something that seemed impossible: making the climate crisis a priority.

Since leaving her backpack on the ground and in just nine months, Greta has managed to speak at the United Nations Climate Change Conference and at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In April, Pope Francis encouraged her to go ahead. In March, she led the first global climate change strike. In April, she met members of the British Parliament (after their meeting they were the first to declare "the climate emergency"., Followed by Ireland). Last week, she was chosen as one of the "new generation leaders" by Time magazine (she appeared on the cover with a green dress and sneakers). And all last week was dedicated to the convening of the second global climate defense event, which was held on Friday 24 May in 116 countries (including Argentina).

Conscious girl

But the story of this ordinary girl became super powerful started much earlier.
He started at the age of 8, when he learned that there was something like "global warming" or "climate change"., according to his speech TEDx Stockholm: "I remember that it was hard for me to believe that human beings, that we are just one of the many species on the planet, are able to change the climate of the Earth." I could not believe it, because if it were true If it really happened, we would not talk about anything else … When we turned on the television, the radio, the newspapers, we would all talk about the same thing. "However, nobody said anything.

At age 11, Greta became depressed: she stopped talking and eating, and in two months she lost 10 pounds. He has been diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome, OCD and Autism. He says today that his illness, far from being an obstacle, helps him to see things more clearly: "I see things in black and white, crises too: we stop emissions or we do not stop them , we avoid a chain reaction without control or we do not avoid it. "It is precisely this decision to show its most vulnerable side which is one of the reasons why so many young people Identify it.

Off-road activist

It took Greta a few months to get out of the depression. But he did it. He decided to turn his sadness into action. "I promised myself to do everything to change things." Inspired by the fight of Parkland, Florida's school boys (who protested against the indiscriminate use of weapons),
Greta had the idea of ​​missing clbades to protest. At first, she was alone. But little by little, his friends began to join the strike on Friday. They called her
#Fridaysforhefuture Next, it has spread to other cities in Europe and the world.

In December, she was invited to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Katovice, Poland. And there, little Greta, the sweet-faced girl, has become an activist who can talk to the world's leaders and tell them the most difficult truths without her voice shaking.
"You are not mature enough to say things as they are," he told the 200 governors present. And those three minutes of speech became viral.
From then on, his influence was unstoppable. Your Twitter account has increased by 4000%.
Your Instagram account has reached 1.7 million
followers. But in addition Greta began to appear in the news. The mainstream media have started to talk about it, and therefore the climate crisis. Greta made things happen.

In January, he went by train to the Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland, where the richest businessmen of the world meet. It took him 32 hours to arrive and then he stayed in a tent, in the snow and at 18 degrees below zero, instead of staying in a hotel. There he said his famous phrase: "
Adults say that they must give hope to young people. But I do not want your hope. I do not want them to have hope. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear that I feel every day. And then I want them to act. I want you to act as if you were in crisis. I want them to act as if the house was on fire. Because that's it. "

Why is your message so important?

But why does Greta say that the house is on fire? This is the conclusion reached last year by the United Nations Scientific Committee called the IPCC. The UN expert group reviewed all existing literature and concluded that
we have until 2030 to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions so that the increase in global temperature does not exceed 1.5 degrees.
If that happened, there would be a chain reaction whose effects would be catastrophic and nothing that could be stopped by the human being.

That's why Greta's message is so important. Because it is the voice of the generation that will suffer the consequences of climate change if the increase in the temperature of the Earth does not stop.

Despite everything, Greta is optimistic. He does all this because he believes that there is still hope. "We are not condemned, but we have only 11 years to stop an irreversible chain reaction, beyond our control," he said. And then he adds, "I've learned that we're never too young to make a difference." If some guys could do one of the world just to not go to school, imagine what we could all do together if we really wanted to.

In Argentina

In our country already
Several groups of boys decided to join Greta's proposal, not only in Buenos Aires but in several towns in the interior. Tomorrow Friday at 15h the boys from
@jovenesporelclimaarg, local expression of the #fridaysforthefuture movement, presented its bill on the declaration of climatic urgency. If you want more information or join this call, do not hesitate to consult them.