The young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who announced on Friday that she was ending her emblematic “school strike”, has become the troublemaker of the climate cause, not hesitating to challenge personalities and institutions.
– “School strike”
At the time anonymous, Greta Thunberg was only 15 years old when she moved for the first time in front of the Swedish parliament on a Friday in August 2018, with her sign “School strike for the climate”.
In a few months, from Berlin to Sydney, from San Francisco to Johannesburg, young people followed suit and the “Fridays for Future” movement was born.
Fresh out of high school, she announced on Twitter on Friday that she was carrying out her “last school strike” since she has now finished high school, promising however to participate in other forms of demonstrations.
– Crossing the Atlantic by sailboat
Expected in New York, at the world climate summit on September 23, 2019, the young activist embarks in August on a zero-carbon racing sailboat for a two-week Atlantic crossing, in preference to the more polluting plane.
The team of the sailboat will however be obliged to respond to a controversy surrounding the conditions for the return of the ship to Europe, by ensuring that the carbon emissions linked to its trip would all be compensated. The logistics required two people to fly to New York to bring the boat back.
– “How dare you?”
“How dare you? You stole my dreams and my childhood with your empty words”. In front of dozens of heads of state and televisions around the world, Greta Thunberg holds on September 23, 2019, before the UN General Assembly on climate, a four and a half minute speech, her voice full of frustration and of anger.
“How dare you?”, she repeats several times.
Immediately going viral, his speech generated tens of thousands of shares and comments on social networks.
– “Relax, Donald!”
In December 2019, Donald Trump joked about the young climate activist, who had just won the title of “Personality of the Year” from Time magazine.
“Greta needs to learn how to manage her anger and then go see a good old movie with a friend!” tweeted the American president. “Relax Greta, relax!”.
In November 2020, when Donald Trump was in the midst of challenging the counting of the American election, she took up her words by tweeting: “Donald must work on controlling his anger, and go see a good old movie with a friend! Relax Donald, Relax!”.
– Passes d’armes on Twitter
To other critical personalities, the young activist responds tit for tat, with the same irony.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin called her a “nice little girl” in October 2019, she immediately updated her profile on Twitter: “nice but uninformed teenager”.
And when masculinist influencer Andrew Tate asks her for her email address to send her a list of her “collection of cars and their huge emissions”, the Swede’s scathing reply – “yes answer me at [email protected]+ – goes viral on Twitter.
– Police custody in Germany
On January 17, 2023, Greta Thunberg spent a few hours in police custody in Germany with other people who were demonstrating against the extension of the largest open-pit mine in the country, in the Rhine basin.
In photos, Greta Thunberg, dressed in black, appears framed by police officers and then carried by them during her evacuation.
His fight against this project earned him the following day the support in Davos of the former American vice president and environmental activist Al Gore.
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