Greta Thunberg: Education, Activism, and Impact

Greta Thunberg, born on January 3, 2003, in Stockholm, Sweden, is a Swedish activist recognized for pressuring governments to address climate change and social issues. She gained global attention in 2018, at age 15, after initiating a solo school strike outside the Swedish parliament, which inspired the worldwide Fridays for Future movement. Thunberg has since broadened her focus to include human rights and global justice, voicing support for Ukraine, Palestine, Armenia, and Western Sahara. Thunberg has been credited with sparking the "Greta effect", influencing environmental awareness and youth engagement worldwide.

Early Life and Awareness of Climate Change

Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg was born 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.

Diagnoses and "Superpower"

Soon after, Thunberg 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. Thunberg's diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome was made public nationwide in Sweden by her mother in May 2015, in order to help families in similar situations. While acknowledging that Asperger's "has limited [her] before", Thunberg views her diagnosis positively and has described it as a "superpower". She was later described as not only the best-known climate change activist, but also the best-known autism rights activist. In 2021, Thunberg said that many people in the Fridays for Future movement are autistic, and very inclusive and welcoming.

Family Influence and Lifestyle Changes

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. Asked in September 2021 whether she felt guilty about ending her mother's international career, she was surprised by the question: "It was her choice. I didn't make her do anything.

School Strike for Climate and Fridays for Future

In August 2018, Thunberg began the school climate strikes and public speeches for which she has become an internationally recognized climate activist. In an interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, she said she got the idea of a climate strike after school shootings in the United States in February 2018 led several youths to refuse to return to school. These teen activists at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, went on to organize the March for Our Lives in support of greater gun control. In May 2018, Thunberg won a climate change essay competition held by Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. 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. Thunberg said her teachers were divided about her missing class to make her point. High-profile youth activists amplified her Instagram post, and on the second day, other activists joined her. One Swedish climate-focused social media company was We Don't Have Time (WDHT), founded by Ingmar Rentzhog. Throughout 2018, Thunberg's activism evolved from a solitary protest to taking part in demonstrations throughout Europe, making several high-profile public speeches, and mobilizing her followers on social media platforms. 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 Friday, Greta Thunberg graduated from high school and participated in her final school strike for the climate. "School strike week 251. Today, I graduate from school, which means I’ll no longer be able to school strike for the climate," Thunberg wrote on social media.

Impact and Influence

Thunberg was credited with shifting some people’s views and behaviors regarding climate change, and her influence is known as “the Greta effect.” She has received numerous invitations to speak about climate change, giving speeches at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and at the European Parliament as well as in front of the legislatures of Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

United Nations and International Appearances

In August 2019, Thunberg sailed for two weeks on a zero-emissions yacht across the Atlantic to speak at the U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York City. In September 2019 her appearance at a UN climate event in New York City-which she traveled to on an emissions-free yacht-drew particular attention for her impassioned comments: “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words…We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money, and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!” That month millions of protesters marched in climate strikes in more than 163 countries.

Three days before the summit, millions of young people and other activists in more than 160 countries took to the streets in a global climate strike led by the Fridays for Future movement that was likely the largest coordinated climate protest in world history. A few months later, Thunberg spoke at the U.N. COP25 climate summit in Spain.

During the plenary session of the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24), Thunberg's speech went viral. She said that the world leaders present were "not mature enough to tell it like it is". In the first half of 2019, she joined various student protests around Europe, and was invited to speak at various forums and parliaments. By March 2019, Thunberg was still staging her regular protests outside the Swedish parliament every Friday, where other students occasionally joined her.

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In August 2019, Thunberg sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Plymouth, England, to New York City, in the 60-foot (18 m) racing yacht Malizia II, equipped with solar panels and underwater turbines. The trip was announced as a carbon-neutral transatlantic crossing serving as a demonstration of Thunberg's declared beliefs of the importance of reducing emissions. The voyage took 15 days, from 14 to 28 August 2019. France 24 reported that several crew members would fly to New York to sail the Malizia II yacht back to Europe. On Thunberg's return voyage aboard the La Vagabonde catamaran, she was quoted that she chose sailing as a way to send a message to the world that there is no real sustainable option to travel across the oceans.

While in the United States, Thunberg was invited to give testimony in the US House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis on 18 September. "This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth." Together, the group announced they had made an official complaint against five nations that were not on track to meet the emission reduction targets they committed to in their Paris Agreement pledges: Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, and Turkey. The complaint challenged these countries under the Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In late September 2019, Thunberg entered Canada where she participated in climate protests in Montreal, Edmonton and Vancouver, including leading a climate rally as part of the 27 September 2019 Global Climate Strike in Montreal. The school strikes for climate on 20 and 27 September 2019 were attended by over four million people, according to one of the co-organisers. Hundreds of thousands took part in the protest, described as the largest in the city's history. The mayor of Montreal gave her the Freedom of the City award. While in the United States, Thunberg participated in climate protests in New York City with Alexandria Villaseñor and Xiye Bastida; in Washington, D.C., with Jerome Foster II; Iowa City; Los Angeles; Charlotte; Denver with Haven Coleman; and the Standing Rock Indian Reservation with Tokata Iron Eyes.

Thunberg had intended to remain in the Americas to travel overland to attend the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) originally planned in Santiago, Chile, in December. However, it was announced on short notice that COP25 was to be moved to Madrid, Spain, because of serious public unrest in Chile. Thunberg has refused to fly because of the carbon emissions from air travel, so she posted on social media that she needed a ride across the Atlantic Ocean. Riley Whitelum and his wife, Elayna Carausu, two Australians who had been sailing around the world aboard their 48-foot (15 m) catamaran La Vagabonde, offered to take her. On 13 November 2019, Thunberg set sail from Hampton, Virginia, for Lisbon, Portugal. Thunberg arrived in the Port of Lisbon on 3 December 2019, then travelled on to Madrid to speak at COP25 and to participate with the local Fridays for Future climate strikers.

Media and Public Engagement

Thunberg was guest editor of the BBC Radio's flagship current affairs programme, the Today Programme in late 2019. It featured interviews on climate change with Sir David Attenborough, Bank of England chief Mark Carney, Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja, and Shell Oil executive Maarten Wetselaar, and was released as a podcast containing these interviews and other highlights. Thunberg returned to the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland, on 21 January 2020. She delivered two speeches, and participated in panel discussions hosted by The New York Times and the World Economic Forum. Thunberg used many of the themes contained in her previous speeches, but focused on one in particular: "Our house is still on fire." Thunberg joked that she cannot complain about not being heard, saying: "I am being heard all the time." The next month, she travelled to Oxford University to meet Malala Yousafzai, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning Pakistani activist for female education who had been shot in the head by the Taliban as a schoolgirl. Thunberg was later to join a school strike in Bristol. She also attended an extraordinary meeting of the European Parliament's Environment Committee to talk about the European Climate Law.

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Impact of COVID-19

Thunberg ended her gap year in August 2020. In early 2020, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic caused worldwide implementation of mitigation measures, including social distancing, quarantine, and face coverings. On 13 March 2020, Thunberg stated that "In a crisis we change our behavior and adapt to the new circumstances for the greater good of society." Thunberg and School Strike for Climate subsequently moved their activities online. On 20 August 2020, the second anniversary of Thunberg's first strike, Thunberg and fellow climate activists Luisa Neubauer, Anuna de Wever van der Heyden and Adélaïde Charlier met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. They subsequently announced plans for another global climate strike on 25 September 2020. Neubauer said that whether the strike in September is virtual in nature or in the streets would be determined by the pandemic situation.

Further Activism and Views

Thunberg and other climate activists launched the annual Climate Live concert to highlight climate change. Their first concert was held in April 2021. In May 2021, she addressed the COVID-19 crisis again, when she urged a change in the food production system and the protection of animals and their habitats. Thunberg's comments, which came amidst calls for meat-free alternatives, also addressed health concerns regarding animal welfare and the environment. Thunberg said that the way humans are destroying habitats are the perfect conditions for the spread of diseases and noted zoonotic illnesses such as COVID-19, Zika, Ebola, West Nile fever, SARS, MERS, among others. In July 2021, Thunberg received her COVID vaccine, saying: "I am extremely grateful and privileged to be able to live in a part of the world where I can already get vaccinated. The vaccine distribution around the world is extremely unequal. No one is safe until everyone is safe. But when you get offered a vaccine, don't hesitate."

Thunberg has criticized president Joe Biden, British prime minister Boris Johnson, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and other world leaders over their promises to address the climate crisis in a speech at the Youth4Climate Summit in Milan. Thunberg also criticized and doubted organizers of climate conferences, saying, "They invite cherry-picked young people to meetings like this to pretend they are listening to us. president Joe Biden, saying, "If you call him a leader - I mean, it's strange that people think of Joe Biden as a leader for the climate when you see what his administration is doing", alluding to the United States expansions on use of fossil fuels during the Biden administration.

In early 2022, Thunberg condemned the British firm Beowulf and its mining of iron on Sámi land. She said, "We believe that the climate, the environment, clean air, water, reindeer herding, indigenous rights and the future of humanity should be prioritized above the short-term profit of a company. The Swedish government needs to stop the colonization of Sami." Following the invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces, she combined her usual Friday climate protests to include opposing the invasion. Thunberg criticized the European Parliament in 2022 for voting to label fossil gas and nuclear energy as "green" energy. She called that decision "hypocrisy", and stated that "This will delay a desperately needed real sustai…"

Other Causes

Thunberg has also spoken out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022- ), and she has expressed support for Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas War (2023- ). She has focused on the humanitarian and environmental issues of both conflicts. In June 2025 Thunberg was among a group of activists on board an aid ship headed to the Gaza Strip. However, Israel seized the vessel, which was operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, and Thunberg was among those taken into custody and later deported. Several months later she was on another flotilla that attempted-but failed-to reach the Gaza Strip. Since 2007 Israel has enforced a blockade on Gaza.

Additional Activities

In addition to her environmental work, Thunberg was credited with raising awareness about Asperger and inspiring those who had the disorder. While acknowledging that Asperger had hampered her in some ways, she also noted its advantages, at one point tweeting: “I have Aspergers and that means I’m sometimes a bit different from the norm. And-given the right circumstances-being different is a superpower.” Her books include No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference (2019), a collection of her speeches, and The Climate Book: The Facts and the Solutions (2023). The documentary I Am Greta appeared in 2020.

Graduation and Future Plans

Thunberg graduated from high school in 2023 but said that her Friday protests would continue. Even though she'd no longer be able to strike from school each Friday, she would continue to work to get global leaders to address climate change. "We who can speak up have a duty to do so. In order to change everything, we need everyone. I'll continue to protest on Fridays, even though it's not technically 'school striking.' We simply have no other option than to do everything we possibly can.

Timeline of Activism

September 2018: Thunberg begins a regular 'strike' from classes every Friday to protest climate issues.
November 2018: More than 17,000 students in 24 countries take part in Friday school strikes. Thunberg begins speaking at high-profile events across Europe, including U.N.
March 2019: Thunberg is nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
May 2019: Thunberg is named one of the world's most influential people by Time magazine, appearing on its cover.
August 2019: Thunberg, who refuses to fly, sails from Britain to the United States in a zero-emissions boat to take part in a U.N. climate summit.
September 23, 2019: Thunberg delivers a blistering speech to leaders at the U.N.
November 2019: Caught out by a last-minute switch of location for U.N.
December 11, 2019: Thunberg denounces "clever accounting and creative PR" to mask a lack of real action on climate change in a speech at the U.N.
March 24, 2020: Thunberg says the swift measures brought in to stem the coronavirus pandemic show that the world can also take the rapid action needed to curb climate change.
April 9, 2021: The activist says she will not attend COP26 in Glasgow, due to run Nov. "Change won’t come from these conferences like #COP26 unless there is big public pressure from the outside," she tweeted.
June 25, 2022: Thunberg speaks on the Pyramid stage at Worthy Farm in Somerset during the Glastonbury Festival in Britain.
September 6, 2022: Before Sweden's election on Sept.
October 30, 2022: A week before the U.N.
February 27, 2023: Thunberg joins hundreds of protesters blocking the entrances to government buildings in Oslo, to oppose the use of Indigenous land for wind turbines.
October 17, 2023: Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg is detained during an Oily Money Out and Fossil Free London protest in London, Britain.
November 15, 2023: Thunberg appeared in British court and pleaded not guilty to the offence on Oct.

Legal Issues

Police detained Thunberg, 20, and dozens of protesters on Oct. Thunberg and four other protesters all pleaded not guilty and were granted unconditional bail ahead of their trial set to start on Feb. 1 next year. If found guilty, they could be fined. Climate activist Greta Thunberg reacts outside Westminster Magistrates' Court after she pleaded not guilty to a public order offence charge, in London, Britain, November 15, 2023.

Criticism

While Thunberg was credited with shifting some people’s views and behaviors regarding climate change-her influence was known as “the Greta effect”-she was not without detractors. Brazilian Pres. Jair Bolsonaro notably called her a “brat” in 2019.

But some advocates have noted that the media’s spotlight on Thunberg often comes at the exclusion of young climate activists from the Global South. “Frustratingly, these other activists are often referred to in the media as the ‘Greta Thunberg’ of their country, or are said to be following in her footsteps, even in cases where they began their public activism long before she started hers,” writer Chika Unigwe observed in The Guardian.

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