Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg

Greta Thunberg protesting climate change, Stockholm 2018.

Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg (born 3 January 2003) came to prominance as an environmental activist in 2018. In August 2018, at age 15, she started spending her Fridays outside the Swedish Parliament to call for stronger action on climate change by holding up a sign reading Skolstrejk för klimatet (School strike for climate). Thunberg initially gained notice for her youth and her straightforward and blunt speaking manner, both in public and to political leaders and assemblies, in which she criticizes world leaders for their failure to take what she considers sufficient action to address the climate crisis. Thunberg speaks fluent English, and most of her public interactions are in English.

Soon other students engaged in similar protests in their own communities. Together they organized a school climate strike movement under the name Fridays for Future. After Thunberg addressed the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference, student strikes took place every week somewhere in the world. In 2019, there were multiple coordinated multi-city protests involving over a million students each. Notably these events involved students taking time out of school. The extent to which students would attend weekend strikes is unclear.

How Dare You?

To avoid carbon-intensive flying, Thunberg sailed in a yacht to North America, where she attended the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit. After the voyage Thunberg suggested this was an example of how people could travel without carbon emissions. In contrast the captain of the yacht suggested that the voyage highlighted how this was not a viable alternative and more work was needed in low-emissions long-distance transportation.

Thunberg's speech at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit, in which she exclaimed "How dare you?", was widely taken up by the press, incorporated into music and was the subject of many parodies.

Fame and Honours

Her sudden rise to world fame made her both a leader in the activist community and a target for critics, especially due to her youth. Her influence on the world stage has been described by The Guardian and other newspapers as the "Greta effect". She received numerous honours and awards, including an honorary Fellowship of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, inclusion in Time's 100 most influential people, being the youngest Time Person of the Year, inclusion in the Forbes list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women (2019), and nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

In November 2022 Thunberg stated that he intends to help defeat the West's oppressive capitalist system, claiming that the cliate crisis has its roots in racism.

Claims of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Various sources online have claimed that Thunberg suffers from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), a condition caused by the consumption of alcohol by the mother during pregnancy. These claims are often accompanied by facial diagrams of individuals with FAS which are likened to Thunberg. Thunberg has never publicly responded to these claims and there is no definitive evidence available publicly that she has FAS.

Exchange with Andrew Tate

In December 2022 Andrew Tate initiated a discussion with Thunberg on Twitter. In a clear case of gender shaming Thunberg made a reference to the size of Tate's penis.