Greta Thunberg doesn\u2019t owe the world anything. As a teenager deeply concerned by the threat of climate change, she led an unlikely global youth movement. She had the ability to bring millions of people on to the streets of multiple countries at the same time.<\/p>\n
Having listened to her at many events during those remarkable years, it was obvious her concerns were heartfelt and science-based. Clearly, she was not a mouthpiece coached by activists in the background.<\/p>\n
She was subjected to appalling vitriol at a time when social media was only beginning to show its horrible side. One contributor to Fox News<\/a> called her \u201ca mentally ill Swedish child who is being exploited by her parents and by the international left\u201d. Donald Trump<\/a> was unnerved by her and in his usual crass way mocked her throughout 2019, suggesting at one point she needed to undergo anger-management, while posting \u201cChill Greta. Chill!\u201d<\/p>\n In many ways that year was the peak of Greta\u2019s climate activism \u2013 though her campaigning has broadened since. She won over the US. Attending the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, she stared down global leaders and delivered her famous \u201cHow dare you!\u201d<\/a> speech. It was, arguably, one of the greatest speeches ever on the fate of Planet Earth and on human indifference. Yet it was marked by brevity \u2013 less than 500 words.<\/p>\n She openly talks about her Asperger\u2019s syndrome that helps her speak when she feels she has something to say. It gave her focus and ability to shut out those who seek to undermine her. But this occasion<\/a> was different. There was a quiver in her voice, flagging her anger at continuing inaction by constantly dithering politicians \u2013 \u201chow dare you continue to look away\u201d.<\/p>\n [\u00a0Rich are getting richer, poor are getting poorer and the middle class is disappearingOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n Some 200,000 people turned out for a protest in lower Manhattan<\/a>. Thunberg took to the stage for the main rally at Battery Park, quickly revealing her steely side: clear demands justified by climate science, no platitudes. The following week more than double that number turned out with her in Montreal.<\/p>\n It looked as if the movement was achieving critical mass; politicians could no longer look away. But then Covid-19 struck and climate protests were pushed aside \u2013 the next generation distracted by a more immediate deadly intrusion on their lives.<\/p>\n \u2018One day there will be no more looking away. Looking away from climate disaster, from the last rabid takings of extractive capitalism, from the killing of the newly stateless\u2019<\/p>\n \u2014 \u00a0 Omar El Akkad, journalist and novelist<\/p>\n Thunberg\u2019s preoccupations soon centred around injustice; the systemic, \u201cblatant\u201d failures where the most vulnerable \u2013 particularly in the Global South \u2013 suffer disproportionately from climate change and human rights violations. She framed the climate crisis as a social justice issue<\/a>, protesting against political inaction, oppression and prioritisation of economic profit over human and environmental wellbeing. The Gaza conflict and plight of Palestinians was an immediate concern.<\/p>\n These led to tensions within green heartlands of Europe, notably in Germany and the Netherlands, but particularly Fridays for Future<\/a>, the youth-led international grassroots movement of students who skipped Friday classes to protest against political inaction on climate change. Some claimed it had been radicalised and was engaging in politics rather than ecological mobilisation.<\/p>\n Both sides of the argument are well-articulated; it is just a matter of where one comes down on the issue. For me, recently reading Omar El Akkad\u2019s book<\/a>, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, emphatically tips the scales in favour of Thunberg\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n El Akkad, a journalist and novelist, also refers to looking away, when he writes: \u201cOne day there will be no more looking away. Looking away from climate disaster, from the last rabid takings of extractive capitalism, from the killing of the newly stateless.\u201d<\/p>\n