Topic > From Zero to Hero: Understanding the Greta Thunberg Phenomenon

Activist Greta Thunberg once said that “All you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”. Greta Thunberg is a Swedish environmental activist who became famous in 2018 for her climate change awareness efforts by starting the Fridays for Future movement, an organization that organizes strikes for children at school (during school hours) held in international level. Thunberg continued to give many scathing speeches at climate events after the organization went viral online, including speaking at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in 2019. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayGreta was born on January 3, 2003 in Stockholm, Sweden. She was raised by her father Svante Thunberg, known for the film Skärgårdsdoktorn (1997) and her mother Malena Ernman, a famous Swedish opera singer. Malena gained international fame by representing Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow (2009). Greta also grew up with her younger sister Beata Thunberg, born in 2004. She followed in her mother's footsteps by becoming a famous singer in Sweden. Greta and Beata both share the condition of OCD, Greta has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. He first learned about climate change when he was eight, he said he couldn't understand why so little was being done about it. . He said: “I kept thinking about it [climate change] and just wondering if I have a future.” At the age of eleven she felt so stressed by this problem that she stopped eating, growing and speaking (a condition known as selective mutism). After feeling so helpless, Greta decided she needed to make a positive change. He convinced his family to start making environmentally friendly choices (including stopping air travel). This also meant convincing her mother (as she was an international opera singer) to stop traveling for her career, to which her mother agreed to stop flying and only perform in Stockholm. Her first step to making a difference was to enter a climate writing competition held by a Swedish newspaper in 2018. Greta entered her essay "We know and we can do something now", it was later announced that she was one of the winners of the competition. That essay was published in the newspaper, which was one of the first smaller, but still important, impacts to help the cause. After publishing her essay, Bo Thorén (a climate activist) contacted Greta to try to help her raise awareness about the issue. Bo told Greta about a group of teenagers in Florida, US, who were striking to change gun laws after there was a school shooting earlier in the year. This inspired Greta and she wanted to do the same in Sweden for climate change. Thus, on August 20, 2018, Greta organized the first school strike for climate change. Greta decided to go alone because no one wanted to go with her. She sat on the floor in front of the Swedish Parliament and remained there for the entire school day. Sitting on the floor, she held a sign with the now famous words "Skolstrejk for Klimatet" (School Strike for the Climate). Greta posted some photos on Twitter and Instagram, which started to gain traction. The next day, when she went on strike, she was not alone. People began joining her strikes, which lasted until the Swedish national elections which took place 21 days after Greta's strike began. After a while, it 1.6.