1. Greta Thunberg protested outside the Swedish parliament where she called for stronger action on climate change by holding up a sign and handing out informational flyers.
104 Facts About Greta Thunberg
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Greta Thunberg then said she would continue school striking for the climate every Friday until Sweden was in compliance with the Paris climate agreement.
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Greta Thunberg's rise to world fame made her an ad hoc leader in the climate activist community.
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Greta Thunberg faced heavy criticism, especially due to her age.
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Greta Thunberg has received honours and awards, including in Time 100 most influential people, named the youngest Time Person of the Year in 2019, inclusion in the Forbes list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women, and nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize.
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Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg was born on 3 January 2003, in Stockholm, Sweden, to opera singer Malena Ernman and actor Svante Thunberg.
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Greta 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.
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In one of her first speeches demanding climate action, Greta Thunberg described her selective mutism as meaning she "only speaks when necessary".
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Greta Thunberg struggled with depression for almost four years before she began her school strike campaign.
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Greta Thunberg was later described as not only the best-known climate change activist, but the best-known autism activist.
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In 2021, Greta Thunberg said that many people in the Fridays for Future movement are autistic, and very inclusive and welcoming.
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Greta Thunberg has said she showed them graphs and data, but when that did not work, she warned her family that they were stealing her future.
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Greta Thunberg 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.
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In May 2018, Greta Thunberg won a climate change essay competition held by Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.
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Greta Thunberg tried to persuade other young people to get involved but "no one was really interested", so eventually she decided to go ahead with the strike by herself.
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On 20 August 2018, Greta Thunberg, who had just started ninth grade, decided not to attend school until the 2018 Swedish general election on 9 September; her protest began after the heat waves and wildfires during Sweden's hottest summer in at least 262 years.
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Greta Thunberg's demands were that the Swedish government reduce carbon emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement, and she protested by sitting outside the Riksdag every day for three weeks during school hours with the sign Skolstrejk for klimatet.
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Greta Thunberg said her teachers were divided about her missing class to make her point.
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Greta Thunberg said her strike began attracting public attention only after he turned up with a freelance photographer and posted Thunberg's photograph on his Facebook page and Instagram account, and a video in English that he posted on the company's YouTube channel.
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Rentzhog subsequently asked Greta Thunberg to become an unpaid youth advisor to WDHT.
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Greta Thunberg then used her name and image without her knowledge or permission to raise millions for a WDHT for-profit subsidiary, We Don't Have Time AB, of which he is the chief executive officer.
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Greta Thunberg stated that she received no money from the company and terminated her volunteer advisor role with WDHT once she realized they were making money from her name.
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Greta Thunberg inspired school students across the globe to take part in her Friday school strikes.
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Greta Thunberg said it was unfair for students to have to appear for exams during a global pandemic.
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Greta Thunberg said that India's students had been deeply impacted by the floods that hit states such as Bihar and Assam, which caused mass destruction.
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Effigies of Greta Thunberg were burned in Delhi by nationalists who opposed the farmers' protests.
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Greta Thunberg's tweet was criticized by the BJP-led Indian government, which said that it was an internal matter.
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Greta Thunberg soon deleted the tweet, saying the document was "outdated", and linked to a different one "to enable anyone unfamiliar with the ongoing farmers protests in India to better understand the situation and make decisions on how to support the farmers based on their own analysis".
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Greta Thunberg said that the world leaders present were "not mature enough to tell it like it is".
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Greta Thunberg finished lower secondary school with excellent grades: 14 As and three Bs.
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In July 2019, Time magazine reported Greta Thunberg was taking a "sabbatical year" from school, intending to travel in the Americas while meeting people from the climate movement on her way to attend and address COP25.
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The trip was announced as a carbon-neutral transatlantic crossing serving as a demonstration of Greta Thunberg's declared beliefs of the importance of reducing emissions.
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On 23 September 2019, Greta Thunberg attended the UN Climate Action Summit in New York City.
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That day the United Nations Children's Fund hosted a press conference where Greta Thunberg joined 15 other children, including Ayakha Melithafa, Alexandria Villasenor, Catarina Lorenzo, Ridhima Pandey and Carl Smith.
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In late September 2019 Greta Thunberg entered Canada where she participated in climate protests in the cities of Montreal, Edmonton and Vancouver, including leading a climate rally as part of the 27 September 2019 Global Climate Strike in Montreal.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in attendance, and Greta Thunberg spoke briefly with him.
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Greta Thunberg had intended to remain in the Americas to travel overland to attend the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference originally planned in Santiago, Chile, in December.
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Greta 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.
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Greta 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.
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On 30 December 2019, Greta Thunberg was guest editor of the BBC Radio's flagship current affairs programme, the Today Programme.
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On 11 January 2020, Greta Thunberg called on German company Siemens to stop the delivery of railway equipment to the controversial Carmichael coal mine, operated by a subsidiary of Indian company Adani Group in Australia, but on 13 January, Siemens said that it would continue to honour its contract with Adani.
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On 21 January 2020, Greta Thunberg returned to the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland, delivered two speeches, and participated in panel discussions hosted by The New York Times and the World Economic Forum.
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In February 2020, Greta Thunberg 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.
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Greta Thunberg was later to join a school strike in Bristol.
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On 4 March 2020, Greta Thunberg attended an extraordinary meeting of the European Parliament's Environment Committee to talk about the European Climate Law.
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On 24 August 2020, Greta Thunberg ended her "gap year" from school when she returned to the classroom.
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On 14 December 2020, Greta Thunberg used Twitter to criticize the New Zealand Labour Government's recent climate change emergency declaration as "virtue signalling", tweeting that New Zealand's Labour Government had only committed to reducing less than one percent of New Zealand's carbon emissions by 2025.
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On 29 December 2020, during a BBC interview, Greta Thunberg said that climate experts are not being listened to despite the COVID-19 pandemic highlighting the importance of using science to address such issues.
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Greta Thunberg added that the COVID-19 crisis had "shone a light" on how "we cannot make it without science".
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Greta 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.
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The inaugural edition of Vogue Scandinavia had a cover photograph of Greta Thunberg shot by Swedish photography and conservationist duo Iris and Mattias Alexandrov Klum and an interview with her.
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The cover shows Greta Thunberg wearing a trench coat while sitting with an Icelandic horse in a woodland outside Stockholm.
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Greta Thunberg's wearing of wool during the photoshoot garnered criticism from other vegans, who said it promoted animal cruelty.
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On 28 September 2021, Greta Thunberg criticized US 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.
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Greta Thunberg told the BBC journalist Andrew Marr that banks should "stop funding our destruction", ahead of the UN COP26 climate summit.
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At the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Greta Thunberg attended a panel on climate change hosted by British actress Emma Watson.
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Greta Thunberg further lamented that activists and teenagers are needed to bring awareness about climate change.
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On 6 February 2022, Greta Thunberg condemned the British firm Beowulf and its mining of iron on Sami land.
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On Friday, 25 February 2022, Greta Thunberg combined her usual Friday climate protests to include opposing the invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces.
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Greta Thunberg stood outside the Russian embassy in Stockholm holding a sign that read "Stand With Ukraine".
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On 29 June 2023, Greta Thunberg met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other prominent European figures to form a working group to address ecological damage from the 16-month-old Russian invasion.
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On 6 July 2022, Greta Thunberg criticized the European Parliament for voting to label fossil gas and nuclear energy as "green" energy.
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Greta Thunberg contributed writings to the book and is credited as its author.
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Greta Thunberg donated her copyright and all royalties generated by the book to her foundation and will not personally profit from sales or other commercial uses.
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On 14 January 2023, Greta Thunberg spoke during a protest in Lutzerath, calling on the German authorities to stop the expansion of a nearby coal mine.
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Greta Thunberg was released the same day after an identity check.
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On 9 June 2023, Greta Thunberg graduated from high school and marked the day by attending what would be her last school strike for climate protest before receiving her diploma.
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Greta Thunberg wore the Swedish traditional graduation white dress and white studentmossa to the protest.
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Greta Thunberg vowed to continue, saying that her "fight has only just begun".
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On 19 June 2023, Greta Thunberg took part in a Reclaim the Future protest in Malmo, Sweden, and was charged with disobeying a police order.
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Greta Thunberg was sentenced by the court to pay fines totaling 2,500 SEK.
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Greta Thunberg was again forcibly removed by police and later criminally charged.
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Greta Thunberg was found guilty for the 24 July 2023 incident and ordered to pay fines totaling 4,500 Swedish crowns.
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On 4 August 2023, Greta Thunberg cancelled a prearranged appearance that was to occur the following Friday, 11 August, at the Edinburgh International Book Festival to promote her book: The Climate Book.
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On 18 October 2023, Greta Thunberg was arrested in London, England, for her part in protesting against the Energy Intelligence Forum, described as the "Oscars of oil".
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Greta Thunberg was charged with failure to comply with a lawful order to disperse, a "condition imposed under Section 14 of the Public Order Act".
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On 15 November 2023 Greta Thunberg appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court and entered a plea of "not guilty".
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On 6 April 2024, Greta Thunberg participated in an Extinction Rebellion-led protest in The Hague, Netherlands, where law enforcement forcibly removed her from blocking a road.
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Greta Thunberg then joined another group of Extinction Rebellion protesters who were blocking a different road and was again removed.
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The BBC and some other media outlets reported that Greta Thunberg was arrested while some media outlets only mention that she was detained.
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On 23 April 2024, Greta Thunberg was charged with civil disobedience for allegedly ignoring police orders to leave two climate demonstrations which law enforcement claim were blocking Sweden's parliament building on 12 and 14 March.
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Greta Thunberg was ordered to pay an additional 1,000 Swedish Kronor in damages.
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On 20 October 2023, Greta Thunberg posted a photo during her usual Friday climate protests, showing her and three other protesters holding signs.
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Greta Thunberg boycotted COP29, hosted by Azerbaijan, for human rights violations, and instead visited neighboring Georgia and Armenia.
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Greta Thunberg uses graphic analogies to highlight her concerns and often speaks bluntly to business and political leaders about their failure to take concerted action.
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Greta Thunberg has said that climate change will have a disproportionate effect on young people, whose futures will be profoundly affected.
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Greta Thunberg has voiced support for other young activists from developing countries who are already facing the damaging effects of climate change.
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Greta Thunberg delivered a speech to protesters in which she described COP26 as a failure, speaking of "blah blah blah" and greenwashing.
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Greta Thunberg has met with many politicians and world leaders but said she could not think of a single politician who has impressed her.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel indicated that young activists such as Greta Thunberg had driven her government to act faster on climate change.
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Tanja Bueltmann, founder of EU Citizens' Champion, said Banks had "invoked the drowning of a child" for his own amusement and said that most of those attacking Greta Thunberg "are white middle-aged men from the right of the political spectrum".
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Greta Thunberg has spearheaded the anti-flying movement, promoting rail travel over flying on environmental grounds.
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Greta Thunberg backed the campaign to fly less and made it part of her 2019 "awareness tour" in Europe.
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Also in December 2019, Greta Thunberg was criticized by the German rail firm Deutsche Bahn, after she tweeted a photo of herself on an overcrowded train in Germany, stating she was "finally on my way home" from the COP25 UN climate conference in Madrid.
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Greta Thunberg clarified that she only obtained a seat after four hours into her journey and emphasized that overcrowded trains indicate high demand for train travel.
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Greta Thunberg was featured on the Time magazine cover in May 2019 issue, where she was described as a role model and one of the "Next Generation Leaders".
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In 2019, Greta Thunberg contributed a voiceover for a release of "The 1975", a song by the English band by the same name.
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In 2019, Greta Thunberg collaborated with the climate charity Project Pressure on an art piece projected onto the UN building in New York in the lead up to the UN Climate Action Summit featuring the voices of six young activists, including Greta Thunberg herself.
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In May 2020, Greta Thunberg was featured in Pearl Jam's music video "Retrograde".
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Greta Thunberg appears as a fortune teller, with images in her crystal ball depicting startling effects of climate change in numerous countries.
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On 3 September 2020, the Hulu cinema verite-esque documentary I Am Greta Thunberg had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
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Greta Thunberg has received honours and awards over the course of her activism.
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Greta Thunberg has refused to attend ceremonies or accept prizes if it requires her to fly, such as for the International Children's Peace Prize.
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Greta Thunberg has received prizes from various NGOs but from scientific institutions that lauded her success in raising awareness.