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Greta Thunberg.---on the cover of the Rolling Stone.......................
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/greta-thunberg-climate-crisis-cover-965949/
How one Swedish teenager armed with a homemade sign ignited a crusade and became the leader of a movement
By Stephen Rodrick
March 26, 2020
There is persona and there is reality in Greta Thunberg. It is Valentines Day in her hometown of Stockholm, but theres only wind, no hearts and flowers. A few hundred kids mill about, with a smattering of adults. If there were not signs reading Our Earth, We Only Have One, it could be mistaken for a field trip to the ABBA museum.
But where is Greta? I find a scrum of reporters interviewing a child in a purple puffer jacket, pink mittens, and a homemade-looking knit hat. It takes me a minute to realize that its Greta. She is 17, but could pass for 12. I cant quite square the fiery speaker with the micro teen in front of me. She seems in need of protection.
Of course, this is emphatically wrong. Greta Thunberg has Aspergers, which, she says, gives her pinpoint focus on climate minutiae while parrying and discarding even the smallest attempt at flattery. We stand near the Swedish Parliament house, where less than two years ago Thunberg started her Skolstrejk för klimatet, School Strike for Climate.
Back then, it was just Greta, a sign, and a lunch of bean pasta in a reusable glass jar. Then it was two people, and then a dozen, and then an international movement. I mention the bravery of her speeches, but she waves me away. She wants to talk about the loss of will among the olds.
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It seems like the people in power have given up, says Thunberg, taking her hat off and pushing back her mussed up brown-blond hair. She remains on message despite the tourists and teens taking her picture and mugging behind us. They say its too hard its too much of a challenge. But thats what we are doing here. We have not given up because this is a matter of life and death for countless people.
It was my second encounter with Greta in three weeks. Back in January, before the Coronavirus brought the world to its knees, forcing Greta to move her Friday protests online, she was in Davos, Switzerland, for the annual conference of the World Economic Forum, where billionaires helo into the Swiss resort town and talk about solving the worlds problems without making their lives any harder. Thunberg had appeared last year and made her now iconic Our House Is on Fire speech, in which she declared the climate crisis to be the mortal threat to our planet. Solve it or all the other causes feminism, human rights, and economic justice would not matter.
Either we choose to go on as a civilization or we dont, said Thunberg with cold precision. That is as black or white as it gets. There are no gray areas when it comes to survival........................................
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Greta Thunberg.---on the cover of the Rolling Stone....................... (Original Post)
riversedge
Mar 2020
OP
captain queeg
(10,187 posts)1. Well, we're big rock singers, we got golden fingers...
CaptYossarian
(6,448 posts)4. She's gonna buy five copies for her mother.
Shermann
(7,413 posts)2. Fairytales of economic growth
She was right. Right for the wrong reasons, but right nonetheless.
BeckyDem
(8,361 posts)3. Undeniable. Must be aggressive action.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,956 posts)5. Kick