Greta Thunberg
A 16-year-old girl Greta Thunberg from Sweden has taken the internet and the world by storm. Her climate and environmental activist ideology has gathered her over 7 million followers in social media worldwide. She is very tenacious and also no stranger for dishing out firm words to world leaders about climate change. Although all this is very impressive climate change as a topic has been around for a long time already, so why did she strike so hard? Is she really the “chosen one” to save the new generations world or is she just an unwitting puppet?
So who is Greta Thunberg?
Greta is no ordinary 16-year-old girl from Sweden. Already at the age of 8-9 she started to concern her self about climate change. One of the reason for this curiosity/obsession might have been the fact that she is diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, to which she says, its her superpower!
While other 16-year-olds bitch about boys, buy Gucci handbags online, cut school, and text their online boyfriends 24/7. Greta actually gets shit done! It is refreshing to see that there are people more concerned about what’s happening in the world rather than “Keeping up with the Kardashians”.
I remember reading some article online that suggested that Greta would be nominated for Nobel Piece Price, and to this I said “wow really” everything she has done so far is impressive, but Nobel Price worthy? I think not.
Misusing her name
Her recent fame has also woken up the vultures. It all started with Ingmar Rentzhog (founder of a Swedish climate-focused social media company, We Don’t Have Time (WDHT)) who was the first to publish photos from Greta’s first ever school strike “School strike for climate“.
Rentzhog was so intrigued about Greta’s passion that It didn’t take him long to invite her to be un unpaid youth advisor to his climate startup company. So when Greta broke the internet with her fame Rentzhog saw the opportunity to make money. He started to use Greta’s name and pictures without her knowledge or permission to raise millions for a WDHT for-profit subsidiary, We Don’t Have Time AB, of which Rentzhog is the chief executive officer. (Wikipedia, 2019) (Iltalehti article, 2019)
It didn’t take me long to find this information so I believe there must be also other cases like this where her famous name has been used as a PR stunt without her knowledge.
Savior or a puppet?
I think Greta has accomplished a lot for a 16-year-old. It is absolutely admirable to see that the passion for wanting a better future at least seems to be coming from her. Although I wonder how much her parents or somebody else influences her.
She has organized at least two strikes I believe on her own “school strike for climate” which was her first and “Fridays for future” which actually went totally worldwide so kudos for her. With her strikes I believe she urges the countries to try to reach the goals that was set in the “Paris agreement” (effective from 4th of November 2016)
Greta’s UN speech was something that I think nobody was expecting. I am still wondering if the speech in fact was her own or did someone else put their words into her mouth. Although the world leaders got a handful on that day 😀
Savior or a puppet? Can she be both? Or is she just one or the other? Are big companies lining up to take advantage of here face and name, or is she one girl powerhouse? Show your thought on the comment section bellow!
Aaand PS…
Also just to be clear I am not looking to discredit her by any means necessary, just writing a blog or whatever this is to remind everybody about critical thinking. Nowadays things usually are not what they seem so remember critical thinking. Thank you, next.
REFERENCES :
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY_S7n3jkkU Accessed 22.10.2019
Google photo: https://www.google.com/search?q=greta+thunberg&sxsrf=ACYBGNS2L2s1yRJ-cM_A4fyODdbX7eO4zw:1571670337693&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi_mbqh0K3lAhUvxIsKHZkNApAQ_AUIESgB&biw=1920&bih=967#imgrc=qoDPbpRji3N7_M: Accessed 22.10.2019
https://www.iltalehti.fi/ulkomaat/a/b5c21c2b-0dbe-45da-afa6-19cca19b1dbd Accessed 22.10.2019
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greta_Thunberg#Misuse_of_her_name Accessed 22.10.2019
Suurin osa Showcasen blogeista on toteutettu osana Laurean opintojaksoja. Koko koulutustarjontaamme voi tutustua nettisivuillamme. Tarjoamme kymmenien tutkintoon johtavien koulutuksien lisäksi myös paljon täydennys- ja erikoistumiskoulutuksia sekä yksittäisiä opintojaksoja avoimen AMK:n kautta!
Greta Thunberg really is an interesting and controversial character. I have also wondered whether her speech was really her own thoughts or whether her parents or someone else wrote them. In any case, she is a brave girl and her message to the world, and especially to the world leaders is important. Thank you for your interesting post.
Thanks Riitta for your comment! She is like you said quite an interesting and controversial character. I am looking forward to see what she can do for the environment and for the world but also hoping that all the recent fame wont go into her head, after all she is only 16yo. Quite an interesting case indeed…
Hi,
Quite interesting to read. Actually you gave words to the thoughts of many people including mine. Although she made the world politicians to take notice, I really hope something good comes out of it. I hope her idealism stays with her for long. Even though I really admire the girl, I was a bit skeptical of the school strikes, like when my son asked to go for it, I actually asked him to clean his room first. Thanks for critically analyzing it.
Thx for your comment, and sorry for not replaying to you sooner, for some reason it didn’t notify me. I´m happy that you found my blog post to be interesting because I was really striving to achieve that.