Greta Thunberg Climate Crisis Activist

52 Pages·10.084 MB·English

by  matt Doeden

GRETA
THUNBERG
Climate Crisis
Activist
MATT DOEDEN
This Page
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Intentionally
GRETA
THUNBERG

GRETA
THUNBERG
Climate Crisis Activist
MATT DOEDEN
LERNER PUBLICATIONS MINNEAPOLIS
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Editor: Shee Yang Designer: Lauren Cooper
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Doeden, Matt, author.
Title: Greta thunberg : climate crisis activist / Matt Doeden.
Description: Minneapolis, MN : Lerner Publications , 2021. | Series: Gateway biographies |
Includes bibliographical references and index. | Audience: Ages 9–14 | Audience: Grades 4–6
| Summary: “Motivated by government apathy regarding climate change, 15-year-old Greta
Thunberg held a demonstration that would ignite a global movement. Read more about Greta
and the environmental movement that is changing the world”— Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020005548 (print) | LCCN 2020005549 (ebook) | ISBN 9781541596795
(library binding) | ISBN 9781728400303 (ebook other)
Subjects: LCSH: Thunberg, Greta, 2003—Juvenile literature. | Child environmentalists—Sweden—
Biography—Juvenile literature. | Environmentalists—Sweden—Biography—Juvenile literature.
Classification: LCC GE56.T58 D64 2021 (print) | LCC GE56.T58 (ebook) | DDC 363.70092 [B]—
dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020005548
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020005549
Manufactured in the United States of America
1-47786-48226-4/2/2020
CONTENTS
Born in Sweden 9
Change and Despair 14
Building the Movement 20
Praise and Criticism 24
Making Waves 27
Return to Europe 30
Person of the Year 33
Greta Persists 35
Important Dates 40
Source Notes 42
Selected Bibliography 46
Further Reading 47
Index 48
Greta Thunberg speaks
in Denver, Colorado,
during a climate strike
on October 11, 2019.
O
n August 20, 2018, fifteen-year-old Greta
Thunberg stood alone outside of the
Parliament House in Stockholm, Sweden.
Greta had just started the ninth grade and was expected
to be in school. She had come here instead to voice her
deep concerns about climate change and the terrible
consequences it would have if people don’t change how
they generate and use energy.
Greta had long been worried about how the burning
of fossil fuels was impacting Earth’s climate. For years
she had been fixated on the crisis. She’d done all she
could to reduce her own energy use. But Greta knew she
couldn’t do it alone. She often felt depressed, believing
that she did not have the power or influence to combat
what she considered the biggest crisis in human history.
So when she saw student-organized protests against
gun violence in the United States, she vowed to go on
a school strike until the Swedish elections were held in
early September.
7
On that first day, Greta quietly passed out fliers that
described the dangers of climate change. She held a
handmade sign that read Skolstrejk för klimatet, Swedish
for “School strike for climate.” Greta talked to anyone
willing to listen. And she did it all alone. Despite her
efforts to get other students to join her, none had. She felt
that she needed to take a stand, even if she was alone in
doing so.
“I painted the sign on a piece of wood and, for the
fliers, wrote down some facts I thought everyone should
know,” Greta explained. “And then I took my bike to
the parliament and just sat there. The first day, I sat
alone from about 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.—the regular
school day.”
Greta poses for a photo during a
school strike outside of the Swedish
parliament on August 28, 2018.