{"id":37,"date":"2021-04-01T18:32:28","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T23:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/responses-to-thunberg\/?page_id=37"},"modified":"2021-09-03T09:56:25","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T14:56:25","slug":"introduction-to-greta","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/responses-to-thunberg\/for-students\/about-greta\/introduction-to-greta\/","title":{"rendered":"2. Introduction to Greta"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><strong>Fast Facts about Greta<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Born:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> January 3, 2003<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Nationality:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Swedish<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Occupation:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> High school student and climate activist<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Parents:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Actor Svante Thunberg (father) and singer Malena <\/span>Ernman (mother)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Active since:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> August 2018, when she first began protesting<\/span>\u00a0outside the Swedish parliament every Friday until the election<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Beliefs:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Everyone is responsible for stewardship over the<\/span> environment, but broad systematic change is more effective than any decisions we can make as individuals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Background and Family<\/b><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Greta Thunberg is an 18-year-old climate activist from Stockholm, Sweden. She comes from a famous family, but famous for reasons other than climate activism. Her mother, Malena, is a famous opera singer and performer. Her father, Svante, is a former TV actor. Greta, however, is anything but mainstream in her claim to fame and entered the world stage in a far more unlikely way. Today, as a leader and reluctant figurehead of the movement to address what she calls the \u201cclimate crisis,\u201d it\u2019s hard to imagine the humble beginnings that started her journey.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Education and Asperger&#8217;s Diagnosis<\/b><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the fall of 2018, Greta was a 15-year-old living a fairly normal life in a normal city. Like many, she grew up relatively quiet, spending much of her time alone, with her family, and with her dog, Moses. When she was eight years old, <\/span>she learned about climate change while watching a documentary about the melting ice caps. Witnessing such a global and urgent issue upset her deeply, igniting the passion that would define both her and the mission she embarked on afterward. Around the age of eleven, she experienced depression, accompanied by an eating disorder and difficulty communicating with those outside her family. This led to her being diagnosed with Asperger\u2019s syndrome. Greta sees her Asperger\u2019s as a strength that gives her clarity on the climate issue: \u201cI have Asperger\u2019s syndrome, and to me, almost everything is black or white\u201d (Thunberg 2018).<\/p>\n<h5><b>\u201cSchool Strike for Climate\u201d<\/b><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Greta\u2019s understanding of climate change has motivated her approach to activism. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Greta believes that because adults have not taken the climate crisis seriously, they have placed the burden of responsibility on children.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Although Greta was a good student, she wondered why she ought to prepare for a future for herself and later generations that climate change could alter forever. This is what led her to go on strike: She decided to skip school every day for three weeks before an important government election. Instead, she would sit on the cobblestones outside the Swedish parliament to bring about climate awareness in her community. It was here that she first drew the media\u2019s attention and gained a following of others her age who shared her passion for a safe and secure environment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Global Figurehead<\/b><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Greta\u2019s passion grew, it spread, and with her family\u2019s support, she accepted her first invitations to speak at climate summits in Europe and beyond, as a representative of the younger generation. In 2019, she spoke to an audience of world leaders at the UN climate summit in New York, accusing them of daring to ignore the climate and leaving environmental responsibilities to the younger, outspoken generations that will be affected by it most. Despite her growing influence and responsibility, Greta stays true to her roots and takes little credit for her leadership in a youth movement. To her, her leadership wouldn\u2019t be necessary if the threat of climate change were already being tackled in the way it should have been years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Discussion questions:<\/b><\/h5>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Discuss these with a partner or small group. You can use the graphic organizer to take notes.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After reading, is there anything you didn\u2019t know about Greta before that you were surprised to find out?<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What do you notice about Greta\u2019s background that you might have in common with her?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h5>Next Lesson: <a href=\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/responses-to-thunberg\/for-students\/about-greta\/asperger-syndrome\/\">Asperger Syndrome<\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fast Facts about Greta Born: January 3, 2003 Nationality: Swedish Occupation: High school student and climate activist Parents: Actor Svante Thunberg (father) and singer Malena Ernman (mother) Active since: August 2018, when she first began protesting\u00a0outside the Swedish parliament every Friday until the election Beliefs: Everyone is responsible for stewardship over the environment, but broad [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3796,"featured_media":0,"parent":22,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-37","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/responses-to-thunberg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/responses-to-thunberg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/responses-to-thunberg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/responses-to-thunberg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3796"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/responses-to-thunberg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/responses-to-thunberg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/37\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":258,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/responses-to-thunberg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/37\/revisions\/258"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/responses-to-thunberg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/responses-to-thunberg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}