Greta Thunberg

1. Greta Thunberg The Story of a 16 Year old Swedish teenager, who became the face of Climate Change Activism…

2. ‘I promised myself I was going to do everything I could to make a difference’- Greta

3. Greta Thunberg • Greta Thunberg a Swedish teenager who skipped school and inspired an international movement to fight climate change.

4. Greta Thunberg • Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunbergis a Swedish environmental activist on climate change whose campaigning has gained international recognition. • Thunberg is known for her straightforward speaking manner, both in public and to political leaders and assemblies, in which she urges immediate action to address the climate crisis.

5. Greta Thunberg

6. Greta Thunberg • Thunberg's activism started after convincing her parents to adopt several lifestyle choices to reduce their own carbon footprint.

7. Greta Thunberg • On Friday 15 March 2019 1.6 million people hit the streets in support of the school strikes for climate change movement. • It was the biggest day of global climate action we’ve ever seen. • But it started out as just one person taking a stand against the inaction of politicians in the face of global warming by refusing to attend school. • That one person was Greta Thunberg.

8. School Strikes For Climate Change Movement.

9. Early life • Greta Thunberg was born on 3 January 2003 in Stockholm, in Sweden. Greta's mother, Malena Ernman, is an opera singer and former Eurovision Song Contest participant. • Her father Svante Thunberg, is an actor, and is a descendant of Svante Arrhenius, a scientist who came up with a model of the greenhouse effect. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1903.

10. Greta Thunberg Parents

11. Early life • The elder of two girls, she says she learned about climate change when she was eight, but that her parents were not climate activists. • Greta has Asperger's syndrome, a developmental disorder, and has described it as a gift and said being different is a "superpower".

12. Greta’s Superpower

13. Greta’s Superpower

14. Early life • Although neither of her parents have a background in environmentalism, she does have an ancestral connection to climate science.

15. Early life • Interestingly enough, Greta’s father is a distant relative of scientist Svante Arrhenius, who essentially discovered global warming. • Arrhenius was the first person to investigate the effect that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere had on the earth’s surface temperature, and found that it caused warming.

16. Scientist Svante Arrhenius

17. Early life • This became the basis of the first models of the greenhouse effect, and led scientist David Keeling to demonstrate in the 1960s that carbon emissions from human activity were enough to cause global warming.

18. Arrhenius was the first person to investigate the effect that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

19. Early life • Greta herself first learnt about global warming at the age of 8, when she her class was shown documentaries about climate change at school. • At school she was always the one to be sat quietly at the back of the classroom, but she remembers being more affected than the other students.

20. Greta herself first learnt about global warming at the age of 8

21. Early life • “My classmates were concerned when they watched the film, but when it stopped, they started thinking about other things. • I couldn’t do that. • Those pictures were stuck in my head.” - Greta

22. “My classmates were concerned when they watched the film, but when it stopped, they started thinking about other things. I couldn’t do that. Those pictures were stuck in my head.”

23. Mental Health • 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. • The situation made her depressed. • She stopped talking and eating, and lost ten kilograms (22 lb) in two months.

24. Depressed' Greta Thunberg had 'stopped talking and eating'

25. Mental Health • Eventually, she was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), and selective mutism. • In one of her first speeches demanding climate action, Thunberg described the selective mutism aspect of her condition as meaning she "only speaks when necessary"

26. Asperger Syndrome

27. Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

28. Selective Mutism

29. Mental Health • Greta struggled with depression for three or four years before she began her school strike. When she started protesting, her parents did not support her activism. • Her father said he does not like her missing school but said: "We respect that she wants to make a stand. She can either sit at home and be really unhappy, or protest, and be happy".

30. Greta struggled with depression for three or four years before she began her school strike

31. Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Was Battling Depression

32. Mental Health • Her Asperger diagnosis was made public nationwide in Sweden by her mother in May 2015, in order to help other families in a similar situation. • While acknowledging that her diagnosis "has limited me before", Thunberg does not view her Asperger's as an illness, and has instead called it her "superpower"

33. Asperger syndrome is Greta Thunberg's 'superpower'

34. Mental Health • She puts this down to having aspergers and selective mutism, both illnesses which can cause anxiety and over thinking.

35. Mental Health • Most of us, like Greta’s classmates, can compartmentalise knowledge effectively. We learn of the atrocities of the animal agriculture industry, but we still go home and eat our usual dinner of chicken that evening. • We learn that plastic pollution is clogging our oceans and destroying marine life, but we continue to buy bottled water. We learn that we are heading into a climate emergency, but we still opt to drive ourselves to work in the morning. • For Greta it was different. • After learning about global warming she couldn’t simply go back to normal, continue with her studies, and think about something else. It profoundly affected her.

36. After learning about global warming she couldn’t simply go back to normal, continue with her studies, and think about something else. It profoundly affected her.

37. Mental Health • It affected her so much, that three years later, at the age of 11, Greta experienced a period of depression. • Climate change wasn’t the sole reason for this depression, but it definitely played a part.

38. After learning about global warming she couldn’t simply go back to normal, continue with her studies, and think about something else. It profoundly affected her.

39. Mental Health • “I kept thinking about it climate change and I just wondered if I am going to have a future.”

40. Mental Health • She was so deep in her depression that she stopped attending school. Naturally, her parents were incredibly concerned. • When they spoke to her about the depression, Greta opened up to them about her climate crisis worries. • She gained a sense of release from talking about it.

41. When they spoke to her about the depression, Greta opened up to them about her climate crisis worries

42. When they spoke to her about the depression, Greta opened up to them about her climate crisis worries

43. Greta Thunberg • But more than that, she also saw her parents start to understand her concerns too. • Greta had been eating a vegan diet for a while, but now her parents stopped eating meat too. • Her mother’s career as an opera singer meant flying regularly across the world, but she stopped flying and chose instead to perform only in Stockholm.

44. Greta had been eating a vegan diet for a while, but now her parents stopped eating meat too

45. Her mother’s career as an opera singer meant flying regularly across the world, but she stopped flying and chose instead to perform only in Stockholm

46. Greta Thunberg • Greta realised that by talking about her worries, she could influence others make a difference. • This marked the beginnings of the movement that she has created. • Out of her struggle with depression came the spark of activism.

47. Greta realised that by talking about her worries, she could influence others make a difference

48. Greta Thunberg • “That’s when I kind of realised I could make a difference. And how I got out of that depression was that I thought: it is just a waste of time feeling this way because I can do so much good with my life.”

49. Greta Thunberg

50. Greta Thunberg • She made a promise to herself to ‘do everything I could to make a difference.’ And she stuck to that promise.