The world has found its hero: who is Greta Thunberg, why does she speak at the UN and what does the environment have to do with it

What did Trump and Peskov say about Thunberg?

Thunberg's speech began to be published by media around the world

Even US President Donald Trump drew attention to Greta's appearance at the summit. He reposted the video of the girl's performance on his Twitter and wrote: "She looks like a very happy young girl who has a bright and wonderful future

It's so nice to look at it!"

They reacted to Thunberg's speech in the Kremlin. “The main thing is that everything is fine with the girl, so that she does not experience emotional overload, so that the fragile children's body can endure all this. And so, the raising of the issue is justified, the issue is acute, ”Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov told TASS.

What's wrong with Thunberg? Asperger's syndrome and other diseases

Gerda has a whole triad of diseases - doctors discovered that the girl had Asperger's syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and selective mutism. Asperger's Syndrome is a congenital form of autism that has no cure.

OCD is the presence of intrusive, disturbing thoughts that lead to frequent repetition of the same actions. For example, this is the fear of getting infected with constant washing of hands, the fear of leaving the gas turned off and the pointless multiple checks of the stove. The heroine of this article apparently has a fear of global warming. Although usually suspicious, OCD patients are capable of infrequent maximal-decisive actions. Selective mutism is when a child cannot speak in certain situations, for example, he can communicate well with his parents, but be withdrawn from his peers.

The girl spoke about her diagnoses, summarizing them in this way: she speaks only when she sees fit, and also does not know how to lie, for her the world is clearly divided into white and black.

The history of the award

The award was established in 1980 at the initiative of the writer and scientist Jakob von Uexküll to support those who offer effective solutions to current problems. The name "For expedient life support" is borrowed from Buddhist philosophy, according to which a person should take from earthly sources no more than what he needs for life.

Over the years of its existence, the Uxküll Prize has been awarded for achievements in various fields: environmental protection, the preservation of cultural values, science, health care, the fight against poverty and hunger, and crisis management.Funding comes from a fund for which von Uexkull sold his richest collection of rare stamps. It is also replenished by voluntary donations from individuals and international organizations.

The award decision is made by an authoritative international jury, whose members are politicians, scientists and public figures from all over the world. One of the distinguishing characteristics of the award is that the winners cannot use the money received for their own needs, but only for the social work they carry out.

To date, 178 people and organizations from 70 countries of the world have already become laureates. Among those who have received the award in Russia are Alla Yaroshinskaya (1992), the former People's Deputy of the USSR and an expert on nuclear security issues, the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers (1996), and human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina (2016), who was awarded "for many years of commitment to the protection of human rights and a just attitude towards refugees and internally displaced persons, as well as tolerance among various ethnic groups”.

Who is Greta Thunberg and why everyone is discussing her

In August 2018, on the eve of the new school year, Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg launched an unusual solo protest. Instead of attending school, she would come every day to the walls of the Swedish parliament building in Stockholm with a poster "School strike for climate."

At that time, Greta was 15 years old. A few months earlier, she was one of the winners of a climate change writing contest organized by the popular Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. “I am doing this because you adults have ruined my future,” was written on the flyers handed out by the schoolgirl.

Initially, Thunberg planned to continue her "school" strike for several weeks - until the parliamentary elections in Sweden in September 2018. So she hoped to achieve from future parliamentarians and the government of the country the maximum reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, including in accordance with the Paris climate agreement.

After the election, Thunberg protested only on Fridays.

However, her strike attracted huge attention initially on social networks, and then the world press. This interest was fueled by the controversial nature of the protest - the world was discussing what is more important for schoolchildren: to publicly declare their position or to regularly attend classes.

Meanwhile, following the initiative of Thunberg, schoolchildren and students in many countries of the world began to hold "climate" protests on Fridays (Fridays for Future) - mass marches in dozens of major cities

By the end of 2018, such actions were held in at least 270 cities, tens of thousands of young people took part in them, wrote The Guardian.

So the name Thunberg became known to the whole planet. Over the past year, she has made her calls for an immediate fight for climate change in many international forums.

The young Swedish activist met with UN Secretary General António Guterres several times, discussed her ideas with Barack Obama, spoke at a forum in Davos and before representatives of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, and appeared on the cover of Time magazine.

Thunberg also has a lot of critics. The Swiss Tages-Anzeiger wrote: "The enthusiasm for Greta Thunberg is the flip side of populism a la Trump: both of these phenomena are based on distrust of existing elites."

And one of the authors of the British The Spectator pointed to the unjustified cult of the activist, noting that "it would be better for society and for Thunberg herself if we finally stopped rushing around with these children's horror stories and returned to the framework of a reasonable discussion."

All public speeches of the girl have an emotional feature. Greta Thunberg has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome since childhood, a specific autism spectrum disorder, with the manifestations of which the activist's parents associate her adherence to principles and categoricalness.

In her speeches, Thunberg rarely smiles and sharply criticizes the audience listening to her. She reproaches the powers that be for inaction and ostentatious attention to the appeals of young people instead of urgent effective measures to protect the climate.

“I don’t want you to listen to me — I want you to listen to scientists,” she told US congressmen in September 2019. And speaking to European parliamentarians earlier, she criticized them for "three urgent summits due to Brexit and zero urgent summits due to climate and environmental destruction."

The issue of climate change

Greta Thunberg began to be invited not only to local climate events, but also to international ones. In December 2018, she met for the first time with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who welcomed the girl's strikes. In January 2019, she was invited to the Davos forum, where she spoke for the first time to major politicians and called on them to take decisive action to combat global warming. A month later, she was already speaking at a conference of the European Socio-Economic Committee, and in May 2019 sheshe was invited to a special meeting by Arnold Schwarzenegger, who organized a small conference on the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Since then, Greta has become known throughout the world and today she is one of the most recognizable environmental activists on the planet.

Why Greta Thunberg still goes to school

In order not to experience an inferiority complex in front of Greta Thunberg in this matter, you need to know the following.

Since 2009, the official global warming target has been 2 degrees Celsius. It was at this increase in the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere compared to the pre-industrial era (before 1850) that we had to stop in order to save the planet from climatic collapse. The goal of 1.5 degrees in all documents passed as desirable, but not mandatory.

The fifth assessment report of the IPCC, released in 2014, concluded that the temperature of the atmosphere would rise by no more than 2 degrees if the amount of greenhouse gases (in terms of CO2 equivalent) emitted by humans does not exceed 3 trillion tons. Despite the fact that by 2011 we had already issued 2 trillion. tons. We thus had only 1 trillion left in reserve. Not exceeding this threshold should have been enough to achieve the desired goal "with a probability of 66%". (How the IPCC calculates these probabilities is a separate question.) Based on these data, a rough timetable was created to gradually reduce emissions from the current 45 billion tons per year by several times and achieve “carbon neutrality” by 2100.

But even such a schedule meant a sharp and deep economic recession. Simply put, the collapse of the world economic system with all the collapses that come with it: financial, social, and so on.Naturally, no one lifted a finger to really reduce their greenhouse emissions. This story with calls to immediately begin the reduction, with the signing of international documents on this matter, began back in the 90s of the 20th century and has never led to anything. As it did not lead this time. The volume of greenhouse emissions continues to grow. For the simple reason that economic growth continues in most countries of the world. And greenhouse emissions are growing especially rapidly in countries that are trying to provide an acceptable standard of living for hundreds of millions of their fellow citizens. And they are definitely not going to “freeze” their level of well-being.

And last year, the IPCC Special Report was released. It examines the question of increasing the temperature by only 1.5 degrees. The conclusions of the report are quite expected. It's better to settle for 1.5 than 2. But of course, our remaining carbon budget will be much smaller. We no longer have one trillion tons in stock. With a probability of 66%, we will not exceed the threshold of 1.5 degrees if we emit no more than 420 billion tons with access to "carbon neutrality" as early as 2050. If we issue 580 billion tons, then the probability of success drops to 50%.

And it is precisely the last figures that Greta Thunberg is now hammering into the heads of her listeners. However, she blames her audience for not reading the latest IPCC report. And ignore the latest achievements of science. And from here we move on to more serious accusations. The fact that she “should have been at school”, but was forced to save the planet (for this very purpose, the girl has not been attending school on Fridays since last year, which has become an example for many of her peers in different countries).That adults "stole her dreams and her childhood with their idle talk."

And she is partly right. Virtually no one reads the IPCC reports. And even the "Summary for policymakers" (Summary for policymakers) almost no one reads. Firstly, even in the "Summary" there are too many numbers, graphs and incomprehensible terms. Secondly, all adult politicians have already understood that something is wrong here. It is practically impossible to reduce greenhouse emissions without reducing the standard of living. And they will all be re-elected soon.

Greta is wrong about the following. By their inaction, the adults did not take away her childhood from her, but gave it to her. If adults had begun to seriously fight global warming a couple of decades ago, 16-year-old Greta, along with her peers, would now have finished her elementary school long ago and would already be working with might and main on a manufactory or a farm (without a tractor and a milking machine). Smart uncles and aunts who write heartfelt speeches to her should have explained to her long ago that only a fantastic increase in energy consumption, primarily hydrocarbon consumption (with the obligatory increase in greenhouse gas emissions in this case) created this world in which children study for years. ten or twelve at school, travel the planet and communicate on the Internet. The reduction in energy consumption, that is, the reduction in the use of a wide variety of machines, inevitably leads to the fact that they will need to be replaced by physical labor. Both in factories and in the fields. And society cannot afford such a luxury as universal secondary education. Not to mention mass higher education.

Other laureates

Together with Thunberg, the prize was awarded to a human rights activist from Western Sahara, a lawyer from China, and an activist in the defense of the Yanomamo Indians from Brazil.Western Saharan pro-independence activist Aminatou Haidar, "despite imprisonment and torture," received the award "for persistent non-violent action to bring justice and self-determination to the people of Western Sahara." During her 30-year campaign for the independence of her homeland, Haidar earned the nickname "Sahravi Gandhi". This is the first time that a resident of Western Sahara has received the award.

Lawyer Guo Jianmei, who was also unable to attend the ceremony, was awarded the award "for her pioneering and persistent work in protecting women's rights in China." “Guo Jianmei is one of the most prominent women's rights lawyers in China. Throughout her career, she has helped thousands of disadvantaged women gain access to justice.

Yanomamo Indian activist and shaman Davi Kopenawa received the award "for his courageous determination to protect the forests and biodiversity of the Amazon, as well as the lands and cultures of indigenous peoples." “Copenava is one of the most respected indigenous leaders in Brazil. He devoted his life to protecting the rights of the Yanomamo, their culture and lands in the Amazon. Kopenawa is the co-founder and president of the Yanomamo Hutukaro Association, which works to conserve the rainforest and promote the rights of indigenous peoples in Brazil.

environmental activism

Greta was born on January 3, 2003 in Stockholm, Sweden. As the girl recalls, she learned about climate change at the age of 8. She was then simply surprised why no one in the whole world is doing anything to prevent such changes from happening.At the age of 11, the girl began to have health problems. These were depressions, a complete lack of appetite, the desire to speak also disappeared.

After some time, doctors diagnosed - Asperger's syndrome, that is, obsessive-compulsive disorder and selective mutism.

Greta is sure that the latter is manifested in the fact that she speaks only when she thinks it is necessary. As for Asperger's syndrome, she is convinced that it is a gift that determines the vision of the world not in the way others do, but in a "very black and white light."

The topic that interested Greta at the age of 8 turned out to be the main one in her later life. Last May, she won a climate essay competition. It was organized by the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbland.

Literally immediately after the publication, which appeared on the pages of the publication, one of the activists of the environmental organization Fossilfritt Dalsland Bu Thoren contacted Greta. They met several times, and one day the girl suggested that schoolchildren start a strike against climate change. Commenting on that event, Greta clarifies that such an idea came to her after the strikes of schoolchildren in the United States, who were frightened by mass shootings in Florida schools.

Further, the activity of the girl developed rapidly. The idea of ​​school strikes inspired her peers around the world. And now in many cities, children on Fridays go not to school, but to the streets.

They seek to draw the attention of politicians and society to the problems of climate change. When speaking, Greta always refers to the IPCC report, backing up her words with specific examples based on research.

The activity of the girl could not be ignored. Gradually, her activities became known far beyond the borders of Sweden.They also noticed it in the UN. The result was 2 meetings (December 2018 and May 2019) of Greta with the Secretary General of this organization, António Guterres. Assessing them, he said that he approved of the strikes, expressing regret that his generation had not coped with climate change, but “the youth feel it. No wonder they're angry."

Greta also visited the Davos Forum in January of this year, urging businessmen and politicians to act more decisively there. In the same year, in February, she spoke at the conference of the European Socio-Economic Committee. In the last days of March, the girl was in Berlin, speaking there in front of 25 thousand people.

This was followed by her meeting in the European Parliament. By the way, speaking to the MEPs, Greta expressed reasoned criticism of them “for 3 urgent summits due to Brexit and zero urgent summits due to the destruction of the climate and the environment.”

Thunberg on a yacht. The girl fundamentally does not use airplanes because of their non-environmental friendliness, and therefore made her way to New York for 2 weeks on a yacht.

The speech turned out to be so businesslike and emotional that it ended with prolonged applause.

And there were Greta's speeches in July at the Fridays for the Future rally in Berlin, May meetings with Arnold Schwarzenegger, the UN Secretary General and the Austrian President. This meeting was organized by Schwarzenegger in order to accelerate the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

“If we don’t do anything before about 2030,” the girl then quoted the 2018 IPCC report, “then we will probably start an irreversible and uncontrollable chain reaction.”

Greta's speech at the UN Climate Summit on September 23 in New York took only 4 minutes.This was enough to bring accusations against governments of ignoring climate issues and betraying future generations. “Entire ecosystems are dying,” Thunberg said, “you can only discuss money and talk about endless economic growth ... young people begin to understand that you are betraying them.”

Ecoactivism and science

In her speeches, Greta Thunberg often uses the expression "Listen to the science." But, if we analyze all the public speeches of the Swedish eco-activist, emotional speeches like “People are dying”, “How dare you”, “We can’t wait, we need to act now” and, of course, “You stole my childhood” appear there much more often than specific data about climate change and suggestions on how to deal with them.

In a column ahead of her visit to the climate conference in Madrid, Thunberg cited as evidence a recent study by US scientists from the University of Oregon titled "Scientists from around the world warn of a climate emergency."

There, the authors published data on how, as a result of human activity, the world ocean has been heating up over the past 40 years, air temperature is rising, glaciers are melting, carbon footprint and, at the same time, global GDP and the earnings of various organizations are growing, and the production and use of fossil fuels continue to be subsidized.

Scientists believe that despite the first climate conference in Geneva in 1979, and subsequent summits in Rio de Janeiro (1992), the Kyoto Protocol (1997) and the Paris climate agreements (2015), the level of greenhouse gases continues to grow, and all living things the world is suffering from climate change.

“As an Alliance of Global Scientists, we are ready to assist decision makers in a just transition towards a sustainable and equitable future. We call for the widespread use of vital signs to enable policy makers, the private sector and the public to better understand the magnitude of this crisis, track progress and set priorities for climate change mitigation.

In her most famous speech at the UN climate summit in New York in September 2019, Greta Thunberg said that for the past 30 years, science has been warning about the dangers that climate change could cause.

“The popular idea of ​​cutting our emissions in half in 10 years gives us only a 50% chance of keeping the global air temperature rise within 1.5 degrees Celsius. Maybe 50% is acceptable for you. But these numbers do not include tipping points, most of the spillover effects, additional warming masked by toxic air pollution, or aspects of equity and equity. They also rely on my generation and my children's generation sucking hundreds of billions of tons of CO2 out of the air with technology that barely exists," she said.

Thunberg believes that with today's emissions levels, the remaining CO2 reduction budget will be over in less than 8.5 years. In her opinion, today we are emitting 350 gigatons per year more carbon dioxide than is needed to ensure that the air temperature on Earth does not rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius with a probability of at least 67%.

NV has repeatedly published scientific studies and reports on climate change, which say that in the coming decades, due to global warming, the sea level is rising and many human settlements are in danger of flooding, drought can lead to hunger, poverty and mass migration, and the number of species of flora and fauna on the planet is rapidly declining due to pollution of the ocean and continents.

Most revealing is the study cited by Greta Thunberg, in which more than 11,000 scientists from 153 countries have declared a climate emergency.” “We have come together to declare a climate emergency because climate change is more severe and evolving faster than scientists expected. This threatens natural ecosystems and the fate of mankind. Many of us feel that we have little time to act, ”said one of the authors of the document, an environmental professor from William Ripple.

For your information, the Oxford Dictionary word of the year for 2019 is climate emergency.

Common fakes about Greta Thunberg

Verdict: Fake

The version with the taxi driver is quite recent, dated September 25th. The fake about the photo of Greta with the ISIS member appeared a little earlier, and it was already debunked by Snopes. The photo is not Greta, but initially (in 2014) it was generally distributed with a different caption, telling about early marriages with girls among Muslims.

It was alleged that this girl was sold into sexual slavery. In fact, the photo is a still from a competition for the knowledge of the Holy Quran, held in Aleppo in 2013.The girl in the photo took part in the competition and cried because she made a number of mistakes while reading.

Verdict: Fake

The photo was verified by the Lead Stories project, they also found the original source - a photo of Thunberg with Al Gore.

The fake photo and article were posted on several right-wing sites the other day. The most likely source of the photomontage is the satirical French publication SecretNews.fr, which published a photo and an article with this statement on August 28, 2019.

The head of George Soros was "attached" to the body of Gore.

Verdict: Fake

Fake debunked by Martin Schwenk of Lead Stories. Indeed, in 2018, a local pastor posted a tweet with such content (for which he later apologized). However, the Swedish Church, which unites more than half of the Swedes, has never made such statements, which they reported in an official response.

It must be understood that the parish priest, no matter what religion he belongs to, is not a translator of the doctrines or the official position of the church, moreover, he may even be in opposition to it.

Not only Greta's opponents, but also her supporters are spreading unverified claims. So, for example, there is a regular statement that people with Asperger's syndrome allegedly do not know how to lie.

Verdict: False

Asperger's syndrome according to ICD-10 refers to general disorders of psychological development. Their totality is described as "qualitative deviations in social interactions and sociability indicators, as well as a limited, stereotyped, repetitive set of interests and actions." In the ICD itself, nothing is said about the ability or inability to lie.

The Austrian psychiatrist Hans Asperger, who discovered the syndrome, noted that such children have difficulty with non-verbal communication (gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice, and so on), limited empathy (compassion, recognition and empathy with other people's emotions) and pronounced clumsiness.

A website that connects Russian-speakers with Aspergers indicates that many of them are characterized by directness - the ability to speak the truth despite politeness and other circumstances. However, the ability to tell the truth and the inability to tell a lie are not identical things. Neither in Asperger's own research nor in the Russian-speaking community is there information that such people cannot lie. But among others, the trait "seeing the forest for the trees - a tendency to focus on the details of a given situation instead of seeing the whole picture" is noted.

If you read in English, a large collection of analyzes of fakes about Greta Thunberg can be found on the website of the Poynter Institute.

Performance evaluations

British journalist Joe Senler Clark believes that schoolchildren's climate strikes have resonated around the world. For this reason, those who deny climate change due to human impact are trying to discredit Greta. Aditya Chakrabortti of The Guardian emphasizes that criticism of Greta becomes a form of "dirty personal attacks."

One of the authors of the publication Contrepoints, Drieu Godefridi, said that the competence of a 15-year-old girl who does not have “developed critical thinking” is questionable. As for Greta's accusations against oil industry bigwigs, she can't talk about crimes against humanity.

Greta Thunberg is also criticized in Sweden.However, in neighboring Finland, Isobel Hadley-Kampz, in Hufvudstadsbladet, suggested that politicians are outraged that the girl is acting better than them.

Greta Thunberg now

The activist has collected many positive reviews. The girl for the year of her activity received many awards and met with dozens of world leaders.

But it was not without a flurry of criticism. The Russian portal Lurkmore posted an article with a sharply negative assessment of its activities, related, in particular, to the exaggeration of the concept of global warming. Misunderstanding caused her activities in her homeland, where right-wing politicians are sure that world leaders are using the girl for their not very good purposes. Some blame Greta's parents for everything, who supposedly earn money on her.

In this whole story, the fear is precisely that, due to her illness, she takes everything to heart. Are the parents and the world community right that keeps the girl afraid of a global environmental catastrophe? What is your opinion?

Image source: Instagram girls.

CO2

In 2015, one of the most important documents in the fight to curb climate change, the Paris Agreement, was adopted. It was signed by 195 countries (Russia ratified it on September 23, 2019), which was an unprecedented event in the world ecology. Under the Paris Agreement, countries need to limit greenhouse gas emissions from 2050 to 2100 and keep temperature rise at around 2 degrees, and preferably by 1.5.

The main source of the harmful greenhouse effect is carbon dioxide, or carbon dioxide (CO2). Its function in natural concentration is primarily to support photosynthesis.As a greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide affects the heat exchange of the planet. It interferes with the radiation of heat from the surface of the Earth and is involved in the formation of the planet's climate.

Due to the use of fossil fuels, there is a sharp increase in the concentration of gas in the atmosphere. According to the UN IPCC, up to 20% of human-induced CO2 emissions are the result of deforestation.

Thunberg is ambivalent about the agreement: “We hardly hear about the equal or fair approach to climate issues set out in the Paris Agreement. And this is an absolutely necessary condition for their solution at the global level.”

Meanwhile, the rest of the world has the right to increase these same emissions for many years to come. In his article, Godenfri argues that the agreement forces the West to transfer $100 billion each year to Asian and African heads of state in the faint hope (highly hypothetical, it should be said) that they will cut CO2 emissions.