Greta Thunberg.Photo: KENA BETANCUR/AFP/Getty
Greta Thunberg hasn’t missed the boat on a Nobel Peace Prize.
In a public show of support for Thunberg — who became theyoungestTimePerson of the Year ever in 2019— Jens Holm and Hakan Svenneling of Sweden’s Left Party emphasized how the teenager “has worked hard to make politicians open their eyes to the climate crisis,” saying that “action for reducing our emissions and complying with the Paris Agreement is therefore also an act of making peace,” the AP reported.
Nominations for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize were due on Feb. 1, the AP noted, but a winner will not be announced until this fall.
Thunberg’s big news comes weeks aftershe lambasted international lawmakers at the World Economic Forumin Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 21, accusing government leaders of not doing enough to save the planet despite years of consensus among scientists that humans are responsible for worsening climate change and putting future generations at risk.
“I wonder, what will you tell your children was the reason to fail and leave them facing the climate chaos you knowingly brought upon them?” Thunberg asked the audience.
“Let’s be clear. We don’t need a ‘low carbon economy.’ We don’t need to ‘lower emissions,’ ” she continued. “Our emissions have to stop.”
Numerous countries, including the U.S., have made progress in changing some of the underlying environmental dynamics, including curbing carbon emissions. But U.S. President Donald Trump,long a climate change skeptic, said after he took office that the U.S. would leave the Paris climate agreement, insisting it was a “bad deal.”
“We will never let radical socialists destroy our economy, wreck our country or eradicate our liberty,” he said in part in Davos, according toThe Washington Post.
Trump, 73, also alluded to Thunberg, calling climate change activists “heirs of yesterday’s foolish fortune tellers.”
Greta Thunberg.EVGENIA ARBUGAEVA FOR TIME
This isn’t the first time the American president has taken aim at the teenager: Upon herTimePerson of the Year win last year,Trump tweeted, “So ridiculous,” he wrote. “Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!”
Though her passionate plea to save the planet had made her a frontrunner in many eyes, Thunberg was not awarded the2019 Nobel Peace Prizein October, leading many on social media to take it upon themselves to recognize all of the good she’s so far inspired.
The coveted award instead went toEthiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, for “his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in a statement at the time.
Still, the Swedish teen’s loss was a surprise for those who’d been convinced she’d receive the honor after becoming a household name since first skipping school and standing alone outside the Swedish parliament in August 2018 with a sign reading, “School Strike for Climate.”
Her strike soon went viral, sparking hundreds of similar protests around the world that continue to draw millions of teens and adults in a campaign now called Fridays for Future.
source: people.com
