Greta Thunberg is a Swedish 16-year-old whose vocal climate change activism has made her a household name.
Her activism began in 2018 when she started skipping school every Friday to protest for stronger action on global warming outside the Swedish parliament, holding a sign saying "School strike for climate" in Swedish.
I was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, OCD and selective mutism. That basically means I only speak when I think it's necessary. Now is one of those moments.- Greta Thunberg in her TEDx Talk, Stockholm, November 2018
Soon, other students engaged in similar protests in their own communities. Because of her, a school climate strike movement was organised under the name Fridays for Future.
After Thunberg addressed the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference, student strikes took place every week somewhere in the world.
In September 2019, there were at least two coordinated multi-city protests involving over one million students each.
Thunberg has decided to take a sabbatical year from school to solely focus on global climate issues, meeting other people that like her are fighting for the climate change movement. She is currently visiting the US, Canada, Mexico and Chile.