WordsByPhinn

Global warming and the environment in general has been a very popular topic among both politicians and activists since the early 2000s when Al Gore first told the public about the growing yet then unknown problem of global warming. Since the initial public opinion which was generally hesitant to believe that problem, there has been an exponential rise in climate activists all around the world and of all ages.

One of these climate activists broke onto the scene in 2018 at just 15 years old with her famous “How dare you” speech. This activist is of course Greta Thunberg, a Swedish teenager, who has been the face of climate activism the past few years bringing her into her early 20s now. Over the years Greta has been given the spotlight from many different news outlets from all across the world to spread her message.

This constant media exposure is the main reason why people are beginning to get what has been called “Greta-Fatigue” which implies that the public is tired of hearing her constant cries for change. This is in part due to her emotionally driven speeches which she often blames politicians or older generations for ruining young people’s future and the environment. However, the same people she is constantly bashing is also her audience so eventually they get tired of being called the problem despite how true it may be.

Another part of the problem is that at this point everybody knows about climate change and the issues it brings with it. Nobody wants to be constantly reminded of a problem that we are well aware of and are actively dealing with the consequences from. Greta did realize this after a while though, but switched to a new issue, the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Recently Greta Thunberg has changed her path from climate activist to extremely passionate supporter of Palestine. This has caused widespread controversy from all parts of the world and sides of the political spectrum. Many have called her anti-semetic for her work in organizing and leading Pro-Palestine rallies. These events themselves have even caused conflicts with governments as when Greta announced she would speak at a protest camp in Germany, the police shut down the whole event due to Thunberg being quote “potentially violent” . This is a very far way from being nominated for the Nobel Piece Prize and being 2019 Person of the Year.

Greta went on to anger even more of the public by beginning to claim that capitalism was furthering global warming and needed to change. These newfound ideals of Thunberg received criticism from both sides of the political spectrum for radicalism with Nathaniel Flakin from Left Voice stating that “my gut is telling me that it won’t be much longer until she identifies with the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Luxemburg, and other revolutionaries.”

Despite the public’s switch of opinion of Greta Thunberg, her impact on climate activism is undeniable and the lasting effect of her efforts are still shown in new climate activists and especially with the new ‘eco-influencers’ that have been popping up all over social media. Because of Greta Thunberg people switched from numbers, scientific studies, and statistics when talking about the climate to focusing more on emotion and appealing to the public’s soft spot. You can see this strategy employed all over social media from activists not just for climate change but for all sorts of issues now. Although her spot in the limelight is fading, Greta Thunberg’s impact on activism will outlast that by a mile.