Greta Thunberg, an Ambitious Activist Who Needs to Think Twice

When I first heard her, I mistook her surname for Thunderberg. Clearly, she is bold, with a clear and pointed message to convey. Greta Thunberg, a Swedish climate change campaigner, had her name plastered all over the news, since she addressed the latest UN Climate Action Summit in September, but not for her environmental activism in the first place as you might think.

I, too, come from a green background with an immerse belief in solar energy. While, I not only don’t find it objectionable for her to become an eco-warrior in the climate battle at such a young age, but also encourage it, Greta needs to think twice before she speaks and defines her manifesto of yes/no.

She is young, very young, not only in age, but also in the activism sphere. The sixteen-year-old Swede started campaigning in as late as 2018, and since then she has been roaming around the world, by sea, road and rail, but never on an aircraft. Why? Because it harms the environment. I also feel bad for this, but until we are able to teleport, the Time-named Person of the Year would waste an enormous amount of time cruising the Atlantic. The early bird activist wouldn’t favour this later in the future when she ultimately becomes a fully-fledged woman with a heavy schedule and endless to do lists.

Last weekend, Greta could have thought wisely before tweeting, complaining about her train trip. Later, she said she didn’t mean to complain about the overcrowdedness and that it was a good sign there is a high demand on electric trains. Also, her tweet wouldn’t appeal to people in many countries who might lose a limb or even their life, in an ordinary commute, while packed in like sardines in trains that should have retired a good couple of years ago.

There are many successful activists; what is unique about Greta? Her age which she brands on her Twitter profile along with PR photos. But this comes with a burden. She is already motivating teenagers around the world, who might take whatever their role model says or does for granted, at that age when emotion conquers rational thinking.

I admire the grit and enthusiasm of Greta. But she also jeopardizes her brand image to get stuck at that frown moment. Her brand would prematurely end her seemingly lifelong campaign, in this age where information gets buried quickly under tons of data that is streamed every second. What Greta Thunberg needs is -and I quote her- “to take a rest, otherwise you cannot do this all the time.”