PLYMOUTH: A yearafter starting a school strike that made her a figurehead for the fight againstglobal warming, Greta Thunberg believes her uncompromising message is gettingthrough -- even if action remains thin on the ground. The 16-year-old Swede,who sets sail for New York on Wednesday to deliver her demand for climateaction to North America, has been a target of abuse but sees that as proof sheis having an effect.
"The debateis shifting. I feel like people are taking this more urgently, people arestarting to be more aware, slowly," she told AFP on board the 60-foot(18-metre) yacht taking her across the Atlantic. However, she admits this stillneeds to be matched by action, warning: "When you see the big picturealmost nothing positive is happening." Since she made headlines byskipping school to protest outside the Swedish parliament in August last year,Thunberg has met political and business leaders across Europe.
Now she isheading to the United States to attend a UN climate summit in New York inSeptember -- and as she refuses to fly, she's been offered a lift on a racingyacht. Malizia II will be skippered by Pierre Casiraghi, a member of the Monacoroyal family, and German sailor Boris Herrmann. The facilities are basic -- thetoilet is a bucket, there is no kitchen -- but it has solar panels andunderwater turbines that allow it to operate without producing carbonemissions.
Thunberg -- whohas never sailed before this week -- will be onboard for two weeks, along withher father Svante and a filmmaker. "It just shows how impossible it is tolive sustainably today -- it's absurd that you have to sail across the AtlanticOcean like this to get there with no emissions," Thunberg said in theEnglish port of Plymouth. "But I feel like since I'm one of the few peoplein the world who can actually do this I want to take that opportunity to doit." She has no plans to meet with President Donald Trump in the US,saying: "I can't say anything that he hasn't already heard."
'They see us as athreat'
In the past year,Thunberg has addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, UN talks in Poland,been interviewed for Vogue magazine and featured on the new album of band The1975. She has received several awards and been nominated for the Nobel peaceprize. Thunberg is sceptical about some of those who ask her to appear at theirevents.
"Many peoplesee this an opportunity to invite us, school striking people, to clear theirname in a way," she said. But she adds: "I do this because it isactually having an impact." For her, the most powerful part of the pastyear has been watching the children around the world join her school strike."To be a part of such a big and strong movement, the Fridays for Futuremovement -- just to see all the children, the young people around the world,all the millions of young people who are rising up," she said.
Her plaits,battered trainers and sweatshirt make Thunberg look younger than she is, butthat doesn't stop her critics throwing abuse at the teenager for speaking out."I just ignore it because it's also a good sign that they are actuallytrying to make us quiet, that means that we are having an impact, and they seeus as a threat," she says.
After New York,where she also plans to take part in climate demonstrations, she will travel toCanada and Mexico, before heading to another UN meeting in Chile in December.Her goal is to ensure "that the climate crisis is being taken as seriouslyas it should be taken and that people really start to understand".
"Thentogether we create an international opinion, and movement so that people standtogether and put pressure on the people in power," she said. Thunberg doesnot like talking about herself, saying she is just an activist, butacknowledges that having children speak out has a special power."We tellit like it is, we don't care to be polite. And we make people feel veryguilty." - AFP