6/10/2023 0 Comments Ispeak 2003 editionAnd if a few children can get headlines all over the world just by not going to school, then imagine what we could all do together if we really wanted to. But I've learned you are never too small to make a difference. Many people say that Sweden is just a small country and it doesn't matter what we do. I speak on behalf of Climate Justice Now!. Video: Greta Thunberg's speech at the United Nations COP24 Climate Change Conference in Poland in December 2018. Watch the video below to see what happened next. Her heart was beating fast as she nervously waited to be asked to speak. In December 2018, just a few months after starting her strike, Greta was invited to speak at the United Nations COP24 Climate Change Conference in Poland. Greta's life would never be the same again. Within a few days she was being interviewed by reporters, other kids had joined her, and she was being supported by Greenpeace activists and others. ![]() Even though she only had around twenty followers, it was retweeted dozens of times. She asked a passer-by to take a photo of her and posted it on her Twitter account. After sending her dad home, Greta found a good spot to set up her sign and sat down on her cushion with her flyers by her side. Svante rode behind her, carrying the sign. After breakfast on August 20 2018, she rode her bicycle to the Swedish parliament where the government met. She also printed flyers full of facts about the climate crisis. Then she made a big sign and painted the words "School Strike for the Climate" in Swedish. Instead of giving up, Greta asked her dad to take her to a building supplies store where she bought a board and some paints. She told her friends about her idea, but none of them seemed interested in joining her. She had heard about workers going on strike to demand better pay, and imagined students going on strike to demand more action against climate change. So Greta decided to do something about it. Everyone was saying the right things, but nobody was doing the right things. Nearly everyone she knew said the climate crisis was very serious, but they also made it worse by flying all over the world for their holidays. She learned that carbon dioxide (CO 2) was one of the greenhouse gases causing global warming and climate change, and that airline flights released many tonnes of CO 2 into the atmosphere. Even at that young age she could see it was a serious problem, and the more she learned as she grew older, the more worried she became. Greta first learned about climate change when she was 8 years old. Her mum and dad also found her a new school, and making new friends also helped her to recover and become interested in the wider world again. She lost a lot of weight and could have died if her parents hadn't found specialist doctors with a treatment plan that worked. It got so bad that Greta became very depressed and even stopped eating. Greta was a shy girl who didn't say much at school, and this led to bullying by some of the other kids. Her mother Malena is a famous opera singer, and her father Svante was an actor until he quit to look after Greta and her little sister Beata. ![]() Greta Thunberg was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2003. ![]() How did a 15-year-old high school student from Sweden become the world's most famous climate change activist? This reading tells the story of Greta Thunberg's amazing journey, but before you begin why not learn the vocabulary in the Wordchecker list below? Then after reading, don't forget to check your understanding by doing the Greta quiz.
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