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not traveling like this because I want every-
one to do so,” Thunberg told reporters after
she walked, a little wobbly at first, onto dry
land for the first time in weeks. “I’m doing
this to send a message that it is impossible
to live sustainably today, and that needs to
change.”
Taking her place in front of a bank of tele-
vision cameras and reporters, she went on.
“People are underestimating the force of angry
kids,” she said. “We are angry and frustrated,
and that is because of good reason. If they want
us to stop being angry then maybe they should
stop making us angry.” When she was done
speaking, the crowd erupted in cheers.
Her speeches often go straight to the gut.
“You say you love your children above all else,”
she said in her first big address at the U.N. Cli-
mate Change Conference in Poland last De-
cember. “And yet you are stealing their future
in front of their very eyes.” The address went
viral almost immediately. Over the course of
the past year, she has given dozens of similaradmonitions—to chief executives and heads
of state, to thought leaders and movie stars.
Each time, Thunberg speaks quietly but force-
fully, articulating the palpable sense of in-
justice that often seems obvious to the very
young: adults, by refusing to act in the face of
extraordinary crisis, are being foolish at best,
and corrupt at worst. To those who share her
fear, Thunberg’s blunt honesty is cathartic. To
those who don’t, it feels threatening. She re-
fuses to use the language of hope; her sharp-
est weapon is shame.
In September, speaking to heads of state
during the U.N. General Assembly, Thunberg
pulled no punches: “We are in the beginning
of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about
is money and fairy tales of eternal economic
growth,” she said. “How dare you.”
Mary Robinson, the former President
of Ireland who served as the U.N. climate
envoy ahead of the Paris climate talks, spent
years arguing that climate change would
FROM LEFT: MICHAEL CAMPANELLA—GETTY IMAGES; EVGENIA ARBUGAEVA FOR TIME destroy small island nations and indigenous
A MASS MOVEMENT
On Dec. 6, tens of
thousands of people
flooded Madrid to
join Thunberg’s call
for global action on
climate change