2003–present
Latest News: Greta Thunberg Deported from Israel
A day after Israeli forces seized an aid ship bound for Gaza with Greta Thunberg and 11 other activists on board, the 22-year-old Swedish climate advocate is headed back home.
Thunberg was part of the pro-Palestine Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s mission on the Madleen, a British-flagged ship. The group had set sail from Italy on June 1 to deliver a symbolic shipment of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, including baby formula and medical supplies, but was intercepted by Israel’s naval forces on June 8 due to their longstanding naval blockade on the Palestinian territory.
“If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by Israeli occupations forces, or forces that support Israel,” the 22-year-old Swedish activist said in a prerecorded video on Instagram. “I urge all my friends, family, and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible.”
The Israel Foreign Ministry, which has criticized Thunberg’s voyage as a publicity stunt, confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) that the Madleen had been redirected to Israel’s shores. “The ‘selfie yacht’ carrying Greta Thunberg and the other so-called ‘celebrities’ is continuing its journey toward an Israeli port,” the post read. “Upon arrival, arrangements will be made for their return to their respective home countries.”
The ministry also shared the passengers were safe, unharmed, and provided with food and water. The group underwent medical examinations once on land. Thunberg was deported Tuesday on a flight to France before continuing on to Sweden. According to the Associated Press, she said her brief detention was “quite chaotic and uncertain,” but the conditions were “absolutely nothing compared to what people are going through in Palestine and especially Gaza right now.”
Who Is Greta Thunberg?
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has been a leader in the international movement to fight climate change since 2018. As a teenager, Thunberg began skipping school on Fridays and protesting outside the Swedish Parliament in the name of climate action. Thanks to social media, her actions have spread and influenced millions of young people all over the world to organize and protest. Thunberg has since traveled the world, meeting with global leaders and speaking at assemblies to demand climate solutions and a recommitment to the Paris Agreement. She has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five years in a row, from 2019 to 2023.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg
BORN: January 3, 2003
BIRTHPLACE: Stockholm, Sweden
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Capricorn
Early Life
Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg was born on January 3, 2003, in Stockholm. The Swedish girl was raised in an artistic family. Her mother, Malena Ernman, is an opera singer, and her father, Svante Thunberg, is an actor. Greta has a younger sister, Beata, who is a popular singer in Sweden.
For her part, Greta has utilized her creativity in a different way. She was only 8 when she first learned about the climate crisis. Since then, she has made efforts to lower her carbon footprint by not flying and becoming vegan. She has influenced her family to do the same.
At the age of 12, Greta was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, later referring to the disorder as her “superpower.” Within three years, she became an internationally known activist.
Climate Activism
Thunberg began her climate activism at age 15. With the simple message “School strike for climate” handwritten on poster board, the teenager began skipping school on Fridays to protest outside the Swedish Parliament in August 2018. Her demonstrations became known as “Fridays For Future,” and other concerned youths throughout Europe soon joined the movement to pressure leaders and lawmakers to act on climate change through their regular walkouts.
As the face of the climate youth movement, Thunberg has been invited to speak at numerous rallies including ones in Stockholm, London, and Brussels. In December 2018, her speech at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland—known as COP24—went viral. “You are not mature enough to tell it like is,” she said at the summit, addressing the Secretary-General. “Even that burden you leave to us children. But I don’t care about being popular. I care about climate justice and the living planet.”
U.S. Visit: Global Climate Strike and “How Dare You” Speech
Taking a year-long sabbatical from school, Thunberg traveled across the Atlantic on a zero-emissions yacht, accompanied by her father and a supporting crew. Taking a little over two weeks, the yacht arrived in New York City in late August 2019 ahead of several public engagements for Thunberg.
She visited with former U.S. President Barack Obama and later spoke before the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Select Committee in Washington D.C. Known for her blunt speaking style, Thunberg barely spoke before the committees and instead pushed forward the latest UN report. “I don’t want you to listen to me,” she said. “I want you to listen to the scientists.”
Two days later, Thunberg walked with millions of protesters in New York City to demand climate action at the New York City Global Climate Strike. The demonstration became the largest climate protest in history with a total of 4 million people marching all over the world. The next day, she spoke at the U.N. Youth Climate Summit.
Although the world’s eyes were already on the teen activist, her speech on September 21, 2019, at the United Nations Climate Action Summit brought headline news. Speaking before leaders, lawmakers and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Thunberg lambasted them with one of her most indignant speeches.
“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing,” she said. “We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”
She added: “For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you’re doing enough, when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight... You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.”
Thunberg’s “How Dare You” speech attracted so much attention that then–U.S. President Donald Trump, a vehement climate change denier, felt compelled to offer a mocking tweet: “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!” he wrote. In response, Thunberg changed her Twitter bio temporarily, using Trump’s language against him. Her profile read: “A very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future.”
COP25 Conference
Days later, Thunberg joined 15 other young climate activists to file an official complaint that five countries—Argentina, France, Germany, Brazil, and Turkey—haven’t honored their Paris Agreement pledges and have therefore violated the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child treaty.
In December 2019, Thunberg was among the speakers at COP25 in Madrid. She also attended another major climate demonstration in the Spanish capital, telling her fellow protesters, “The hope is not within the walls of COP25; the hope is out here with you.”
Climate Live Concert
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Thunberg briefly moved her activism online, criticizing New Zealand for only committing to reducing carbon emissions by 1 percent. The following spring, in April 2021, she attended the annual Climate Live concert in Berlin, before advocating for the world to change how it produces food to protect both the climate and public health.
Youth4Climate Summit and The Climate Book
At the Youth4Climate Summit in September 2021, Thunberg called out world leaders over their “empty promises” to address the climate crisis, quoting statements from U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, among others.
“Our leaders’ intentional lack of action is a betrayal towards all present and future generations,” she said. Thunberg also criticized the organizers of climate conferences, claiming that “they invite cherry-picked young people to meetings like this to pretend they are listening to us, but they are not.”
In October 2022, she published The Climate Book, a collection of essays by climate experts.
Thunberg graduated high school in June 2023 and was subsequently arrested at for protesting The Energy Intelligence Forum in London that October. She was charged with failure to comply to a police order to move the “Oily Money Out” protest to a designated area. Thunberg pleaded not guilty, and the case was later dismissed in February 2024.
Honors and Awards
In March 2019, Thunberg was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her climate activism. However, she lost the award to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Several months later, in December 2019, she was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year. At 16 years old, she became the youngest individual to earn the honor.
“Thunberg has become the biggest voice on the biggest issue facing the planet,” the Time editor-in-chief wrote. “This was the year the climate crisis went from behind the curtain to center stage, from ambient political noise to squarely on the world’s agenda, and no one did more to make that happen than Thunberg.”
The activist has since been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize four more times, from 2020 to 2023.
Pro-Palestine Activism
Thunberg has expanded her activism to include other causes, including in pro-Palestinian advocacy. She first displayed her support for Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023, posting a photo of herself with a “Stand With Gaza” sign next to three other people. After facing criticism for the post, Thunberg responded, “It goes without saying - or so I thought - that I’m against the horrific attacks by hamas [sic]. As I said, ‘the world needs to speak up and call for an immediate ceasefire, justice and freedom for Palestinians and all civilians affected.’”
In May 2024, she was arrested at a protest against the war in Gaza at the University of Copenhagen for blocking the entrance to a building. That same month, Thunberg participated in an encampment at the University of Stockholm, during which she was carried away by police. “Students put up tents at the library, to say that they have had enough of complicity of the genocide in Gaza,” she wrote on Instagram at the time.
After joining the pro-Palestinian group Freedom Flotilla Coalition, she embarked on a voyage to Gaza in June 2025 to deliver a symbolic shipment of aid. A week later, Israeli forces intercepted the boat due to their longstanding naval blockade on Gaza, and Thunberg and several other activists were detained. Within hours, the Israel Foreign Ministry announced that the ship had been redirected to an Israeli port, where the activists would then be sent home.
Quotes
- You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!
- For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you're doing enough, when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight.
- We can’t just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow.
- People are underestimating the force of angry kids. If they want us to stop being angry, then maybe they should stop making us angry.
- The planet is outside its comfort zone and we also need to be outside of our comfort zone to prevent the worst consequences from happening.
- My role is to be one of many, many activists who are pushing for climate action. I don’t see myself as a leader, or icon or the face of a movement.
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