Greta's Story: The Schoolgirl Who Went on Strike to Save the Planet by Valentina Camerini, translated by Moreno Giovannoni, illustrated by Veronica Carratello
Greta Thunberg was not doing well. She was extremely impacted after learning about climate change in school. She fell into a deep depression after learning that the earth was doomed and we were doing little to stop it. However, she was quiet and her family didn't know what was wrong. Eventually she was diagnosed with Aspergers, which often is associated with people becoming dedicated to single goals. For her, the environment was the goal. She started a school strike at Swedish parliament. Many people later joined her strike. She spoke before many influential people. Her goal was to call attention to the issue, and ask leaders to do what they commited to do to save the environment.
She was in the right place to do what she did. Her parents were actors and musicians. They had some renown and the means and flexibility to support their daughter. She was diagnosed with Aspergers rather than lumped into an "autism" bucket. This contributed to her getting appropriate attention and an understanding of what she was doing. Her personal solutions to climate may be naive. (Driving an electric car may have lower emissions in Sweden, but in Poland where most energy comes from fossil fuels, it is a heavy polluter.) However, her goal is to look at the big picture.
Greta Thunberg is a Swedish teenager with Asperger's who sees the climate change issue as "black or white". This book has many of her talks. She sees climate change as "black or white". She would like people to do things to stop climate change, while also maintaining social justice and equity to allow less-developed countries to develop also. She has a great deal of passion. She asks the politicians to "do something", but is not very clear on what needs to be done. Her only source for raising the alarm is the IPCC report that gives us a little over a decade before we are over the edge in irreversible climate change. She seems to be coming against the brick wall of human nature. People are just not very motivated to make changes for something that "might" happen. They want to wait until it is here, then take decisive action. Then they will complain that nobody took action earlier. You see the same thing play out with the covid-19 coronavirus. Countries saw it in China and new in advance it would be coming, but waited until it was already here before making big changes. Earlier changes would have been easier and less draconian, but they would also have been "too earlier" Ciimate change is also challenging in that it deals with models with a near infinite amount of variables. Many of the so-called "solutions" are mere window-dressing. (A Prius doesn't emit as much carbon-dioxide, but it still emits orders of magnitude more than a person walking or biking the same distance.) Most arguments attempt to reduce CO2 emissions, while just expecting the current built up society to remain the same. That also seems to be missing the boat. Our built up infrastructure is just not compatible with the current climate models. Perhaps we are doomed to see climatic changes destroy our society. Or perhaps there are other forces in place that will mitigate climate change. Alas, I doubt we will see strong action until unexpected bad things start to occur. I can see how her passion has led to a strong following, but I wonder if it will accomplish anything.