This weekend Carrie and I watched Greta, the Hulu documentary about Greta Thunberg. The film does a good job helping viewers to understand that Greta is more than just a symbol for the climate justice movement, she is also a person - a brilliant and driven teenager.

There were two things that stood out to me about Greta that I didn’t fully comprehend before. The first is that Greta always speaks her mind. One of the things that I find so compelling about her is that she always tells it how it is and doesn’t mince words. Either with a microphone or the internet as her megaspeaker, she will, repeatedly, let the world know that a climate crisis is indisputably unfolding before our very eyes, that our elected officials have failed us repeatedly, and that people, primarily the youth of the world, are taking matters into their own hands as a result.

She is invited to speak in front of government coalitions, world leaders, and the UN and her message is consistent: “As elected officials you have failed us, you continue to fail us by doing nothing and using words and empty gestures as a shield for doing nothing, it’s not fair that your inaction will cause unfathomable suffering for my and future generations’ future, and as a result the youth movement is taking action into our own hands.” She is invited to share this message over and over again by leaders across the world. She never tempers down the rhetoric and always begins with the hard truth: “You are failing at your job. Shame on you.” The juxtaposition of everyone in attendance vigorously nodding their head in agreement with the political inaction in relation to the climate crisis is profound and jarring.

This weekend Carrie and I watched Greta, the Hulu documentary about Greta Thunberg. The film does a good job helping viewers to understand that Greta is more than just a symbol for the climate justice movement, she is also a person - a brilliant and driven teenager.

There were two things that stood out to me about Greta that I didn’t fully comprehend before. The first is that Greta always speaks her mind. One of the things that I find so compelling about her is that she always tells it how it is and doesn’t mince words. Either with a microphone or the internet as her megaspeaker, she will, repeatedly, let the world know that a climate crisis is indisputably unfolding before our very eyes, that our elected officials have failed us repeatedly, and that people, primarily the youth of the world, are taking matters into their own hands as a result.

She is invited to speak in front of government coalitions, world leaders, and the UN and her message is consistent: “As elected officials you have failed us, you continue to fail us by doing nothing and using words and empty gestures as a shield for doing nothing, it’s not fair that your inaction will cause unfathomable suffering for my and future generations’ future, and as a result the youth movement is taking action into our own hands.” She is invited to share this message over and over again by leaders across the world. She never tempers down the rhetoric and always begins with the hard truth: “You are failing at your job. Shame on you.” The juxtaposition of everyone in attendance vigorously nodding their head in agreement with the political inaction in relation to the climate crisis is profound and jarring.