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Climate activism made Greta Thunberg ‘very happy’, says her father

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Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg attends a climate strike arranged by "Fridays For Future" outside the Swedish parliament Riksdagen in Stockholm on December 20, 2019. (Photo by Pontus LUNDAHL / TT News Agency / AFP)


In an interview with BBC, climate activist Greta Thunberg’s father said the 16-year-old has “changed” and has become “very happy” as a result of her activism that has contributed towards a global movement demanding world leaders take action over climate change. In an interview with the BBC, Svante Thunberg said: “You think she’s not ordinary now because she’s special, and she’s very famous, and all these things. But to me she’s now an ordinary child – she can do all the things like other people can.”

“She dances around, she laughs a lot, we have a lot of fun and she’s in a very good place.” The Swedish environment activist’s father said she had struggled with depression for “three or four years” before she began her school strike. “She stopped talking… she stopped going to school,” he said, adding that it was the “ultimate nightmare for a parent” when she began refusing to eat.

To help her get better, Thunberg said he spent more time with Greta and her younger sister, Beata, at their home in Sweden. Greta’s mother, opera singer and former Eurovision Song Contest participant Malena Ernman, canceled contracts so the whole family could be together.

Over the next few years, they began discussing and researching climate change, with Greta becoming increasingly passionate about tackling the issue. Thunberg has accompanied his daughter on her sailing expeditions to the UN climate summits in New York and Madrid. She refuses to travel by air because of its environmental impact.

“I did all these things, I knew they were the right thing to do… but I didn’t do it to save the climate, I did it to save my child,” he said. Greta Thunberg was nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, after spearheading the global movement, which also led to co-ordinated school strikes across the globe. Earlier this year, she was named the TIME magazine’s 2019 Person of the Year.

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