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Thursday, December 12, 2019

16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg named 2019 Time Person of the Year

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has been named Time magazine's Person of the Year for 2019



The teen, whose climate activism went viral in 2018, delivered a scathing address to the UN General Assembly at the Climate Action Summit in New York City in September. She had travelled for nearly 14 days across the Atlantic Ocean in a zero-emissions racing yacht to attend the conference

"My message is that we will be watching you. This is all wrong," Thunberg said in an emotional speech that appeared to move the audience at the UN General Assembly hall

On Wednesday Dec 11,2019, Thurnberg, who had also been named one of the world's most influential people by Time magazine in May, told the Associated Press news agency she was "very grateful" and "very honored" by the person of the year recognition.

She added: "It should be everyone in the Fridays for Future movement because what we have done, we have done together."

Earlier this year,Thunberg had been nominated for a Nobel peace prize, recognised for her mobilisation of students in her "Fridays for Future" weekly school strikes.

The movement officially began in August of 2018, after Thunberg spent three weeks sitting in front of the Swedish parliament demanding action on climate change during school days. Her actions, which she posted on social media, went viral and morphed into a weekly Friday protest.

The nomination came after the number of students taking part in the school strikes broke two million across 135 countries.



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