Greta Thunberg Calls Black Lives Matter Protests A 'Social Tipping Point'

Teen activist Greta Thunberg fully supports the Black Lives Matter protests, calling them a ‘social tipping point’

While Greta Thunberg‘s main mission in activism focuses on the environment, the heroic Swedish climate activist says she’s fully supportive of the Black Lives Matter Movement. In a new interview, the 17-year-old Nobel Peace Prize nominee, who recently donated $100,000 to children impacted by COVID-19, explains that she believes the recent protests are a sign that things are changing in society and people are finally starting to confront the issue of racism head-on.

“It is always the fight for justice. It feels like we have passed some kind of social tipping point where people are starting to realize that we cannot keep looking away from these things,” Thunberg told the BBC in an interview aired on Saturday morning. “We cannot keep sweeping these things under the carpet, these injustices.”

“People don’t want to hear me talk about this and people won’t be able to handle this so they are going to try to silence me and some people know no limits,” Thunberg continued. “They are trying to silence you for a reason and that reason is because you are too loud and if you are loud that means you are having a difference you are having an impact.”

“People are starting to find their voice, to sort of understand that they can actually have an impact,” she said.

During the interview, Thunberg also touched on how the coronavirus pandemic has given her hope due to the fact that people in power reacted promptly. She only wishes that they would do the same with matters of climate change.

“It shows that in a crisis, you act, and you act with necessary force,” she said. “Suddenly people in power are saying they will do whatever it takes since you cannot put a price on human life. The main message that underlines everything we [as climate activists] do is, ‘Listen to the science, listen to the experts,’ and all of a sudden you hear everyone everywhere is saying that. It feels like the corona crisis has changed the role of science in our society.”

Thunberg, who revealed earlier in the pandemic that she was likely infected with COVID-19, has used the last several months to focus on her studies.

“I thought, I’m just home anyway, so I might as well just jump in the class … in my free time, as a bonus. It doesn’t really count, but I love studying so much,” she said. “I’m really the last one to complain because I haven’t been that affected by this.”