Greta Thunberg Has Been Nominated For The Nobel Peace Prize
Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg has been nominated for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize
Greta Thunberg, whose honorable fight against climate change has mobilized an entire movement, is officially a contender for the 2020 Nobel Peace Price. On Monday, the 17-year-old activist was nominated for the prestigious award, according to the Associated Press.
Thunberg “has worked hard to make politicians open their eyes to the climate crisis” and “action for reducing our emissions and complying with the Paris Agreement is therefore also an act of making peace,” members of Sweden’s Left Party, Jens Holm and Hakan Svenneling, stated on Monday.
This is the second year in a row the teen activist has been nominated for the honor. She was actually the favorite of many oddsmakers in 2019, but the award ultimately went to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
If she wins she will be one of the youngest people ever to be honored, joining Malala Yousafzai, who received a Nobel Prize at age 17. She would also be the first person to win the award for climate change efforts since Al Gore was honored in 2007.
While she might have lost out on the Nobel Prize in 2019, she was named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year,” and was one of four people named as the winners of a Right Livelihood Award, aka the “Alternative Nobel.”
What makes her worthy of such big honors at such a young age? Her accomplishments in climate change activism in just two short years are basically the equivalent of what many have been fighting for their entire lives. Hulu is currently developing a documentary about her rise to international activism fame, and its summary completely nails it.
“In August 2018, Thunberg, a 15-year-old student in Sweden, starts a school strike for the climate. Her question for adults: if you don’t care about my future on earth, why should I care about my future in school? Within months, her strike evolves into a global movement. The quiet teenage girl on the autism spectrum becomes a world-famous activist,” it reads.
In 2019 she gave an impassioned speech at the UN’s Climate Action Summit, which ultimately shook the world.
“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here,” she said. “I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words and yet, I am one of the lucky ones. People are suffering.”
The Norwegian Nobel Committee will announce the winner of this year’s 2020 Nobel Peace Price later in the year.
