Michael Part - The Greta Thunberg Story

At precisely 8:30 in the morning of Monday, August 20, 2018, a young girl of 15 with Pippi Longstocking pigtails arrived by bicycle at the Stockholm Parliament. The weather was nice and the ride from home was a breeze. She got off her bike and found a spot where she could sit in front of the passageway to the building and be noticed by as many passersby as possible.

Greta Thunberg plunked down next to her wooden sign painted white with bold black lettering on the warm concrete leading to the imposing Parliament building overlooking the river and leaned back against the bricks. The sign said: School Strike for Climate .

She sat there holding the sign, her heart pounding. She wondered what it would be like sitting here for the next three weeks. The sun shone bright and the first hour passed as if everything was ordinary and normal. Hundreds of people passed by and some smiled at her, but mostly, no one stopped. She checked her watch. Her plan was to stay here from 8:30 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon.

A shadow fell across her face and she looked up. It was a Member of Parliament. He crossed his arms in a scolding fashion and looked down at her with bright blue eyes. Why arent you in school? he asked.

Greta grinned politely. Whats the point?

The MP stiffened. What do you mean, whats the point? The point is to learn!

Greta gave him a stern look. My teacher stopped showing up.

The MP raised an eyebrow. Surely the school will have already found a substitute teacher, he said and looked around. A small crowd gathered. I dont see any other of your fellow students.

No, I am the only one, Greta replied. So far.

Thats absurd, why wouldnt your teacher show up?

She had something better to do, Greta replied. I believe she went to New York.

The MP, obviously frustrated, changed the subject by studying her wooden sign. I do not understand this strike of yours.

Greta was ready. She spoke calmly. I am striking for the climate. Earth is in mortal danger and nothing is being done about it. Unless we do something, until Sweden is in line with the Paris Agreement, everything is meaningless and there is no future for me, so what is the point of going to school?

The MP studied Greta. What makes you think we arent doing anything about climate change?

Greta cocked her head, a move she learned from Moses, her Golden Retriever. I dont have to think about it, we are not aligned with the Paris Agreement. In fact, Sweden is tenth in the world. We might as well be last, if we are not first.

This irritated the MP. Is this what they teach you in school?

No, I learned this all on my own, Greta replied. No teacher, remember?

Do your parents know you are out here?

Of course, Greta replied.

Dont they think you should be in school?

Of course, Greta said. But they also know why I am doing this. As parents, they think its bad.

There you go! the MP exclaimed.

But as fellow human beings, Greta said, they think its good.

The MP scowled. He didnt expect that answer. You think youre pretty smart, dont you?

Greta shrugged. Average.

The days in Sweden were long in August. The sun rose at around 4:30 am and did not set until a little after 9 pm at night. This was because Stockholm Swedens absolute location on Earth was 59.3293 degrees North and 18.0686 degrees East. Sweden is quite a bit north of most things and if you drew a straight line from it across the North Atlantic, it would cut right through the Labrador Sea before it finally smacked into Canada, somewhere in Newfoundland where the Inuit, an indigenous people of Northern Canada who hunt and fish, discovered their ice was melting.

Greta made those kinds of calculations frequently as it was of utmost importance that she know exactly where she was on the planet at any given moment. Although most people thought it strange, there was actually nothing odd about it.

Some birds sang nearby and although Greta played the piano, she could not identify which keys they were in. That was her mothers job. She was an opera singer.

Those kinds of sounds, those that didnt go together, hurt Gretas ears. There were many sounds that made her wince and cover her ears because besides having Aspergers on the autism spectrum, she also had a fun feature known as misophonia, and this superpower affected her emotionally. People chewing, for instance, drove her nuts.

By 3:30 in the afternoon, Greta had had exactly zero visitors other than the MP and although many people marched by on their way to work and shopping in the city, exactly zero people asked her exactly zero questions. She rode her bike for twenty minutes to her home and exactly zero people asked her about her painted wooden sign. She planned to strike until election day on September 9. Nineteen days to goand she wasnt ready to give up.

On the second day, Greta sat on a camping mat in front of the rose-colored Parliament. Hundreds of people walked by, but no one stopped for hours. Then, the same MP stopped and watched Greta but said nothing. After four or five minutes of awkward silence, a man and a woman squatted down on either side of her. The MP looked from one of the new arrivals to the other. Dont tell me youre joining this little girl, he said. Arent you a little too old for school?

The man smiled and nodded. Perhaps too old for school, but not too old to strike, he said and nodded his head toward Greta and they laughed. Greta remained quiet. Why dont you join us?

The MP rolled his eyes and snorted in frustration. He walked off, straightening his tie and shoving his umbrella under his arm. The kids these days! he muttered to himself as he took one last backward glance at Greta and the newly-arrived couple, then charged up the stairs to Parliament.

Greta looked at the man sitting to her right, and the woman sitting to her left, and smiled. I dont think he understands that school works better when the teachers show up.

How long you been doing this? the man asked.

This is my second day. But Im going to be here every day until two days before the election on September 9. Morning till afternoon. How about you? You here for climate change?