Tracey Turner - Greta Thunberg

For Toby and his huggable hairy friends, Wellington and Polo. TT

For anyone who has fought for their beliefs. TK

The facts in First Names: Greta Thunberg have been carefully checked and are accurate to the best of our knowledge, but if you spot something you think may be incorrect please let us know. This text is intended to be entertaining, thats why weve included Greta as a cartoon character. However, the words and thoughts spoken by this character are not the actual words and thoughts of the real Greta Thunberg and the Explained sections arent explained in Greta Thunbergs own words. Some of the passages in this book are actual quotes from Greta and other important people. Youll be able to tell which ones they are by the style of type: I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day.

Library of Congress Control Number 2021945014

ISBN 978-1-4197-3740-4
eISBN 978-1-68335-573-1

Text copyright 2021 Tracey Turner

Illustrations copyright 2021 Tom Knight

Book design by Charice Silverman

2021 as UK edition. First published in 2021

by David Fickling Books Limited

Published under license from David Fickling Books Limited.
Published in 2022 by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

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Greta sat at her school desk with tears in her eyes.

Each scene on the screen in front of the class was more terrible than the last. In one, a scrawny, miserable-looking polar bear was marooned on a piece of Arctic ice. In another, a giant island made from bits of plastic trash rose and fell with the waves on a blue sea.

The video explained that the island was about the size of Mexico. A floating trash pile the size of a country?

The children couldnt believe their eyes, but when the film finished, their teacher told them that it was all completely true. This is why everyone should save energy and recycle things, she said.

Is there anything else we can do? asked a girl at the front of the class.

Not really, said the teacher sadly. We should all hope someone invents something to make the problem go away. And she told the children how some of the most powerful companies in the worldoil companies, for examplewerent at all interested in being environmentally friendly because they made most of their money from the fossil fuels that were causing the Arctic ice to melt in the first place.

Also, she went on, although scientists have proven that climate change is real, not everyone believes its true.

Greta was stunnedhow could people just not believe in science? How could everyone just carry on going to work and school, doing their homework, taking vacations... when all the time, terrible things were happening to the planet because of climate change, pollution, and plastic waste?

All the children in the classroom were just as shocked and upset as Greta...

... for about five minutes. Then it was time for recess, and they started heading for the classroom door, chatting, arguing, rushing off to play in the playground.

Oh, by the way, the teacher added, I wont be here next week. Im off to New York for a wedding!

Some of the kids stopped and crowded around their teacher excitedly. They exchanged stories of vacations theyd had in faraway locations around the world.

Greta couldnt believe it. Had everyone just forgotten the video theyd just watched? How could they talk about flying around the world when they must know that aircraft pollution was making the planets problems even worse?

Greta didnt rush off happily, chatting, and playing with the rest of her classmates. She was on her own, as usual. She almost always liked to be quiet anyway, but now she was also upset. The video had shown that Planet Earth was in BIG trouble, and she couldnt stop thinking about how awful the situation was. Why wasnt anyone doing anything about it?

Tears began to roll down her face. She didnt say anything out loud, but she made a resolution: she was NOT going to forget about this. She was NOT just going to hope someone else would sort out the problem, or that climate change would somehow go away by itself.

Since the day eight-year-old Greta watched the video about climate change at school, a lot has changed. Shes stuck to her word, and she really has done something about it. Now shes known around the world and is one of the most influential people on the planet. Greta:

Started a global movement for climate change involving millions of peopleshes spoken to audiences of thousands!

Became the youngest person EVER to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prizetwice!

Met the Pope, spoke with Leonardo DiCaprio, and went for a bike ride with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Led the biggest climate strike in history.

But before we find out what the climate crisis is and how Greta did all these amazing things and affected millions of people, lets travel back to 2003, when Greta was born...