Young Swedish activist Greta Tonbury travels the world back and forth with cars, ships and trains, without aircraft, to demand action to tackle climate change. Now she needs some rest.
Tonbury, 16, who was chosen by American magazine Time Person of the Year, joined thousands of protesting students in Turin, northern Italy, on Friday to pressure the government for more effort to reduce carbon emissions.
Tonbury, who refuses to board planes because of the increase in carbon emissions, traveled by train and car from the Spanish capital, Madrid, after attending the United Nations climate change summit. She had arrived in Europe a few days ago by sea cruise after spending months in the United States as part of the campaign on climate change. Now she needs some rest.
"I will return to my country for the Christmas holidays and then go to rest on another holiday because one needs a rest," she told reporters in Turin. "Otherwise, we cannot continue what we do all the time," she added.
But the famous activist showed a lot of energy while addressing protesters in Turin, the city that witnessed the birth of Fiat, the automaker, in one of Italy's main polluting industrial parks.
"The year 2019 is drawing to a close," she told a crowd of young men and women. "We must ensure that 2020 will be the year of work ... the year in which we reduce the global emissions curve."
"We will put pressure on those in the position of authority, and we will ensure that they will act and bear responsibility," she added.
When she was 15 years old, Tonbury was absent from school every Friday to demonstrate in front of the Swedish parliament with the aim of pushing the government to cut carbon emissions. Its campaign was the cause of the birth of a popular movement called (Friday for the Future) that has now become a global movement that invokes millions to move.