Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg is TIME’s 2019 Person of the Year, the magazine announced on Wednesday.
The 16-year-old, who has become the public face of climate change activism since leading school strikes in her home country of Sweden, topped President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to win the accolade. “I’d like to tell my grandchildren that we did everything we could,” she told TIME magazine. “And we did it for them and for the generations to come.”
Mystery stranger vanishes after family says frantic warning saved their lives during devastating house fire
WNBA Headache Gets Bigger: More Sophie Cunningham Rallies Scheduled
Nancy Guthrie update: DNA couldn’t be profiled from crime scene hair sample, sheriff says
GOP gubernatorial candidate fighting to flip blue state unveils healthcare plan to lower costs, expand access
WATCH: GOP holdout rejects Trump threat as AG nominee standoff explodes
Total Fraud: Adam Schiff Demands AI Political Parodies Be Banned, Forgets He Lied About Trump and Called It Parody in 2019
Mamdani’s ‘this is only the beginning’ announcement cracking down on food delivery tips sparks outrage
Hamas agrees to complete disarmament under ‘historic’ Gaza agreement: Trump
Schiff-backed candidate abruptly ends gubernatorial campaign amid rumblings of a damaging report
Watch: Chuck Schumer Gets in Shouting Match with Heckler During News Conference
Fox News Poll: GOP divisions shape Texas Senate race
Trump Announces Plan to Replace Illegal Alien Truckers with American Veterans
Trump promotes Freedom Haulers Initiative to fast-track military veterans into trucking jobs
Virginia university report finds officials did not disclose student’s terror conviction
Watch: Eagles Defensive Coordinator Repeatedly Mocks Fauci During News Conference
.@GretaThunberg is TIME's 2019 Person of the Year #TIMEPOY https://t.co/YZ7U6Up76v pic.twitter.com/SWALBfeGl6
— TIME (@TIME) December 11, 2019
TIME’s editor-in-chief, Edward Felsenthal, unveiled this year’s winner on NBC’s Today Show, describing Thunberg as the “biggest voice on the biggest issue facing the planet.”
“She became the biggest voice on the biggest issue facing the planet this year.” TIME Editor-in-Chief @efelsenthal talks about why TIME chose @GretaThunberg to be Person of the Year.
Thunberg, 16, is also the youngest person to ever receive the honor. pic.twitter.com/eTvLAiRtFW
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 11, 2019
Mystery stranger vanishes after family says frantic warning saved their lives during devastating house fire
WNBA Headache Gets Bigger: More Sophie Cunningham Rallies Scheduled
Nancy Guthrie update: DNA couldn’t be profiled from crime scene hair sample, sheriff says
GOP gubernatorial candidate fighting to flip blue state unveils healthcare plan to lower costs, expand access
WATCH: GOP holdout rejects Trump threat as AG nominee standoff explodes
Total Fraud: Adam Schiff Demands AI Political Parodies Be Banned, Forgets He Lied About Trump and Called It Parody in 2019
Mamdani’s ‘this is only the beginning’ announcement cracking down on food delivery tips sparks outrage
Hamas agrees to complete disarmament under ‘historic’ Gaza agreement: Trump
Schiff-backed candidate abruptly ends gubernatorial campaign amid rumblings of a damaging report
Watch: Chuck Schumer Gets in Shouting Match with Heckler During News Conference
Fox News Poll: GOP divisions shape Texas Senate race
Trump Announces Plan to Replace Illegal Alien Truckers with American Veterans
Trump promotes Freedom Haulers Initiative to fast-track military veterans into trucking jobs
Virginia university report finds officials did not disclose student’s terror conviction
Watch: Eagles Defensive Coordinator Repeatedly Mocks Fauci During News Conference
“She also represents a broader generational shift in the culture that we’re seeing from the campuses of Hong Kong to the protests in Chile to Parkland, Florida, where the students marched against gun violence where young people are demanding change urgently,” said Felsenthal.
Thunberg garnered headlines earlier this year for sailing — rather than flying — from England to New York City to attended the United Nations climate summit. During the conference, Thunberg raised eyebrows for a pointed speech in which she angerly accused world leaders of robbing her and other young people of their future due to their inaction on so-called global warming.
“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here,” she said in her remarks. “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!”
Thunberg and a dozen other activists also lodged a complaint with the U.N. that accused France and four other countries of failing to adequately address the issue, a move that drew scorn from French President Emmanuel Macron.
Speaking at the time with Europe 1, Macron branded the complaint as “very radical” and warned it would likely “antagonize societies.”
“All the movements of our youth — or our not-so-young — are helpful,” explained the globalist leader. “But they must now focus on those who are furthest away, those who are seeking to block the way.”
Thunberg is the youngest person ever to be named the magazine’s “Person of the Year.”
TIME selected “The Guardians and the War on Truth” — a group of imprisoned and killed journalists — as its “Person of the Year” in 2018.
Story cited here.
