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.”
Trump supporters confronted with painful gas prices deliver striking response: ‘I’ll take that any day’
Mamdani-Linked Democratic Congressional Nominee Detained by IDF While in West Bank
Cuban American lawmakers hail Raúl Castro arrest warrant, vow to keep fighting for Cuba’s freedom
Man Who Claimed His Wife Was Taken by ICE Arrested on Murder Charge After Human Remains Found
Macron slams Trump for ‘stupid’ comments about French riots and warns public of ‘foreign manipulation’
Ilhan Omar finally emerges after DC raid with video pleading for cash to fight Trump
Ilhan Omar, Missing Since Her Home Was Raided, Emerges to Beg for Money on TikTok
Veteran, 81, Shot Dead While Driving Mobility Scooter at Georgia Walmart, Police Make Arrest
Secret sex video rocks University of North Carolina at Charlotte fraternity, 1 arrested: Police
Slain New Jersey mom’s autopsy report released months after stabbing death at home: report
Thune makes bold prediction about Republicans’ Senate chances as GOP pulls millions from key races
Australian politician struck by car in violent attack loses both legs
Town Gave Muslim School Permission to Bring In 90 Students, Then It Went Rogue and Brought in Hundreds More
Les Republicans Pounce! Media Denounces ‘Far Right’ Candidate in France For Noticing Riots Are a Bad Thing
How Saudi Arabia’s defense vulnerabilities could become Trump’s problem amid Houthi onslaught
.@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
Trump supporters confronted with painful gas prices deliver striking response: ‘I’ll take that any day’
Mamdani-Linked Democratic Congressional Nominee Detained by IDF While in West Bank
Cuban American lawmakers hail Raúl Castro arrest warrant, vow to keep fighting for Cuba’s freedom
Man Who Claimed His Wife Was Taken by ICE Arrested on Murder Charge After Human Remains Found
Macron slams Trump for ‘stupid’ comments about French riots and warns public of ‘foreign manipulation’
Ilhan Omar finally emerges after DC raid with video pleading for cash to fight Trump
Ilhan Omar, Missing Since Her Home Was Raided, Emerges to Beg for Money on TikTok
Veteran, 81, Shot Dead While Driving Mobility Scooter at Georgia Walmart, Police Make Arrest
Secret sex video rocks University of North Carolina at Charlotte fraternity, 1 arrested: Police
Slain New Jersey mom’s autopsy report released months after stabbing death at home: report
Thune makes bold prediction about Republicans’ Senate chances as GOP pulls millions from key races
Australian politician struck by car in violent attack loses both legs
Town Gave Muslim School Permission to Bring In 90 Students, Then It Went Rogue and Brought in Hundreds More
Les Republicans Pounce! Media Denounces ‘Far Right’ Candidate in France For Noticing Riots Are a Bad Thing
How Saudi Arabia’s defense vulnerabilities could become Trump’s problem amid Houthi onslaught
“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.
