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.”
Top school district put on notice as watchdog group threatens legal action over gender policy
Watch: Jasmine Crockett Claims She’s One of the Most ‘Powerful’ People in the Country, Slams Those Not ‘On the Same Level’
Time is running out for Virginia Supreme Court to decide on redistricting referendum
No Good Deeds Go Unpunished By Our European ‘Allies’ and Their Total Inaction
600 groups with $2B in revenue mobilize 3,000 May Day protests in a ‘red-blue’ alliance, probe finds
Trump and GOP lawmakers push for executive mansion expansion
The little labor negotiation that could keep rails moving
Vance, Cruz, head to Iowa on 2026 missions as 2028 GOP race to succeed Trump heats up
Suspect arrested for allegedly running meth lab at Michigan State University’s largest academic building
Two Kentucky bank employees shot and killed during robbery, police hunting suspect
Dominican migrant with deportation order, wanted for murder in home country freed by Biden-appointed judge
Wyoming official faces backlash after posting ‘hang bad judges’ comment on abortion ruling
Doctor and son accused of running dangerous side-business scheme in New York
DOJ sues New Jersey over laws giving illegal aliens in-state tuition, says citizens treated as ‘second-class’
Hawley champions GUARD Act as heartbroken families say AI chatbots allegedly pushed teens to self-harm
.@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
Top school district put on notice as watchdog group threatens legal action over gender policy
Watch: Jasmine Crockett Claims She’s One of the Most ‘Powerful’ People in the Country, Slams Those Not ‘On the Same Level’
Time is running out for Virginia Supreme Court to decide on redistricting referendum
No Good Deeds Go Unpunished By Our European ‘Allies’ and Their Total Inaction
600 groups with $2B in revenue mobilize 3,000 May Day protests in a ‘red-blue’ alliance, probe finds
Trump and GOP lawmakers push for executive mansion expansion
The little labor negotiation that could keep rails moving
Vance, Cruz, head to Iowa on 2026 missions as 2028 GOP race to succeed Trump heats up
Suspect arrested for allegedly running meth lab at Michigan State University’s largest academic building
Two Kentucky bank employees shot and killed during robbery, police hunting suspect
Dominican migrant with deportation order, wanted for murder in home country freed by Biden-appointed judge
Wyoming official faces backlash after posting ‘hang bad judges’ comment on abortion ruling
Doctor and son accused of running dangerous side-business scheme in New York
DOJ sues New Jersey over laws giving illegal aliens in-state tuition, says citizens treated as ‘second-class’
Hawley champions GUARD Act as heartbroken families say AI chatbots allegedly pushed teens to self-harm
“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.
