Photo: South China Morning Post

“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean”. By now, we have all probably heard young Greta Thunberg’s impassioned speech at the United Nations.

Beginning last year, at the tender age of 15, Thunberg skipped school every Friday to protest against climate inaction outside the Swedish parliament. This one person army turned heads and inspired student strikes all over the world. 

This is 15 year old Greta Thunberg in August 2018. She skipped school to protest outside of Swedish Parliament. She was a protest of one.

In 1 year she’s changed the whole world & it’s conversation on Climate Change.

Never underestimate the power of one person.#ClimateStrike pic.twitter.com/nAtau9oluG

— Trinity Resists 💚☮️🇺🇸✊🍑 (@TrinityResists) September 21, 2019

The young lady has her fair share of supporters, with many calling her a hero and an inspiration. Her words resonated with many - adults and youngsters alike.

Re: Greta Thunberg. She’s brilliant. Accomplished more than I will ever. She’s largely right. We’re taking the kid out of school to see her Friday. She’s also 16. And that means there are gaps, and that’s fine - you can grade her on a curve and still see she’s mostly right. 1

— Robert Jago (@rjjago) September 25, 2019

You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.-@GretaThunberg

A Voice of hundreds of thousands of billions of youngsters all over the world#gretathumberg #ClimateActionSummit pic.twitter.com/H66YkHugvy

— SRI PRASANTH (@SRIPRAS42146622) September 25, 2019

As with everything, however, there are two sides to the coin. There are those who said no one forced her to skip school, and that it was a choice she consciously made. There are consequences to every action, and this is it.

Please, this girl should go to school and become an adult

— elmambru (@elmambru2357) September 23, 2019

Speech of #GretaThunberg is enormously pretentious. If you think you should be in school, you should just go to school. Nobody forced you to strike or to go to a conference in London, girl.

— Peter Schijven (@peter_schijven) September 23, 2019

Both sides have their own beliefs of how things should be, but the truth remains that she is a child - a child set to make a big change for the betterment of our world.

What are your thoughts on her cause?

By: Celestine Foo