Book Review: No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, Greta Thunberg
Nonfiction: No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, Greta Thunberg
Unless you have been completely hiding under a rock recently, the name Greta Thunberg is one you have heard. This teenaged Swedish activist was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for 2019, a recognition she richly deserves. Devastated by the science she was reading about climate change, she decided to act. Initially, her actions were lonely and unsupported: she sat by herself outside the Swedish parliament building in a one-person “school strike” to demand action curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Soon, though, others joined her. A worldwide movement of climate strikes began. Literally millions of people protested to demand change. One small girl made an incredible difference.
No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference is a collection of her speeches before world leaders and others. She has traveled the world (using sailboats and electric vehicles) to speak to anyone who will listen: parliaments and activists and corporate leaders and newsmedia and newsmakers. Her message is the same everywhere she goes. We need to make changes now. We are destroying the future–her future and our future and every person’s future. Failure to act is cowardice and shame and unforgivable. She is a simple speaker which makes her that much more powerful. She is not saying, “Listen to me.” She is saying, “Listen to the science.”
Thunberg’s speeches are prophetically powerful. She does not try to move people with eloquence. She is a sixteen-year old high school student. She is simply trying to help people see with the same clarity of vision she has. The world is burning up. We have one chance to get this right. And we are failing our children by not taking that chance.
As someone who has invested children and grandchildren into the future, I hope she does make that difference. I want there to be a world worth living in 25, 50, 100 years from now. I want to see global warming confronted and contained. I hope for the best, but like Greta Thunberg, I fear for the worst.
Reading these speeches does give me hope that the future is in good hands. Sadly, though, they also give me fear that the present is not. Still, this is a powerful and important book, and I am better for having read it.
Greta, I’m ready to get to work. What can I do?
Book Review: No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, Greta Thunberg