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January Book & Documentary Review - Greta Thunberg

Date: Sunday 17 January

January Book & Documentary Review - Greta Thunberg

Greta Thunberg: the book and the documentary.

The book, subtitled “No one is too small to make a difference” was published in 2019. This little book contains all the speeches Greta had given up until then to climate rallies, the UN, the World Economic Forum and the UK Parliament. They are powerful, straight from the heart and well informed. Here’s an example taken from her speech (aged 15) to the UN Climate Change Conference in 2018: “You only speak of green, eternal economic growth because you are too scared of being unpopular. You only talk about moving forward with the same bad ideas that got us into this mess. Even when the only sensible thing to do is to pull the emergency brake. You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden you leave to your children. But I don’t care about being popular, I care about climate justice and the living planet.” The speeches are best read one at a time. It’s not a book to be read in one sitting. Because each chapter is a speech there is inevitable repetition and going from one to the next straight away dilutes the sense of passion and urgency she is trying to get across. Several times she asks if her English is good enough, if people can hear and understand her – because they don’t act as if they do. 

The documentary (I am Greta – the future belongs to those who fight for it) can be found on iPlayer. In it you see Greta giving some of the speeches that are in the book. You also see her as a young person who is small in stature but huge in heart. We hear about her finding out at school (younger than 10 at that time) about climate change and it clearly terrifies her. She takes it very seriously and can’t understand why other people don’t. She doesn’t speak to anyone outside her family for 3 years. She becomes depressed. Then she resolves to do something in spite of opposition from her family. As her lone strike becomes a global movement and she is invited to address all manner of august, high profile meetings, her sense of utter frustration becomes more and more intense. In one of her speeches she starts crying and she is interviewed afterwards by someone who seems not to understand what there is to cry about. 

In becoming high profile herself, with 7 million school strikers looking to her for leadership and various world politicians making vicious personal attacks, you can see the cost to her of the burden of responsibility she feels. You see a small vulnerable human being fighting for her future and the future of her generation.

Yet the documentary is about much more than one person. It is about acting like “our house is on fire”. If I were giving out stars, this documentary would have at least the maximum of 5.

Do watch it! 

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