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Greta Thunberg: Climate activism, responding to trolls, and inspiring autistic young people

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Written by Joel Wilson

 

Last week 16 year old autistic climate activist Greta Thunberg gave a brief address at the Climate Action Summit in New York, criticising world leaders for failing to act on climate change.

“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. 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”, the Youth Strike For Climate founder said, her voice trembling with anger.

 

Greta, who has been nominated for a Nobel Peace prize, recently spoke about being diagnosed with Aspergers.

“It makes you think differently. And especially in such a big crisis like this one we need to think outside the box”, she explained, referring to her climate activism. “We need to think outside our current system, that we need people that think outside the box and who aren’t like everyone else.”

 

Responding to trolls – breaking the stigma that autistic people don’t get humour.

Like with any controversial topic, there has been a lot of negative talk about the climate movement Greta has started. However, Greta has shown – sometimes hilariously – that autistic people do understand humour, and can respond to criticism with grace and wit.

Firstly, Greta responded to Donald Trump’s tweet about her UN speech – “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!” – by making the quote her Twitter bio, albeit just for a couple of days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When someone dubbed her speech with heavy metal, Greta shared the video on her social media channels with the caption: “I have moved on from this climate thing… From now on I will be doing death metal only!”  

Warning: video contains loud heavy metal music

 

Earlier this year, Greta also wrote a long Facebook post about how she has protested without her parents support, that she writes her own speeches, and that she is “just a messenger”.

And (my favourite), when Australian comedian Mark Humphries created a video The Greta Thunberg Helpline: For adults angry at a child, Greta retweeted it with the caption “Hang in there! Help is available.”

 

Inspiring autistic young people in Australia

As part of Greta’s movement, on Friday 20 September, there was a worldwide climate mobilisation, with over 4 million people across the world protesting for urgent action on climate change. Here in Australia, led by School Strike 4 Climate, over 350,000 students and workers in 115+ Australian cities and towns participated.

In Albury-Wodonga, located on the NSW/Victoria, over 1,000 attended on the day, including autistic young man AJ Martinelli-Walsh. At just 14 years old, AJ stood in front of the massive crowd and shared why he is so passionate about climate activism.

Photo: AJ Martinelli Walsh. Shared with permission from Lizette Salmon, Wodonga and Albury Toward Climate Health

 

By AJ Martinelli- Walsh

At school in AVID, I have been doing a “$20 boss project” for an assignment. I decided to make money by collecting recycling bottles to take to the return and earn bin in Albury. I even have a bin at school named Reg who eats the bottles! The bottles then go to my house, before I take them over to Albury and recycle them.

My mum recently bought me a book called “How to save the whole stinkin’ planet”. It was a really interesting book. It talks about how our rubbish has an influence on the environment.

My Grandmother on my mum’s side, also bought me a movie called 2040, which is an interesting movie. One thing it explores is that we live on a donut, and we bring way too many things from outside the donut.

My Grandmother on my dad’s side has also written me a letter about my dad’s family’s life on a farm, and how our reliance on plastic is polluting the environment. She also explained that my Dad’s father didn’t have access to electricity when he was growing up!

At my house, I created a six bin system, where all bottles, cans and cartons go to return and earn, and are recycled, and all soft plastics are taken to the supermarket. My family had already donated old clothes at the time I started the bin system.

Friday 20th September was my last day of school for the term, but I decided to skip school and attend the Climate Strike, where I represented my school, and presented a speech similar to the one you’re reading now. That’s me in the photo!

I wanted to go because of how powerful Greta (Thunberg) is, I wanted to contribute to her movement.

One of the reasons I ask everyone to be more sustainable is due to ongoing research that coal is bad for the environment. Coal can make people sick, and we are polluting the environment with coal, petrol, diesel and other harmful chemicals.”

Amaze is proud and pleased to see autistic people, especially autistic youth – including Greta Thunberg and AJ Martinelli-Walsh – advocating on issues they are passionate about. Autistic people have powerful voices and unique perspectives that can create amazing change!

 

 

 

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