No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference

This is a collection of 13 speeches made by Greta Thunberg from fall of 2018 to fall of 2019. You can see her platform grew over this course of one year. Her earliest speech was made in Sweden, in a march of climate change activists. Then she made a speech in London, in the Parliament Square. Then she gave a couple speeches in international conferences in Poland, Switzerland, Brussels. She gave a speech to Facebook. She gave a speech on a film award ceremony in Berlin. Then she gave a speech to the European Parliament. Then it's the U.K. Parliament. Then it's the French National Assembly. And U. S. Congress. And UN General Assembly. At only 16 years old! This trajectory is inspiring in itself. Her speeches are short. Her message in every speech is the same. (Except for the infamous "How dare you," which only appeared in the speech to UN General Assembly and nowhere else.) In every speech she talks about the IPCC (an UN panel on climate change) report issued in 2018 that says the world have a carbon budget of 420 gigatonnes of CO2 from 2018 onward in order to limit global temperature rise to below 1.5 Celcius. In every speech she talks about we must treat the climate change problem like a house on fire -- even though the actions required seem impossible and the consequence is dire, sometimes there are just things you have to do in order to avoid a even worse outcome. She talks about her fear that when she gets to her 30s or 70s, her generation will have to live through the consequences of climate change if the carbon budget is not met. She talks about her hope that people can change, actions can still be taken in time, and how she refuses to give up. ( )

I listened to the audiobook which was largely narrated by the author. There was quite a lot of repetition, as this book seems to be a compilation of her speeches given at different locations. What an accomplishment for an autistic teenager! ( )

Greta Thunberg is the bomb.

I first heard about Greta when she began school striking last year, but only, at first, as a curiosity (on the part of the press). It wasn't until her speech before the UK parliament that she got enough press that I was able to understand her story. When I read the speech in the Guardian, I was laughing - in the best way - at the sheer audacity, bravery, and brilliance, of a 16 year old standing before the august (HA!) body of British lawmakers and telling them that:

The UK is, however, very special. Not only for its mind-blowing historical carbon debt, but also for its current, very creative, carbon accounting.

and:

This ongoing irresponsible behaviour will no doubt be remembered in history as one of the greatest failures of mankind.

and my favorite:

Did you just hear what I said? Is my English okay? Is the microphone on? Because I'm beginning to wonder.

I handed the speech to MT and said You HAVE TO read this. It's written by a 16 year old Swedish girl whose first language isn't even English! (We who have lived our lives isolated on single language land masses - and yes, yes, Spanish, but it wasn't widespread when I was a kid - are always in awe of those of you who juggle multiple languages with ease, never mind speak it better than us natives.) I've been a following her in the news ever since and I just admire the hell out of her. I found this little collection of all her speeches up to and including her UK Parliament speech, on the bookstore counter, and snapped it up.

It's nothing fancy; just a small booklet containing all 11 of her speeches through 23 April 2019, and if read cover to cover (which I don't recommend), it's repetitive. But the message is powerful, and like it or not, it's dead-on accurate: our house is on fire; what we would never do to our own lawn, we're doing with impunity to the rest of the planet, and we're collectively living like a magic, 23rd-hour solution that will make everything ok again is going to miraculously fly out our asses.

Greta is making waves because she's 16 and she's the only one willing to stand in front of entire governments and actually say, with only a tiny bit more tact: you're all idiots and you're the generation that will always be known as those idiots who destroyed civilisation as we know it.

On a more first-world-problem note: this wonderful 16 year old was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and even though she didn't win (and should have), I am still thankful I'm not a teen today. Life is hard enough as an adolescent, but now teens are nominated for Nobels; getting into Yale or Oxford suddenly isn't the acme of teen achievement any more. Yikes. ( )

Greta Thunberg’s No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference collects her various speeches in a single volume for those looking to learn from her example in tackling the challenge of climate change, the greatest threat to humanity’s future. Thunberg was initially inspired by the activism of the Parkland students (pg. 46), though she now represents one facet of a global movement. In a 2018 speech in Stockholm, Thunberg said, “If people knew that the scientists say that we have a 5 per cent chance of meeting the Paris target, and if people knew what a nightmare scenario we will face if we don’t keep global warming below 2ºC, they wouldn’t need to ask me why I’m on school strike outside parliament” (pgs. 9-10). She challenged wealthy nations and businesses in her speech at COP 24 in 2018, saying, “We are about to sacrifice our civilization for the opportunity of a very small number of people to continue to make enormous amounts of money” (pg. 29). Thunberg warned the European Parliament in 2019, “Everything and everyone has to change. But the bigger your platform, the bigger your responsibility. The bigger your carbon footprint, the bigger your moral duty” (pg. 73). Addressing the British Parliament in 2019, Thunberg said, “You lied to us. You gave us false hope. You told us that the future was something to look forward to. And the saddest thing is that most children are not even aware of the fate that awaits us. We will not understand until it’s too late. And yet we are the lucky ones. Those who will be affected the hardest are already suffering the consequences. But their voices are not heard” (pg. 82). Speaking to the Austrian World Summit in 2019, she said, “The longer we wait the harder it will be to turn this around” (pg. 100). Thunberg addressed the French National Assembly in 2019, saying, “Now political leaders in some countries are starting to talk. They are starting to declare climate emergencies and announcing dates for so-called ‘climate neutrality’. And declaring a climate emergency is good. But only setting up these vague distant dates, and saying things which give the impression that things are being done and that action is under way will most likely do more harm than good. …The climate and ecological emergency is right here, right now. But it has only just begun. It will get worse” (pg. 109). No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference is a great collection of Thunberg’s speeches, particularly useful for students looking to study her work and movement. It is a must-read in particular for any world leaders who genuinely want to make a difference, but Thunberg herself addresses the skepticism people feel about those who have had the power to act these last thirty years. ( )

"Acollection of articulate, forceful speeches made from September 2018 to September 2019 by the Swedish climate activist who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Speaking in such venues as the European and British Parliaments, the French National Assembly, the Austrian World Summit, and the U.N. General Assembly, Thunberg has always been refreshingly—and necessarily—blunt in her demands for action from world leaders who refuse to address climate change. With clarity and unbridled passion, she presents her message that climate change is an emergency that must be addressed immediately, and she fills her speeches with punchy sound bites delivered in her characteristic pull-no-punches style: “I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.” In speech after speech, to persuade her listeners, she cites uncomfortable, even alarming statistics about global temperature rise and carbon dioxide emissions. Although this inevitably makes the text rather repetitive, the repetition itself has an impact, driving home her point so that no one can fail to understand its importance. Thunberg varies her style for different audiences. Sometimes it is the rousing “our house is on fire” approach; other times she speaks more quietly about herself and her hopes and her dreams. When addressing the U.S. Congress, she knowingly calls to mind the words and deeds of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy. The last speech in the book ends on a note that is both challenging and upbeat: “We are the change and change is coming.” The edition published in Britain earlier this year contained 11 speeches; this updated edition has 16, all worth reading.

A tiny book, not much bigger than a pamphlet, with huge potential impact." A Kirkus Starred Review, www.kirkusreviews.com