Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenage climate activist, is Time's 2019 Person of the Year. The 16-year-old is the youngest person to ever receive the honor.
Thunberg began to gain prominence in the climate change activist movement in August 2018, when she began skipping school to spend her days in front of the Swedish Parliament with a sign that read "Schools Strike for Climate" in Swedish. Her school strike reached a fever pitch this September when she led a global climate strike that attracted four million people around the world, making it the largest climate demonstration in history.
"We can't just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow," she told Time.
Thunberg delivered an emotional speech at the U.N. Climate Action Summit days after the global climate strike in which she told the audience, "We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!"
"She became the biggest voice on the biggest issue facing the planet this year, coming from essentially nowhere to lead a worldwide movement," Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal told the "Today" show when her title was announced.
Thunberg told Time that her Asperger diagnosis helped her understand her powerful reaction to what she learned about climate change. "I see the world in black and white, and I don't like compromising," she said. "If I were like everyone else, I would have continued on and not seen this crisis."
While the teen has previously rejected awards for her activism, as Person of the Year Thunberg said she is sharing credit for her award with climate activists around the world.
"One of the themes that emerged is youth activism, not just Greta but the Hong Kong protesters, the continued push for gun reform from youth, and also just the massive change in the way that climate change is being discussed. That is largely due to the uprising that Greta has inspired," Time climate correspondent Justin Worland told Cheddar of how the staff picked Thunberg.
In addition to Thunberg, this year's finalists for Person of the Year included the Hong Kong protesters and three people at the center of the U.S. impeachment proceedings: President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the whistleblower whose anonymous report catalyzed the inquiry.
