Greta Thunberg brought in her 18th birthday with a message for her haters.
The Swedish climate activist celebrated her birthday on Sunday by trolling climate change deniers on Twitter, sharing a selfie of herself wearing a Flat Mars Society shirt alongside a snarky caption.
‘Thank you so much for all the well-wishes on my 18th birthday!” she wrote. “Tonight you will find me down at the local pub exposing all the dark secrets behind the climate- and school strike conspiracy and my evil handlers who can no longer control me! I am free at last!!’ She exclaimed on Twitter.
Thunberg was awarded the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity in July 2020, and used her $1.15 million in prize money to donate to organizations and projects working toward a more sustainable world and fighting to “defend nature and the natural world.”
Organizations Thunberg donated to included the SOS Amazonia campaign and the Stop Ecocide Foundation. The donations to these organizations came just after she gave $100,000 in prize money to UNICEF, with whom she helped launch a campaign to support children affected the coronavirus, in April 2020.
Thunberg opened up about turning 18 and shared that her ideal birthday gift would be a “promise from everyone that they will do everything they can” for the planet.
The teen activist also explained that she stopped “consuming” things to help save the planet — including buying new clothes.
“The worst-case scenario I guess I’ll buy second-hand, but I don’t need new clothes,” she said when asked about ever needing new clothing. “I know people who have clothes, so I would ask them if I could borrow them or if they have something they don’t need any more,” she said. “I don’t need to fly to Thailand to be happy. I don’t need to buy clothes I don’t need, so I don’t see it as a sacrifice.”
Ms Thunberg also admitted to guilt over the pressures brought on her family – including death threats – through her three years in the public eye. She did not care what people said about her online, but “when it impacts the people around you then it becomes something else.
In 2019, Miss Thunberg shouted ‘How dare you?’ during the UN General Assembly – claiming that country heads were failing the younger generation.
US President Donald Trump sarcastically said of her UN Speech: ‘She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see.’
Last December, President Trump told Miss Thunberg to ‘work on her anger management problem’ and ‘get a good old-fashioned movie with a friend’ after she became the youngest person to be awarded with Time magazine’s Person Of The Year accolade.
In November last year, Miss Thunberg threw the criticism back at him.
Taking to Twitter to reply to the President’s calls to ‘stop the count’, the teenager wrote: ‘So ridiculous. Donald must work on his anger management problem, then go to a good old-fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Donald, Chill!’
Last month, the activist said she was celebrating being back in school but accused nations of ignoring climate experts, despite the pandemic showing the importance of following science.
Miss Thunberg took a gap year from 2019 in a bid to force leaders from around the world to take action on climate change.
As her studies get back under way she told novelist Margaret Atwood during her guest editorship of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the coronavirus crisis has ‘shone a light’ on how ‘we cannot make it without science’.
She accused the world of listening to ‘one type’ of scientist, and ignoring others warning of climate change.
Speaking in an interview with The Times, the 17-year-old was asked how she feels about celebrities who travel the world in gas-guzzling planes while preaching about climate change.
She simply replied: ‘I don’t care.’
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were criticised for using private jets in 2019 – including four trips in just 11 days in August – despite their eco credentials.
Miss Thunberg said: ‘I’m not telling anyone else what to do, but there is a risk when you are vocal about these things and don’t practise as you preach, then you will become criticised for that and what you are saying won’t be taken seriously.’
When asked if the pandemic’s impact on people’s appreciation of science could have an effect on climate information the teenager said: ‘It could definitely have.
‘I think this pandemic has shone a light on how … we are depending on science and that we cannot make it without science.
‘But of course, we are only listening to one type of scientist, or some types of scientists, and, for example, we are not listening to climate scientists, we’re not listening to scientists who work on biodiversity.
‘That of course needs to change.’
Earlier she had shared a picture of herself on a bike with her school rucksack over her shoulder as she celebrated returning to education.
But the environmental campaigner expressed scepticism when questioned about nations’ pledges to reduce their carbon emissions, such as China which has committed to reach a net zero target by 2060.
She said: ‘That would be very nice if they actually meant something.’We can’t just keep talking about future, hypothetical, vague, distant dates and pledges.
We need to do things now. And also net zero … that is a very big loophole, you can fit a lot in that word net.’
But she praised the election of Joe Biden as US president who has pledged to rejoin the Paris climate accord on the first day of his presidency.
Miss Thunberg added: ‘It could be a good start of something new.
‘Let’s hope that it is like that, and let’s push for it to become like that.’