The 16-year-old Swedish eco-activist will boycott heavy aircraft and opt for the Malizia II, a 60-foot yacht equipped with solar panels and underwater turbines that generate zero-carbon electricity. Thunberg reportedly spent months figuring out how to communicate her climate change activism to the US in the most environmentally friendly way possible.
Thunberg’s method of crossing the Atlantic Ocean is environmentally friendly, but certainly beyond the reach of most people. She emphasized that she does not believe that everyone should stop flying, but we must make this process kinder to the planet. She said: “I just want to say that climate neutrality should be easier.” Climate Neutrality is a European project to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
For most of the year, Thunberg made multiple headlines. She inspired thousands of children around the world to skip school on Friday and protest against the climate crisis. She made big speeches calling governments and corporations to account. She even recorded a spoken word album with British pop rock band The 1975 calling for “civil disobedience” in the name of climate action.
In the US, she intends to continue preaching her message: the world as we know it will be lost if we do not act quickly. “We still have time when everything is in our hands. But the window closes quickly. That’s why I decided to go on this trip right now,” Thunberg wrote on Instagram.
The young activist will attend a summit hosted by UN Secretary-General António Guterres during her visit to North America, as well as climate change protests in New York. She will travel by train and bus to Chile, where the annual UN climate conference is taking place. She will also stop in Canada and Mexico, among other North American countries.
US President Donald Trump is notorious for his denial of the seriousness of climate change. He once called the climate crisis a “hoax” invented by China and falsely suggested that wind turbines could cause cancer. Thunberg says she’s not sure she can try to talk to him during the visit. “I have nothing to say to him. Obviously, he does not listen to science and scientists. So why should I, a child with no proper education, be able to convince him?” she said. But Greta still hopes that the rest of America will hear her message: “I will try to continue in the same spirit as before. Always look to science and we’ll just see what happens.”