Greta Thunberg, Time magazine's Person of the Year
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“Meaningful change rarely happens without the galvanizing force of influential individuals, and in 2019, the earth’s existential crisis found one in Greta Thunberg.” That’s why, Time magazine editors say, she is the person of the year. She’s the yGreta Thunberg, Time magazine's Person of the Year
“Meaningful change rarely happens without the galvanizing force of influential individuals, and in 2019, the earth’s existential crisis found one in Greta Thunberg.” That’s why, Time magazine editors say, she is the person of the year. She’s the youngest person Time has bestowed the title on in its 92-year history: Over the course of little more than a year, a 16-year-old from Stockholm went from a solitary protest on the cobblestones outside her country’s Parliament to leading a worldwide youth movement; from a schoolkid conjugating verbs in French class to meeting with the Secretary-General of the United Nations and receiving audiences with Presidents and the Pope; from a solo demonstrator with a hand-painted slogan (Skolstrejk för Klimatet) to inspiring millions of people across more than 150 countries to take to the streets on behalf of the planet we share. That’s an achievement worthy of the honor from Time. The tradition, the magazine’s editors write, has been “rooted in the so-called Great Man theory” of powerful individuals influencing the world—emphasis on the “Great” and “Man” in the past. Kudos to Time for recognizing that it’s time to upend that tradition and that the immense challenges of 2019 demand “leaders with a cause and a phone who don’t fit the old rubrics but who connect with us in ways that institutions can’t and perhaps never could.” Thunberg, they write, “is also the first to note that her privileged background makes her ‘one of the lucky ones,’ as she puts it, in a crisis that disproportionately affects poor and indigenous communities.” She’s smart enough to recognize that and smart enough to use that privilege. “I’d like to tell my grandchildren that we did everything we could,” she told Time, “and we did it for them and for the generations to come.” Read more