Greta Thunberg’s Activism
Greta Thunberg continues to speak out fearlessly about the climate crisis, the suffering of people and oppression around the world. She fights not for herself, but for a better world.
Jakarta (ANTARA) – Greta Thunberg is 23 years old and is one of the world’s most influential and prominent environmental activists.
A candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, she has been arrested seven times in different countries over her protests. She has reportedly been mistreated by authorities, but Greta, who became an activist at the age of 15, has never given up.
On Thursday (16 October), she posted on her Instagram account, @gretathunberg, a video from a woman in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, wearing a respirator mask and goggles. Behind her, haze from forest and land fires can be seen covering trees and houses.
The post by the Swedish activist said: “Help us support firefighters, build more shelters from the haze to protect communities—especially children and vulnerable groups—and save the forests that remain.”
As of Friday (22 October), Greta Thunberg’s post had received 683,000 likes, been reposted 223,000 times and shared 50,800 times. Her Instagram account has 17.1 million followers.
Her full name is Greta Tintin Eleonora Emman Thunberg. She was born on 3 January 2003 in Stockholm, Sweden. Between 2023 and 2025, she was arrested in Sweden and the United Kingdom. In April 2024, she was arrested in The Hague, the Netherlands, while leading an environmental protest blocking a motorway.
In October 2025, Greta joined hundreds of Global Sumud Flotilla activists carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, Palestine. Their boats were intercepted by the Israeli Navy in the Mediterranean. Greta and several other activists were detained at the port of Ashdod, 40 kilometres south of Tel Aviv.
“Greta Thunberg was wrapped in an Israeli flag and displayed like a trophy,” Italian journalist Lorenzo D’Agostino told the Turkish news agency Anadolu on Sunday (5 October 2025). He said Greta had been harassed, insulted and treated roughly in an Israeli prison, and had not received enough food or water.
Turkish journalist Ersin Celik said he witnessed Israeli soldiers abusing Greta. “They dragged Greta by her hair in front of our eyes, beat her and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag,” Ersin told Anadolu on Sunday (25 May).
Greta first came to public attention at the age of 15, when she began a school strike outside the Swedish parliament in August 2018, ahead of Sweden’s general election. She was alone, accompanied by a cardboard sign she had written: “Skolstrejk för klimatet” (“School Strike for Climate”).
The ninth-grade student at Franska Skolan in Stockholm began the protest in response to a heatwave and forest fires in Sweden, as well as what she saw as the government’s slow response to the climate crisis.
Every Friday, Greta went on strike, demanding that the government cut carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. At first, nobody paid attention. But Greta did not give up: she went on strike again the following Friday, continuing for months and even years. Through social media, the movement spread beyond Sweden and across five continents.