50 Fun Facts About Greta Thunberg

In which city was Greta Thunberg born in 2003?

She began her solo school strike outside the parliament there the summer she turned 15.

How old was Thunberg when she began her school strike in 2018?

She had just started ninth grade and stayed out for three weeks.

Thunberg's strike inspired which worldwide youth movement?

After the September 2018 election she kept striking, but only on Fridays.

Thunberg's mother, Malena Ernman, is famous as what?

Grounding herself for Greta's sake meant abandoning her international career.

Thunberg's middle name Tintin echoes the creation of which cartoonist?

The Week noted that with an actor father and singer mother, an unusual name was no surprise.

Thunberg has described which diagnosis as her "superpower"?

Her mother made the diagnosis public in 2015 to help families in similar situations.

Thunberg says she first heard about climate change at what age?

By eleven she had become so depressed she largely stopped talking and eating.

Thunberg persuaded her family to lower its carbon footprint by becoming vegan, upcycling and giving up what?

When graphs and data failed she warned them they were stealing her future.

Thunberg says the idea of a strike came from student activists responding to what in the U.S. in 2018?

The Parkland students who refused to return to school went on to organise March for Our Lives.

In May 2018 Thunberg won a climate essay competition run by which Swedish newspaper?

"I want to feel safe," she wrote. "How can I feel safe when I know we are in the greatest crisis in human history?"

Which Fossil Free Dalsland activist first suggested to Thunberg that schoolchildren could strike?

She tried to recruit other young people; when no one was interested she went alone.

On what date did Thunberg begin her strike outside the Riksdag?

It followed the heat waves and wildfires of the country's hottest summer in at least 262 years.

What did Thunberg's original protest sign say, in Swedish?

It means "School strike for climate"; she sat outside parliament every day for three weeks.

Thunberg's initial strike lasted three weeks, until which event?

Her demand was that the government cut emissions in line with the Paris Agreement.

Thunberg cut ties with the company We Don't Have Time after learning what?

Founder Ingmar Rentzhog had raised millions for a for-profit subsidiary; she says she never received a cent.

At the January 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos, Thunberg declared what?

At COP24 a month earlier she had said world leaders were "not mature enough to tell it like it is."

Thunberg finished lower secondary school in 2019 with what grades?

Her father said the activism cost her spare time, not schoolwork.

In August 2019 Thunberg sailed to New York from Plymouth aboard which racing yacht?

The 60-foot boat had solar panels and underwater turbines; the crossing took 15 days.

How many days did Thunberg's 2019 Atlantic crossing to New York take?

She sailed home on the catamaran La Vagabonde with an Australian couple after COP25 was moved to Madrid.

Thunberg returned to Europe in 2019 aboard La Vagabonde, a catamaran owned by a couple from which country?

Riley Whitelum and Elayna Carausu answered her social media plea for a ride from Virginia to Lisbon.

Why was COP25 moved at short notice from Santiago to Madrid in 2019?

Thunberg, then in the Americas and refusing to fly, had to find a boat back across the Atlantic.

At a September 2019 UNICEF press conference, Thunberg and 15 other children filed a complaint against how many nations?

Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and Turkey, under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In which Canadian city did Thunberg lead a September 2019 climate rally, the largest protest in its history?

The mayor gave her the Freedom of the City and Justin Trudeau turned up to march.

After Trump tweeted that she seemed "a very happy young girl," what did Thunberg do?

She did the same when Putin called her a "kind girl and very sincere" but poorly informed.

Time magazine named Thunberg Person of the Year in which year, its youngest ever?

She was also the first recipient born in the 21st century.

Thunberg was guest editor of which BBC Radio 4 programme in late 2019?

She interviewed David Attenborough and Bank of England chief Mark Carney, among others.

Which 2019 honour, known as her country's alternative Nobel Prize, did Thunberg receive?

She was one of four winners "for inspiring and amplifying political demands for urgent climate action."

Thunberg was the first recipient of which €1 million award in 2020, and gave the money away?

Her foundation donated it to projects fighting the climate crisis and helping those worst hit.

Thunberg was first nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 by deputies from which parliament?

Two Swedish lawmakers nominated her the following year, and she was nominated again in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Amnesty International gave Thunberg and her movement its top honour in 2019, called what?

Previous winners include Nelson Mandela and Malala Yousafzai.

Thunberg's 2019 collection of speeches is titled what?

Its earnings go to charity; the family memoir came the same year.

Thunberg's 2022 compilation of more than a hundred experts is titled what?

She cancelled an Edinburgh festival appearance to promote it because the sponsor invested in fossil fuels.

At COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, Thunberg dismissed leaders' promises with which three-word phrase?

She called the conference a failure and an exercise in greenwashing.

Thunberg was detained by German police in 2023 protesting a coal mine near which village?

The Garzweiler opencast mine was swallowing the abandoned hamlet.

How did Thunberg mark the day she finished secondary education in June 2023?

She vowed her "fight has only just begun" and later started a bachelor's programme at university.

A Malmö court fined Thunberg in 2023 for disobeying police at a protest blocking what?

She called her protest self-defence against the fossil fuel industry, then joined a similar blockade within hours.

Thunberg was arrested in London in October 2023 protesting which event, nicknamed the "Oscars of oil"?

A judge threw out the case the following year for lack of evidence.

Thunberg boycotted COP29 in 2024, hosted by which country?

She cited human rights abuses and the treatment of Armenians, and visited Georgia and Armenia instead.

In June 2025 Thunberg joined a Gaza-bound aid flotilla aboard which UK-flagged vessel?

Israeli forces boarded it in international waters on 9 June; she later joined the Global Sumud Flotilla too.

In November 2025 Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion activists dyed which famous waterway green?

She was banned from the city for 48 hours and fined 150 euros.

The Swedish buzzword for the anti-aviation movement Thunberg spearheaded translates as what?

Olympian Björn Ferry championed it first; Thunberg's refusal to fly gave it global momentum.

Nelloptodes gretae, named after Thunberg in 2019, is what kind of creature?

The tiny Kenyan beetle's long antennae supposedly resemble her braided pigtails.

The genus Thunberga, named in Thunberg's honour in 2020, contains what animals?

By 2022 it held 29 newly described spiders, all from Madagascar; a Panamanian frog and two snails also bear her name.

Which climate scientist is listed as a distant relative of Thunberg?

Arrhenius calculated the warming effect of carbon dioxide in 1896; her father is also named Svante.

Thunberg contributed a spoken-word track in 2019 to a release by which English band?

Fatboy Slim also mashed her UN speech into "Right Here, Right Now."

Which regional honour did Thunberg turn down in October 2019, along with its money?

She also turned down its DKK 350,000 prize money, roughly 47,000 euros.

The 2020 Hulu documentary I Am Greta premiered at which film festival?

Director Nathan Grossman operated camera and sound single-handedly, from her first solitary strike days to the Atlantic crossing.

Bolsonaro called Thunberg a 'pirralha' and she adopted it as her bio. What does it mean?

She did the same after Trump and Putin criticised her, adopting their descriptions as her bio.

Thunberg's paternal grandfather, Olof Thunberg, was known for what profession?

Her father Svante is also an actor and her mother Malena Ernman an opera singer.

In which English city does a 15-metre mural show Thunberg's face half-submerged by rising water?

Artist Jody Thomas painted it in May 2019; Thunberg later joined a school strike in the same city.