Greta Thunberg - Our House Is on Fire - Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis

That night, before the break of dawn, the USA had elected Donald Trump as their new president.

I wrote:

Many people feel great fear this early morning. I am one of them. But we mustn’t give in to the fear. We must stick together. Right and left. Across party divisions. We have to start a counter-movement here and now. We must organize ourselves against the darkness and the hate that has arisen in the ever-greater gaps that have emerged in the world. But we must never meet hatred, racism and bullying with the same hatred and bullying. We must never ever stoop to hate. We must start reducing the gaps instead. We must stand united for humanism and for the equal worth of all people. When they go low, we go high. Now is not the time to grieve or be afraid.

Now is the time to organize.

P.S. My elder daughter is passionate about the environment. She is much more well-read and knowledgeable than I am. This is what she’s been saying:

‘When the climate issue is as acute as it is now, probably the only salvation is that Donald Trump wins the election – because only then will people perhaps understand how bad it is. When a climate-change denier like Trump wins and becomes the world’s most powerful man – then perhaps people will finally wake up and become sufficiently shaken to start the gigantic counter-movement that is needed for us to achieve a real change in time.’

Her words feel so incredibly hopeful and valuable today. I’m going to wake her up soon. With all the hope I have. It’s time to start fighting. For her and for all our children.

Greta woke up with a smile that morning. She rubbed her eyes and looked up at the poster of the periodic table above her bed. But before she rattled through the elements, as she does right after she wakes up, she said, ‘Obviously this is terrible. But it’s the only way. With Clinton or Obama everything would have continued as before. Trump is the wake-up call.’ It was a provocation from her side, of course. She knew very well that Trump’s election was a disaster for everyday people. His rise to power exposed for many just how much things need to change.

I consider sharing the post again now during the school strike, but I stop myself.

Everything has its time, I think.

Let them hate their bloody hate now so everyone gets to see what kind of people they are.

Our family has been experiencing it for a long time.

We get death threats on social media, excrement through the letter box, and social services report that they have received a great number of complaints against us as Greta’s parents. But at the same time they state in the letter that they ‘do NOT intend to take any action’. We think of the capital letters as a little love note from an anonymous official at the Kungsholmen District Board. And it warms us.

But I can’t ward off all the hate. Can’t push it away from me. Because somehow I am starting to realize that they are going to take my child from me. She might not be able to keep on living here.

The price of being heard is hate.

The price of being seen is hate.

The price of everything is so terrifyingly much hate.

The hate knows no bounds.

And the haters are never going to stop hating.

More and more people are keeping Greta company in front of Parliament. Children, adults, teachers, retirees.

The photographer Anders Hellberg is there every day. He photographs and posts pictures for all to use. He doesn’t want a penny.

‘Anyone who wants to can use the pictures. It’s my way of trying to help out.’

One day an entire class of elementary-school pupils stops and wants to talk, and Greta has to walk away for a bit.

Feels mild panic.

She steps aside and starts crying.

She can’t help it.

But after a while she calms herself down and goes back and greets the children.

Afterwards she explains that she has a hard time associating with children sometimes because she has had such bad experiences.

‘I’ve never met a group of children that hasn’t been mean to me. And wherever I’ve been I’ve been bullied because I’m different.’

It takes a toll to sit in front of Parliament seven hours a day for three weeks.

Lots of people want to come up and talk.

Usually these are pleasant people who want to be supportive and tell her that they have listened to what she is saying. Several times a day people come up and say that they have stopped flying, parked the car or become vegans thanks to her.

To be able to influence so many people in such a short time is bewildering in a good way.

But of course you can’t escape the critics.

Many want to have a discussion.

‘What’s the toughest one to have?’ I ask.

It’s Sunday, our day off, and we are sitting spread out on the living-room floor.

‘There are a lot of different arguments,’ Greta replies. ‘Those who say that there are “too many people”, for example. Partly because if some people say that there are too many of us, then I suppose they want us to get rid of some, because that’s what the logic implies. And then you assume that it’s either us children or people in developing countries who are the problem, because it’s us children who are the last ones to arrive and spoil the party for all those who keep saying “there are too many people in India, Africa and China.” But the fact is that the great majority of people on earth are not living above their means. It’s those like us in Sweden who are. We’re the ones who are living as if we had four globes, and at the same time think that there are “too many people”. And if everyone were to live like we do, the two-degree target would have been lost long, long ago. Then there wouldn’t be any future at all.’

Greta is sitting on the rug with Moses in front of her. He is sleeping, stretched out across the red patterned rug that we bought at an online auction almost ten years ago. No matter how much dirt and dog hair has collected on it, it always looks nice and clean.

‘Then there are those who want to talk nuclear power,’ she continues. ‘They never talk about anything but nuclear power. It’s as if there were no climate or ecology crisis at all. They just want to talk about nuclear power. They don’t know any facts. They haven’t even heard about the most basic things. They just say: “So what’s your take on nuclear power?” And then they smile as if they have solved all the world’s future problems on their own. But what’s frightening is that politicians do the same thing. Because they know that nuclear power is no longer a solution. And yet they repeat the same thing.’

‘What do the researchers say?’ I ask.

‘The IPCC says that nuclear power can be a small part of a big, holistic solution,’ Svante answers. ‘But they also say that the energy issue can be solved with renewable energy alone. It’s not up to science to take a position, so the scientists are only talking about what is physically possible. Climate science doesn’t neccessarily have to take politics and practical circumstances into account. The fact that in practice it takes ten to fifteen years to build a new nuclear reactor today – and that we would need thousands of completed plants tomorrow – is not something they need to consider, I guess.’

Roxy plops down on the rug alongside Greta and Moses. She licks her paws clean and stretches out, like a mirror image of Moses.

Within seconds, she’s asleep.

‘Okay, so we need a huge amount of new, fossil-free energy. And we need it now,’ says Greta. ‘So we must invest in the best, cheapest and fastest alternative. So why invest in something that takes over ten years to build when wind and solar can be ready within a few months? Why invest in something that is so expensive that no company wants to invest in it, when wind and solar are much cheaper, and falling in price by the minute? Why invest in a high-risk technology when you can invest in something risk-free? We haven’t even solved the problem of storing existing nuclear waste. And if we were to replace all fossil energy with nuclear power we would need to basically complete a nuclear power plant a day, starting today. Just educating engineers to construct them would take decades. So nuclear power is pretty much an unfeasible alternative. Everyone knows that. So why do they keep talking about it?’ she repeats. ‘It really scares me. Because either the politicians are so stupid that they don’t understand, or else they just want to waste time. And I don’t know which is worse.’