Why we need heroes like Greta Thunberg

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Greta Thunberg outside Swedish Parliament in 2018

Greta Thunberg outside Swedish Parliament in 2018

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'I think the next revolution will be led by a younger person, by a woman, and I feel that Greta Thunberg is that person.'

I think the next revolution will be led by a younger person, by a woman, and I feel that Greta Thunberg is that person.

Greta Thunberg has arrived in Trump’s America after a two-week voyage across the Atlantic. The articulate, seemingly fearless 16-year-old has become a hero of the environmental movement since starting her school strikes for the climate a year ago - inspiring over one million young people to do the same.

In these times of environmental crisis, do we need people like Greta to show us the way? Satish Kumar, peace activist and founder of The Resurgence Trust, thinks so.

In the first episode of the second series of the Resurgence Voices podcast, Satish describes how heroes have influenced his own journey. His 8,000-mile walk for peace in the 1960s started from the grave of Mahatma Gandhi and took him to Atlanta Georgia, where he met Martin Luther King.

Unimaginable

But the heroes of today have a very different challenge to face. “I think the next revolution will be led by a younger person, by a woman, and I feel that Greta Thunberg is that person,” Satish says. “I think that some kind of divine power but also some kind of unseen, unimaginable, unexplainable force is working through her.”

What does Greta think of that? Amid a scrum of journalists at the Mayflower Marina in Plymouth, I get a chance to ask her.

To listen to our conversation – and hear Greta’s response – subscribe to Resurgence Voices wherever you listen to podcasts. If you like it, you can even leave us a review.

This Author

Marianne Brown is editor of the Resurgence & Ecologist magazine. Listen to the podcast onlineThe Ecologist is owned by The Resurgence Trust. 

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