Greta Thunberg Rejects $50,000 Environmental Award

Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg has rejected an environmental award from the Nordic Council, which came with a prize of around $50,000.

Thunberg thanked the Nordic Council in an Instagram post, calling the award a “huge honour,” but went on to say that “the climate movement does not need any more awards. What we need is for our politicians and the people in power start to listen to the current, best available science.”

Thunberg explained in her post that the Norwegian government has recently granted “a record number of permits to look for new oil and gas” and that the “newly opened oil and natural gas-field, ‘Johan Sverdrup’ is expected to produce oil and natural gas for 50 years; oil and gas that would generate global CO2 emissions of 1,3 tonnes.”

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Greta Thunberg & Fridays For Future

She ended her post by telling the Norwegian government that “until you start to act in accordance with what the science says is needed to limit the global temperature rise below 1,5 degrees or even 2 degrees celsius, I – and Fridays For Future in Sweden – choose not to accept the Nordic Councils environmental award nor the prize money of 500 000 Swedish kronor.”

Fridays For Future is a global climate strike action started by Thunberg in 2018. She encourages students around the world to go on strike every Friday until governments begin to take the climate crisis seriously.

What do you think of the activists approach to climate change? Let us know in the comments below!