Greta Thunberg finally returning to school after year-long climate strike

Top teen activist spent past year fighting climate ignorance around globe

Greta Thunberg said she is finally returning to school after a year of campaigning around the globe for tougher action on the climate crisis.

The teenage environmental activist spent the past year travelling the world, notably crossing the Atlantic by sailboat and more recently demanding change from political and business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Now she is going back to school in her home country of Sweden, where high school classes are returning this week.

“My gap year from school is over, and it feels so great to finally be back in school again!” Greta tweeted to her four million followers on Monday, along with a picture of herself wearing a rucksack and clutching the handlebars of a bicycle.

Greta was propelled onto the world stage back in August 2018 when she staged lone protests outside Sweden’s parliament building in Stockholm holding a banner that read ”Skolstrejk for klimatet”, or School Strike for Climate, as the global movement of young activists inspired by her action came to be known.

Children all over the world followed her lead and began taking Fridays off school in order to protest against the failings of the older generations to adequately tackle climate change.

In 2019, Greta became Time magazine’s youngest ever Person of the Year and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Towards the new year, she met with Sir David Attenborough (over Skype) to discuss the crisis and the difference in perception of the threat between different generations. The pair also exchanged thanks for inspiring one another in various ways.

Most recently, she met with German chancellor Angela Merkel to demand tougher action on climate change. Ahead of the trip, she signed a joint statement accusing world leaders of “giving up” on the Paris agreement on account of “ignorance, denial and unawareness”.