Greta Thunberg, the teen activist who has inspired millions to strike for action on climate change, doesn’t want awards. She wants people to listen to science.
The 16-year-old Swede declined an environmental prize worth $52,000 the Nordic Council, a regional inter-parliamentary organization, awarded her.
“I want to thank the Nordic Council for this award. It is a huge honour. But the climate movement does not need any more awards,” she wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday. “What we need is for our politicians and the people in power (to) start to listen to the current, best available science.”
Thunberg, who is in California for the Youth Climate Strike in Los Angeles, also criticized Nordic countries, which “have the possibility to do the most. And yet our countries still basically do nothing.”
The president of the Nordic Council, Hans Wallmark, said in a statement that he respected Thunberg’s decision and that the council will think carefully about what to do with the prize money.
It was not the first prize that the climate activist has won or been nominated for.
Three Norwegian lawmakers nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year because they believe “the massive movement Greta has set in motion is a very important peace contribution.”
Last year, about three months into her school climate strike campaign, Thunberg declined another award the Children’s Climate Prize, which is awarded by a Swedish electricity company because many of the finalists had to fly to Stockholm for the ceremony.
Thunberg notes that flights contribute to global warming, so she sailed across the Atlantic Ocean for two weeks on a zero-emissions sailboat to reach New York. There the Swede scolded a U.N. climate conference in September, repeatedly asking, “How dare you?”
