. . ."The seeds for Thunberg’s conversion to social justice advocacy arguably go back to the very beginning of her activism, which was sparked, famously, by a feeling that she and the rest of her generation were being betrayed: Given the cause and consequences of climate change, why weren’t responsible adults — parents, teachers, politicians — doing more? Why was no one panicking?
"In her early teens, Thunberg became sick. She ceased eating and talking. Activism, both Thunberg and her parents have said, was her salvation. It was also a process of finding and banding together people who shared her anxiety and her view that, ultimately, climate change is a moral question: right and wrong — or as she has said, black and white.
"And so it was only natural that she was open to the idea that others were being betrayed as well.
"One early turning point in her thinking seems to have taken place during a highly publicized trip to the United States in 2019. Thunberg had been invited by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to speak at a summit in New York, and rather than take a plane, she and her father had crossed the Atlantic in a borrowed racing yacht.
"Jamie Henn — a self-described “aging youth activist” who helped organize her schedule — remembers being struck by how much Thunberg’s approach contrasted with the hyper racially aware politics of the U.S. youth environmental movement.". . .
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