Greta Thunberg’s visit to Alberta was no ordinary celebrity drop-in – Macleans.ca
Before Greta
Thunberg rode an electric car into Alberta, many celebrity activists
before her had arrived to demand climate action: Leonardo DiCaprio, Neil
Young, Jane Fonda
and others. There’s a significant difference that has nothing do with
the age of the Swedish teen, or that, unlike many an entertainment
figure leveraging fame for a virtuous cause, the climate fight is
Thunberg’s calling card.
Thunberg rode an electric car into Alberta, many celebrity activists
before her had arrived to demand climate action: Leonardo DiCaprio, Neil
Young, Jane Fonda
and others. There’s a significant difference that has nothing do with
the age of the Swedish teen, or that, unlike many an entertainment
figure leveraging fame for a virtuous cause, the climate fight is
Thunberg’s calling card.
What’s new this time—and detractors like Premier Jason Kenney et al
should take note—is that Thunberg isn’t putting on a solo show for the
cameras. She led a crowd. An estimated 4,000 at a youth- and
Indigenous-led rally in downtown Edmonton. And this was the second
climate protest of this scale in the city in as many months. The actors’
and musicians’ method was to draw attention to oil sands. Thunberg
draws attention differently, declaring that she’s far from alone in
raising the alarm about an overheated planet—and that’s the case even in
Canada’s petro-province.