BBC has announced that Thunberg will guest-edit Radio 4’s Today programme and continue the broadcaster's tradition of appointing public figures to guest-edit shows in the holiday period between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve (from 26-31 December).
According to The Guardian, this year's line-up of guest stars includes Lady Hale, the president of the UK supreme court, who is due to retire as the nation's top judge when she turns 75 in January.
Thunberg in her episode of the BBC news programme will speak to leading figures in the ongoing fight against global warming and hear from indigenous, frontline activists.
The choice for this year's guest editor was criticized by some radio listeners, but BBC countered by noting that the high-profile guests were chosen for their "original thinking".
Apart from Thunberg and Lady Hale, cross-dressing artist Grayson Perry, rapper George The Poet and Lady Thatcher’s biographer, Charles Moore, will also edit editions of the Radio 4 show.
Thunberg gained international fame earlier this year after slamming Western governments and high-profile leaders for failing to take meaningful action over climate change. In August 2018, Thunberg's school protest - related to ecology issues - gradually attracted media attention, propelling her to the international level.
It remains, however, unclear from UK-based media reports, whether the Swedish teen will accept the BBC offer and whether she has heard the news. The boat, the 48-foot catamaran La Vagabonde, on which Thunberg is scheduled to arrive on European shores in couple of weeks, uses solar panels, hydroelectric generators and batteries to provide constant power supply for the sailing vessel. Media reports leave no clue whether Thunberg has regular satellite-based online access, but her Twitter account suggests that she does use the Internet while sailing across the Atlantic ocean.
