Greta Thunberg is never in a flying mood, but recent developments in Chile might force her to reconsider her attitude to aircraft.
The 16-year-old activist – whose climate expertise remains a source of debate – made a 15-day voyage across the Atlantic this August. She has since addressed world leaders at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York and joined climate strikes in Canada, and is currently rallying young people in wildfire-hit California against the “failing older generations” of decision-makers.
Greta’s initial plan was to visit South and Central America and wrap up her journey to the New World with an address to the UN COP25 climate conference, slated for early December. However, mass anti-government protests prompted Santiago to pull out as host this week. The event – billed as the world’s most important conference on climate change – has been relocated to Spain.
The news has seemingly caught Greta off-guard. “As #COP25 has officially been moved from Santiago to Madrid I’ll need some help,” she tweeted on Friday. “It turns out I’ve traveled half around the world, the wrong way. Now I need to find a way to cross the Atlantic in November... If anyone could help me find transport I would be so grateful.”
Greta now has precisely 30 days to make it to Madrid, where the summit kicks off on 2 December. The task is all the more pressing because the team that accompanied her on the way to New York on board a zero-emission sailboat has already returned to Europe and is currently taking part in a trans-Atlantic yachting race.
Fellow sailor Pierre Casiraghi told the New York Times in a July interview that there are “only a handful” of zero-emissions vessels like the one that ferried Greta, which means that she will have to choose from a limited number of options.
And as if that wasn’t difficult enough of a task, it will take her at least three days to return to the US east coast by train from California.
She added: “I’m so sorry I’ll not be able to visit South and Central America this time, I was so looking forward to this. But this is of course not about me, my experiences or where I wish to travel.”