Teenage activist, Greta Thunberg has entered the spotlight once again, but this time trolls are refusing to let CNN get away with putting the "school dropout" on a pedestal.
She has been chosen to sit among medical professionals in CNN's latest show about the pandemic, and Twitter is in a total uproar.
Keep scrolling to read the disgusting comments the teenager has had to put up with since accepting the invitation...
Greta Thunberg is the face of the youth climate change movement... but is that where she should stay?
The Swedish seventeen-year-old has been added to a panel of medical experts, which has Twitter in an uproar. The comments are the worst yet...Just over a year ago, she was relatively unknown.
via: Twitter
Greta would regularly sit on her own outside Swedish parliament, first staging a "School Strike for Climate" in August last year. In the weeks leading up to the country’s general election, Thunberg sat on the steps outside of the parliament building in Stockholm, holding up the now-iconic sign that read “Skolstrejk För Klimatet" — translating to “school strike for climate."The teen sat outside the building during school hours for 3 weeks.
Her demands were that the Swedish government reduce carbon emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement. By sacrificing her education to protest for action, Thunberg began to conjure up attention and gain traction online.Her unwavering commitment to the environment has woken the rest of the world.
While a little over a year ago, the name "Greta Thunberg" was relatively unknown, now it is the first name that springs to mind when you think of the climate change movement.Thunberg is known for delivering blistering, matter-of-fact speeches about the urgency of what she calls the "climate crisis."
If we fast-forward to today, Thunberg continues to hold governments accountable during her powerful talks, which have seen her nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and placed in TIME's top one-hundred influential people in the world list.If we do not act, the future, if there is one at all, will be very bleak.
Rising global temperatures pose a high risk of social and environmental disasters, including floods, drought, wildfires, and food shortages for millions of people across our planet.Thunberg has gone to great lengths to fight her cause.
In July last year, the teen ditched environmentally damaging air travel and sailed across the Atlantic to attend the U.N. climate summits in the U.S. and Chile.And her youth school strike movement is growing on a mass scale.
On September 20, 2019, millions around the world, from London to New York, Sydney to Colombia, ditched the classroom to peacefully protest for climate action in what Thunberg dubs "Fridays for Future."She's also backed by a whole host of famous faces.
Including the likes of Michelle Obama, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.It's been a busy year for the teen.
Thunberg was even listed as 1 of 4 winners of the 2019 Right Livelihood Award, which is widely known as the "Alternative Nobel Prize," as well as honored as TIME's Person of the Year.But, Thunberg's movement has still been met with waves of criticism.
Her activism has seen her labeled as "melodramatic" amongst other things, as well as others saying that she is being used as a political shield. Though her critics don't seem to have stopped her.Trolls will criticize the teen for literally anything.
via: Getty Images
For a prime example... During a recent rally at College Green, the Swedish activist was accused of damaging a "healthy" patch of grass because, after her rally, it became muddy.Yep. Muddy.
via: Getty Images
Well, what else do you expect when hundreds of people gather in the rain? Nonetheless, the locals were left enraged after seeing the "consequences" of the rally.One person on Facebook said this:
OH THE IRONY A fundraising page has been set up to repair College Green in Bristol after it was turned into a mud b… https://t.co/WWX7oZdspa— Jim Slater (@Jim Slater)1582912325.0
She simply can't win... Greta recently weighed in on the pandemic.
via: Getty
And some people's responses to her message were completely and utterly disgusting.The activist tweeted about the outbreak of the deadly virus...
We can’t solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis and we must unite behind experts and science. This of cours… https://t.co/DdK03MXSQk— Greta Thunberg (@Greta Thunberg)1583928301.0
In a lengthy thread, she urged people to listen to the experts.
The climate and ecological crisis is the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced but for now (of course depending on… https://t.co/eJdYxMZRvQ— Greta Thunberg (@Greta Thunberg)1583928372.0
Yet, while many Twitter users thanked Greta for her message...
@GretaThunberg Thank you Greta for acknowledging the problem 🙏— Nico (@Nico)1583928433.0
The trolls and climate change-deniers were quick to come out in full force...
@GretaThunberg Except there is no climate crisis!— Simon Conway-Smith (@Simon Conway-Smith)1583949486.0
But some people over-stepped the line...
via: Twitter
By saying they hope that Greta catches the virus and dies as a result.Threatening a child is clearly Twitter's latest trend...
via: Twitter
As various users took to the platform to inform the seventeen-year-old that they wanted her to catch the virus.Clearly not everyone can see eye-to-eye with Greta's message and politics...
via: Getty
And now Twitter has lost it's cool once again after it's been revealed that Greta will join a panel of medical experts on CNN's upcoming town hall on the pandemic.Twitter users are not happy about it...
@brad_polumbo @CNN @andersoncooper @drsanjaygupta https://t.co/3rPemfAeb1— David Rader (@David Rader)1589390248.0
It's understandable why people are irritated by the choice to place a teen climate activist on a panel with public health experts.
@JoelFouser @Talkmaster @CNN @andersoncooper @drsanjaygupta Oh! Well, in that case she’s certainto be qualified as… https://t.co/3VOJsit6R8— Trisha Tatum (@Trisha Tatum)1589392708.0
The topic has received more than 30,000 mentions across Twitter in just a few hours.
@Rogers22283 @CNN @andersoncooper @drsanjaygupta This is atrocious..I’d rather watch paint dry. Probably more informative too— Sam Fusaro III (@Sam Fusaro III)1589410416.0
The subject has sparked an extreme onslaught of virtual eye-rolls.
After the network's announcement on Wednesday, this was the top response: “Greta Thunberg? Now, she’s a COVID expert? @CNN is a joke!" It gained hundreds of likes online from other users that share this view.And the comments just kept rolling in...
@JessieHair @CNN @andersoncooper @drsanjaygupta What does a teen with a learning disability have to contribute to t… https://t.co/2ccwZFAwO6— 🇺🇸R5's Motivator (Parler: @FaultyMotivator)🇺🇸 (@🇺🇸R5's Motivator (Parler: @FaultyMotivator)🇺🇸)1589399944.0
Although a few scarce Twitter users came to Thunberg's defence...
@CNN @andersoncooper @drsanjaygupta I'm sorry, but Greta is probably more knowledgable than our President. Fight me… https://t.co/XQSXm5db5m— Queen Comrade of WV🌹VR (@Queen Comrade of WV🌹VR)1589390216.0
I mean they make a fair point.
Writer Roxane Gay tweeted: “Unqualified men appear on cable all day every day, bloviating endlessly, but Greta Thunberg is a bridge too far? Ok." The Oscar-winning actor Patricia Arquette even came to her aid: “She’s has extraordinary knowledge and she is the next generation that is left to clean this mess we’ve made. They wouldn’t have her there if she wasn’t a powerful voice."Maybe people should at least hear her out...
Former acting CDC director Richard Besser, former HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius and activist Greta Thunberg join… https://t.co/BkKjCjEoI2— CNN (@CNN)1589374808.0