Review: No One is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg

It seems that, as of recent years, youth activism has shot up in every corner of the world. Malala Yousafzai standing up for the right of girls to go to school in the East, Parkland students marching for gun control in the West, and countless others fighting for what they believe in from their own trenches. Even though the younger generation is advocating for every cause imaginable, one of the movements that have been getting more attention as of late is climate action. 

I’ve always felt incredibly strongly about sustainability. Hell, I’m so passionate about it that I managed to shape my professional life around it. For the longest time I felt as if the whole world was blind and that, for some enigmatic reason, I was one of the few people who had 20/20 vision. I couldn’t understand why, in spite of the life-threatening hazards that were staring humanity in the face, the ecological crisis didn’t get a fraction of the attention it deserved. This puzzle that I battled with for years was promptly solved by one of my university professors, who gave me a short and simple answer that made everything seem crystal clear. He said, “Every social cause has an agent of change.” The civil rights movement is upheld by Black and indigenous people of colour, the feminist movement is upheld by women, but for the longest time, the environmental movement didn’t have such a defined group of advocates. That is until the youth spoke up.

There have been young people advocating for the environment for decades, but I think we can all agree that by far, the one that has gotten the most media attention is Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg. So much so that she has managed to mobilize millions of people to strike for the climate, which has completely shifted the Overton window when it comes to environmental policy discussion. The “Overton window” is what is considered acceptable by the public and the media when it comes to environmental conservation, mitigation, and adaptation. It is exceptionally more progressive than what was considered adequate a few years ago. Thunberg made the younger generation the environments’ agent of change overnight, and as a result, she has been invited to participate in critical and far-reaching spaces, such as the World Economic Forum, the European Parliament, and the United Nations Climate Action Summit. Amidst the rise of her climate activism, Penguin Random House took it upon themselves to compile her most moving speeches and publish them as a book. That’s what No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference is; a collection of Thunberg’s words which, to my consideration, have the potential to shape a whole generation.

The book is very thought-provoking as it frames climate change as an issue that cannot be solved merely by shifting our consumption habits, but rather as a structural problem, pointing to our economic and political systems as its root. Individually, the speeches are remarkable; her blunt and unapologetic rhetoric is extremely successful in conveying the urgency of her message. She manages to do what no scientist or politician could in decades: deconstruct the complexity of the situation and lay it out in the simplest of terms for all the public to understand. I will say, however, that reading her speeches compiled as a whole can come across as repetitive. Even if this makes the reading experience monotonous, in the grand scheme of things this is something completely understandable. It’s a testimony to the obliviousness of our world leaders; no matter how many times Thunberg or other activists and scientists repeat how important it is to keep fossil fuels in the ground and to instate strict environmental regulations, they’re still not listening closely enough. 

Due to the fact that humankind has known about the existence of climate change since the early 19th century, it is astounding that no one before in history has managed to call attention to this issue the way Thunberg has. This premise becomes even more inconceivable when observed through an intersectional lens. Not only is she a teenager and female, which are two dimensions of social positioning which complicate her ability to be taken seriously, but she’s also on the spectrum: in the past, she’s been vocal about her Asperger's syndrome diagnosis. Greta doesn’t perceive these elements of her character as obstacles, but rather as superpowers that allow her to experience the world in a different way. All along her activism journey, and particularly through this book, that’s what she’s been trying to do: to get us to see the climate crisis as she does and take action accordingly. 

Overall, I think the underlying message of this book goes past exhibiting political incompetence and encouraging environmental activism. Apart from being an incredible tool to raise awareness of what can easily be argued as the biggest threat to humanity’s existence, it is also an assertion of the importance of raising our voices for what we believe in, no matter who we are or where we come from. No one is too young to make a difference. No one is too old to make a difference. No one is too female to make a difference. No one is too Black to make a difference. No one is too queer to make a difference. No one is too neurodivergent to make a difference. All components of our identities are valid and beautiful, and when we find power in them, we can all make a difference.

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