Greta Thunberg once again arrested and charged during climate demonstration

Radical climate activist Greta Thunberg has reportedly been arrested and charged with disobeying the police for the second time in less than two months.

Thunberg, 20, originally participated in a climate protest in the southern city of Malmo on June 19th.

(Photo by ANDREAS HILLERGREN/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images)

“The climate crisis is a matter of life and death for countless people. We choose to physically stop fossil fuel infrastructure. We are reclaiming the future,” she reportedly said at the time.

A month later, she was “fined 1,500 Swedish crowns ($134) by a Swedish court on July 24 for failing to leave [the] protest when ordered by police,” according to Reuters.

But right after the verdict, she rushed outside again with “other activists from the environmental group Reclaim the Future” and “blocked the road for oil trucks in Malmo harbour and were again forcibly removed by police.”

And just like last time, she was eventually arrested and charged.

“The demonstration did not have a permit and it led to the blocking of car traffic. The woman refused to obey the police command to leave the scene,” the prosecutor presiding over the case said.

Thunberg evidently plans to fight the latest charge and is scheduled to go on trial as per the latest charge sometime late this month, according to the Indian English news channel WION.

“It’s correct that I was at that place on that day, and it’s correct that I received an order that I didn’t listen to, but I want to deny the crime,” she reportedly told the court this week.

Some critics believe Thunberg purposefully wanted to be arrested both times for the photo op:

The last time Thunberg made major headlines was in November when she joined hundreds of other young activists in suing the government of Sweden for allegedly not doing enough to stave off the alleged threat of man-made climate change.

“The Swedish suit involves Thunberg, possibly the world’s best known climate activist, and more than 600 others who claim that Sweden’s climate policies violate its constitution as well as the European Convention on Human Rights,” Bloomberg reported at the time.

The group called itself Aurora, and at the time, they released a statement to the public blasting their own government.

“The Swedish state fails to meet the constitutional requirement to promote sustainable development leading to a good environment for present and future generations,” the statement read.

The group of left-wing activists also marched through the Swedish capital of Stockholm as part of another “school strike” against climate change.

During the march, “Thunberg and her fellow plaintiffs symbolically delivered their lawsuit to the district court,” according to Common Dreams, a far-left news source.

Common Dreams noted that despite Sweden adopting “a law in 2017 requiring the government to draw down its fossil fuel emissions to net-zero by 2045,” the European nation’s greenhouse gas emissions had increased in the past couple of years.

“The right-wing government that took power last month after September’s elections has proposed a budget for 2023 which would further increase emissions. It also eliminated the Ministry of Environment, which left climate action advocates expecting ‘huge cuts in green funding leading to a devastating impact on climate policies,’” Common Dreams further noted.

However, comparatively, Sweden barely produced any emissions. The most recent data tracked by World Population Review showed that in 2019, Sweden only emitted 33.70 metric tons. Conversely, China and India emitted 9,876.50 and 2,310 tons, respectively.

The point was that Sweden doesn’t really have troubling climate change policies, or at least not in comparison to the rest of the world. Yet even these low numbers were too high for zealots like Thunberg and her allies.

Vivek Saxena

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles