Swedish teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg appears on a postage stamp in her native Sweden, part of a series focusing on the environment released on Thursday.
STOCKHOLM – Swedish teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg appears on a postage stamp issued in her native Sweden on Thursday and is part of a series focusing on the environment.
The motifs on the stamps “should reflect our time, where the environmental issue has been relevant and present for many years, not least through Greta Thunberg’s strong voice,” the Swedish postal company Postnord said in a statement.
One with Thunberg in her trademark yellow raincoat with her braid blowing in the wind and standing on top of a hill is part of the series “Valuable Nature” with five seals. It costs 12 kroner ($ 1.40) each, is available on January 14 and is illustrated by Swedish artist Henning Trollback.
Thunberg, who has just turned 18, became known for weekly solo demonstrations outside the Swedish parliament in Stockholm that she started on 20 August 2018.
Students around the world soon began to follow her lead and regularly held large protest marches, and she was invited to speak with politicians and business leaders.
The outbreak of the coronavirus has prevented the Future Movement, which inspired Thunberg, from holding its mass rallies over the past few months, lowering its public profile.
Her blunt words to presidents and prime ministers, filled with scientific facts about the need to urgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions, have won her praise and awards, but also criticism and even death threats.
Appearing on a stamp “means that someone is doing something extraordinary”, said Kristina Olofsdotter, managing director for stamps at the postal company.
Thunberg demands that lawmakers abide by the 2015 Paris climate agreement, which calls on rich and poor countries to take action to raise global temperatures, melting glaciers, raising sea levels and changing rainfall patterns. This requires governments to submit national plans to reduce emissions to limit the temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
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