Time magazine cover -- subtitled "The Power of Youth" -- has a picture of Greta Thunberg in Lisbon.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg was named Time Magazine's person of the year 2019 on Wednesday. Over the past year, the teen activist has come a long way. What started as her solo protest on Fridays against global warming outside the Swedish parliament last year, has unraveled into a global youth movement demanding policymakers around the world to take greater action on climate change.
Greta Thunberg was given the title "for sounding the alarm about humanity's predatory relationship with the only home we have ... for showing us all what it might look like when a new generation leads," said Time Magazine's Editor-in-Chief Edward Felsenthal. Ms Thunberg was in Madrid attending the UN Climate Change Summit when the award was announced.
Every year since 1927, Time Magazine has awarded the "Person of the Year" title and features the individual(s) on its last cover of the year. In 2017, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi shared the title along with several other persecuted journalists who were dubbed as "guardians" of the truth.
This year's magazine cover -- subtitled "The Power of Youth" -- has a picture of Ms Thunberg standing on the shore in Lisbon, Portugal.
"We can't just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow. That is all we are saying," Ms Thunberg told Time.
Greta Thunberg started her Friday protests against global warming alone outside the Swedish parliament last year.
The Swedish activist shot to fame after her imperious speech at the United Nations in September shredding world leaders, accusing them of failing to tackle greenhouse gas emissions and repeatedly asking them "how dare you?" The speech became a milestone in the climate movement and cemented her position as its spokesperson. In the following weeks, millions of young people around the world joined Ms Thunberg in climate strike on Fridays.
Since her speech at the UN, she has also taken on US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin who mocked and dismissed her plea. Her critics have called her several names, from 'alarmist' to 'that mentally ill Swedish girl', 'weird', 'brainwashed' and 'a puppet'. Earlier this year, she also was the bookies' favourite to win the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize which went to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.