When you search Greta Thunberg on Google, some of the most searched questions or queries that pop up in the “People also Ask” section are “Is Greta Thunberg still active?” and “Where is Greta Thunberg now?” 

Thunberg is globally renowned for her climate activism. In 2018, her climate strikes in front of the Swedish parliament received the international spotlight, propelling a worldwide climate movement. From 2019 until recently, she was constantly featured at the forefront of the battle against the climate crisis, inspiring the climate movement Fridays for the Future. This movement mobilized millions around the globe to demand action and accountability from political leaders in fighting the climate crisis. 

Acknowledging Thunberg’s activism and contribution to the climate movement, she received numerous honors and awards, including a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize by three deputies of the Swedish parliament, being recognized by Forbes in their list: The World’s Most Powerful Women, and being proclaimed as Time Person of the Year by Time Magazine, all in 2019. Thunberg headlined innumerable news platforms on the international stage, including BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera and many more, as she leveraged the urgency of the climate crisis as one of the most important issues of our time. 

Her name headlined traditional newspapers and broadcast TV programs and outlets, which honored her activism and image as a role model to millions of youths worldwide. She was also actively praised and endorsed by politicians such as Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders, who expressed their support and commendation of the global climate movement she has inspired. 

However, despite the international acclaim and eminence she has received from politicians and millions of people worldwide, Thunberg’s name has become less and less ubiquitous in recent years, and her protests much less reported in the mainstream media, leading many of us to wonder where she went.

Thunberg has already been receiving countless criticisms since her rise to recognition, including the infamous case involving Andrew Tate. It wasn’t fully until Thunberg started protesting and speaking out against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians that her reputation was dramatically tarnished and effaced in the mainstream media. In her barely reported protests, she stated that climate justice cannot be obtained without confronting Israel’s settler colonialism, because the crisis can never be fully addressed in isolation from colonialism, capitalism and the patriarchy. 

These systems of oppression form a convoluted web of impacts that continuously fuels and exacerbates the climate crisis that we are experiencing today. They are inextricable from one another. Acknowledging these intersectionalities is an important step in tackling this global problem that affects us all. 

The ruling class only valued Thunberg’s activism because it did not really threaten their interests. However, when she started to speak up about the inherent intersectionalities between capitalism, colonialism and the patriarchy, they started to paint her in a negative light, with Forbes accusing her of “destroying the Jewish state” by protesting against Israel’s genocide. 

More recently, only negative news has been released, and most news outlets have stopped reporting about her altogether, making people question if she has stopped her activism and has chosen to abandon this global climate movement she inspired. 

However, Greta Thunberg is not silent, she’s being silenced by the ruling elites who are so afraid of being exposed by an influential figure who has mobilized millions of people around the world for her activism. Thunberg protested against the minings in Lutzerath, against Azerbaijan’s hosting of COP29, and spoke up about the oil licenses in Scandinavia. 

Greta Thunberg’s story serves as a testament to how those in power can easily silence and discredit activists in spite of the number of achievements and international claims they have obtained. Despite being antagonized, Greta remains steadfast in her fight for climate justice. 

She did not go anywhere. She did not stop speaking up about the climate crisis or stop demanding the ruling class to be held accountable for their crimes against the environment. Amidst the condemnation and suppression she is facing, she is still actively fighting and making her voice heard louder than ever.