By Tim Graham
Time‘s cover story awarding teenaged Greta Thunberg their “Person of the Year” energetically paints a legend. The toadying trio of Charlotte Alter, Suyin Haynes, and Justin Worland combined for this goopy introduction:
Greta Thunberg sits in silence in the cabin of the boat that will take her across the Atlantic Ocean. Inside, there’s a cow skull hanging on the wall, a faded globe, a child’s yellow raincoat. Outside, it’s a tempest: rain pelts the boat, ice coats the decks, and the sea batters the vessel that will take this slight girl, her father and a few companions from Virginia to Portugal.
For a moment, it’s as if Thunberg were the eye of a hurricane, a pool of resolve at the center of swirling chaos. In here, she speaks quietly. Out there, the entire natural world seems to amplify her small voice, screaming along with her.
“We can’t just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow,” she says, tugging on the sleeve of her blue sweatshirt. “That is all we are saying.”
Oppose Greta? You oppose “the entire natural world, screaming.” But don’t worry, Greta won’t become an egomaniac over all this global flattery.
