Greta Thunberg, the wise teenager of the climate crisis

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New York (CNN) - In person, it is small.

With his eyes wide open and his head down, his discomfort with the crowds and small conversations make it easy to understand why Greta Thunberg says she was "an invisible girl" for most of her 16 years.

But when Thunberg went to Washington, the lights, cameras and lack of action that make up the modern audience of Congress, the smallest and youngest person in the room emerged as the wisest soul of the Capitol.

• Greta Thunberg activist arrives in New York after ecological boat crossing

Bypassing Republican conversation points and Democratic flattery with equal annoyance, even friendly words were treated as reminders that she takes this much more seriously than most adults. Even those in the Subcommittee on Climate of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives.

"How can we involve more children in this issue?" Asked representative Ben Luján, a Democrat from New Mexico.

"Just tell them the truth," he said. “Tell them how it is. Because when I discovered what it really is, I was enraged. ”

Her attitude is flat and unwavering, her voice soft and hesitant and she admits that she may be the most reluctant activist in modern times. However, in the era of Instagram filters and charismatic influencers, something about his raw honesty surrounding a message of fear of forceful force made Thunberg go from being invisible to global.

Greta Thunberg watches the buildings of Lower Manhattan when he arrives in the United States from Europe.

"As it stands now, people in general don't seem to be very aware of the real science and the seriousness of this crisis," he told scattered lawmakers and dozens of cameras at this week's hearing. "I think we should inform them and start treating the crisis as the existential threat that it is."

When Thunberg entered a conference room at the Ford Foundation for interviews, I remembered a brief story I wrote in college about a child who can see the future.

In his popular television show, the boy announces that all war will end the next day, but, while humanity celebrates, he admits to his mother that it was a lie. "Tomorrow, all life on earth will end in fire," he says, and "I don't think they can take it."

Convinced that humanity can — SHOULD— endure the toughest of truths, Thunberg left his “Skolstrejk för Klimatet” (“School Strike for Climate” or “School Strike for Climate”) sign, took a microphone and began a series of interviews about the end of life according to what we know.

"I mean, I don't like being the center of attention," he said. "I don't want to be heard all the time, but if there is anything I can do to improve the situation, I think it's a very small price."

Less than a year has passed since he stood in front of Parliament in Stockholm: the Swedish version - of a single girl - of school protests in the US. asking for gun control.

• Global climate strike: students from all over the world lead protest against the climate crisis

Greta Thunberg, who was 15 at the time, is holding a sign that says “School strike for the weather” during a protest against climate change in front of the Swedish Parliament in November 2018.

"The symbolism of the climate strike is that if adults do not care about my future, neither do I," he explained.

By day 2, I already had company. In week 2, a viral movement in social networks, and in a few months, was presented to dignitaries at the UN climate change conference in Poland. "You only speak of an eternal green economic growth because you are too afraid of being unpopular," he said.

A month later, he took a train to Davos, Switzerland, slept in a tent and told the rich and powerful that the house was on fire. “Adults continue to say that we must give young people hope. But I don't want your hope. I want them to panic. ”

Greta Thunberg took his poster and protest to Davos, outside the World Economic Forum, in January 2019.

He gave up flying, and instead took an 18-meter sailboat lent by the royalty of Monaco to go to the United States, and although his selfies in the middle of white caps attracted thousands of new followers, he also made it a target of conservative skeptics of The climate crisis "Abnormal yacht accidents happen in August," tweeted Arron Banks, founder of the pro-Brexit Leave campaign.

"For me, that is somehow fun," Thunberg replied with a smile. “It's as if they have no arguments left, so they have to make fun of me or my diagnosis or my appearance. In a way, it is a positive sign that something is happening. They feel threatened by this movement. That means we are making a difference. ”

With "diagnosis" refers to Asperger. Thunberg's mother is a famous singer in Sweden and has written about Greta's place in the spectrum as something like a superpower.

“This makes me work a little differently. I think differently, ”he said. “My diagnosis has definitely helped me maintain this approach. When you are interested in something, you simply continue reading and feel very focused. ”

• A record number of students joins global climate protest

To really read the dense reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) places it in the minority. But it also fuels a fair frustration because you even need to justify your obsession. "It's not because (climate change) is especially interesting," he said, rolling his eyes. "It's a matter of life or death."

In March, almost 1.5 million children in dozens of countries left the classrooms and took to the streets. With protests planned in more than 500 locations in the United States alone on September 20, the Friday for the Future movement could easily double that number.

After joining several of the plaintiffs in the “children of the climate” case in the Juliana v. Case. United States to protest against the Supreme Court, Thunberg will also join 15 other children around the world to file an official complaint with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of children. Demands, treaties, pressure campaigns: she sees everyone as vital tools.

Greta Thunberg makes brief comments during a strike to demand that climate change action be taken outside the White House. (Sarah Silbiger / Getty Images)

“I think we are going to see many points of social inflection, because the distance between what people and media companies and politicians say, compared to what they are doing, the distance between that is increasing. So that increases the absurdity of the situation, ”he said.

"We will try to push it forward and make sure that world leaders have all eyes on them so they cannot continue to ignore this."

Our time is up. David Wallace-Wells is waiting to do the next interview and give him his book "The uninhabitable land." More food for thought.

Thunberg lifted his “Skolstrejk” sign under one arm. The first two cardboard versions of the poster were worn out, so this is made of plywood, fortified to survive a movement that will last a lifetime.

Greta Thunberg