After This Woman Sailed The World With Greta Thunberg, She Exposed What The Activist Is Really Like
Greta Thunberg has made more headlines in recent years than most celebrities could dream of. Whether she's being detained in Germany for attending a protest or shutting down a misogynist on Twitter, the 20-year-old environmental activist seemingly can't help but own the spotlight. But what is Thunberg really like away from the glare of the media? Well, the people who sailed the Atlantic Ocean with the young Swede have revealed all — and their words are certainly enlightening.
You've got a friend in me
Thunberg ended up in a boat with Nikki Henderson, Elayna Carausu, and Riley Whitelum in 2019. The then-teenaged activist had announced in the summer that she would appear at New York’s United Nations Climate Action Summit. But, as a climate activist, she wouldn’t fly to the other side of the Atlantic to attend. So instead, she would make a 15-day trip by boat. All she needed was a bit of help.
A woman on a mission
Thunberg traveled in a 60-foot-long racing yacht, complete with underwater turbines and solar panels. And while in New York, she joined several protests about climate change and showcased her skills as a keynote speaker. In fact, she called out the five countries failing to meet their Paris Agreement targets in reducing emissions. But she wasn't going to stop there.
A desperate need
In November 2019, she again announced plans to set sail to a United Nations summit — this time from Hampton, Virginia, to Chile. However, her plans soon went awry when the UN moved the Climate Change Conference to Spain. Thunberg subsequently took to social media to ask for assistance in getting to Madrid — and that's where Elayna Carausu and Riley Whitelum came in.
Vloggers to the rescue
Carausu and her husband, Riley Whitelum, are two Australian vloggers who had been traveling across the globe on a yacht named La Vagabonde. And they came to Thunberg's rescue. "When we arrived there was, I don't know, thousands of people waiting and then huge amounts of media," Whitelum later told ABC Australia. But they weren't the only ones to answer Thunberg's call for help.
