Book Review: No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference

Reviewed by Keira Kang

Many people worry about the climate crisis and want to drive positive change, but often feel restricted in their inability to influence society and government leaders. That’s how 15-year-old Swede Greta Thunberg felt. Until one day in the fall of 2018, when she decided to take to the streets of Stockholm and march in front of the Parliament building, all alone, urging leaders to act on the climate crisis.

In a matter of weeks, her lonely vigil garnered widespread support from youth and leaders around the world. From the World Economic Forum to the United Nations Climate Change Conference, this book is a collection of eleven powerful speeches made by Greta Thunberg, a now global climate justice activist and Time’s 2019 Person of the Year.

Through her lived struggles with Asperger’s syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder, and autism, Greta shares how her disabilities have gifted her the unique ability to see the climate crisis as a “black and white” issue. Enraged by the hypocrisy of world leaders, Greta fearlessly points to the stark irony of large decision-makers who are aware of temperatures rising, forests burning, and ice caps melting, but intentionally turn a blind eye by continuing to invest in the oil industry.

Urging political figures, global businesspeople, and youth that there are absolutely no grey areas when it comes to climate change, Greta’s message is loud and clear: We must act now, and no one is too small or too powerless to make a difference.