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Teen activist Greta Thunberg arrives in New York by boat, putting ‘climate crisis’ in spotlight

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After a two-week sail across the Atlantic, youth climate activist Greta Thunberg arrived in the Big Apple on Wednesday to take part in two major climate summits to be held at UN Headquarters next month.

Refusing to take a gas-guzzling plane, the Swedish teen decided on a zero-carbon mode of transportation to further bring awareness to the dangers of rising global emissions and pollution caused by human activity.

The @UN has sent out one boat for each of the 17 sustainable development goal to greet us! Thank you! pic.twitter.com/AU5ZSVj5vD Greta Thunberg GretaThunberg

Despite the tight quarters and lack of creature comforts, she sailed with her father, a two-man crew and a cameraperson on the 60-foot Malizia II racing yacht with solar panels and underwater turbines that generated electric power. 

To show appreciation and solidarity for her mission toward a better world by 2030, the UN greeted the sixteen-year-old at the Verrazano Narrows Bridge with a flotilla of 17 sailboats.

“The UN has sent out one boat for each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to greet us!” she tweeted “Thank you!”

“We welcome Ms. Thunberg and wish her a pleasant stay after a long journey across the seas”, Stephane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, told reporters in New York. 

The flotilla met Ms. Thunberg at the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, which links the New York City boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn.

The boats accompanied her to North Cove Harbor in Manhattan to show appreciation and solidarity for her mission to mobilize support for action to achieve SDG 13, on climate action ,as well as the other 16 goals for a better world by 2030, unanimously adopted by world leaders at the UN in 2015.

Transformative youth

“Young people around the world are demanding urgent climate action by all leaders”, said Amina Mohammed , UN Deputy Secretary-General. 

“They are leading the kind of transformative change needed to drastically reduce carbon emissions to protect our planet and ensure the wellbeing of people,” 

Warning that “time is running out”, Ms. Mohammed affirmed that the UN is “proud to host hundreds of young activists and leaders, including Greta, who are answering the Secretary-General’s call to bring solutions to the Youth Climate and the Climate Action Summits”. 

“Our individual and collective actions will transform our world, save lives and ensure a life of dignity for all”, maintained the UN deputy chief.

The Climate Summit aims to mobilize political and economic ambition at the highest levels to advance climate action and enable many of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

A teen’s climate action mission 

Stepping onto dry land for the first time in two weeks, Ms. Thunburg said at a press conference: “I would love not to have to do this and just go to school, but… I want to make a difference”.

Pointing to “the older generation” as causing the climate crisis, she stated that they “should not be saying to us ‘be a normal kid’ [because] we are just trying to clean up after them.”

The young environmental campaigner has been captivating people around the world since she waged a one-girl ‘school strike’ for climate action last August.

At that time, the then 15-year old stood by herself in front of the Swedish Parliament with a demonstration sign, calling for bold climate action. 

As she began drawing media attention, other students followed her lead and began staging similar protests in their own communities. 

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Climate Activist Greta Thunberg, 16, Arrives in New York After Sailing Across the Atlantic

T eenage climate activist Greta Thunberg arrived in New York City on Wednesday after sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to call attention to the need for quick action to save the planet.

Thunberg, a 16-year-old from Sweden, embarked in the racing sailboat Malizia II from Plymouth in the United Kingdom two weeks ago on the trip to the U.S. to attend the United Nations Climate Action Summit, which is scheduled to take place in September at the U.N.’s headquarters in New York.

After disembarking from the vessel at a Manhattan marina, Thunberg was greeted by a crowd of supporters, including a group of fellow high school students carrying homemade signs. The students broke into chants as the sailboat slowly pulled into the marina in Lower Manhattan, including “Sea levels are rising and so are we!” and “There is no Planet B!”

Thunberg seemed a little weary from her journey, but spoke forcefully about climate change. While she doesn’t expect everyone to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a boat like she did, she said that she believes it’s time for people to come together to fight climate change.

“The climate and ecological crisis is a global crisis and the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced,” she said shortly after she stepped on shore. “And if we don’t manage to work together and to cooperate… then we will fail.”

Thunberg said that while she’s hoping to spread the word about climate change, one person isn’t the primary focus of her message––President Donald Trump.

“My message for him is just listen to the science, and he obviously doesn’t do that. As I always say to this question, if no one has been able to convince him about the climate crisis, the urgency, why should I be able to do that?” Thunberg said.

Thunberg launched her campaign for action on climate change just last August, when she sat outside of the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm holding a sign inscribed with the phrase, “Skolstrejk för Klimatet” (School Strike for Climate). In the year since, she helped to organize a March 15 strike believed to have been joined by 1.6 million people in 133 countries; met with world leaders, including Pope Francis; and was nominated for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.

Thunberg has drawn attention to the greenhouse gas emissions caused by air travel. In Sweden, she is credited for the spread of “flygskam”––flight shame––which reports say may have encouraged some Swedes to avoid traveling by plane.

The Malizia II is a 60-foot vessel is designed to be emission-free, and is equipped with solar panels, hydro-generators and an onboard lab for measuring CO2 levels and other information about the surface of the ocean.

The teen set sail two weeks ago with a small group, including her father, Svante Thunberg, and co-skippers Pierre Casiraghi––grandson of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco and Grace Kelly––and professional sailor Boris Herrmann, who has travelled around the world three times and made “countless” journeys across the Atlantic, according to Herrmann’s website .

As the vessel was designed for racing, it was built for speed––but not comfort. Herrmann’s website acknowledges that the boat lacks many amenities, including cooking facilities, a toilet and a shower, although “comfortable mattresses” were added for Thunberg’s voyage.

Several young people said that they had first learned about Thunberg from YouTube, but had been motivated to act because they’ve learned how climate change is impacting people around the world.

Olivia Wohlgemuth, a 16-year-old student at LaGuardia High School, tells TIME that while she’s worried about the future, protesting to raise awareness gives her hope.

“I always feel so hopeful at protests. Climate change can be so bleak and action can be an antidote to that,” Wohlgemuth said.

Several teenagers, including 15-year-old Dwight School student Alessandro Dal Bon, said that Thunberg had been the inspiration for them to get involved with climate activism.

“She’s not afraid of anyone. She’s not afraid of the politicians, she’s not afraid of the businessmen. She just wants to get her message out there. And she’s willing to do anything for that. She’s willing to cross the Atlantic Ocean for 15 days on a small boat to do that. That just shows you how determined she is,” Dal Bon says.

Thunberg thanked the sailboat’s team and said that the trip had been “surprisingly good,” noting that she hadn’t gotten seasick. She said that she would miss feeling “disconnected” from the world during the journey.

“To just sit, literally sit for hours, and just stare at the ocean not doing anything. That was great. And I’m going to miss that a lot,” Thunberg said. “And of course, to be in this wilderness, the ocean, and to see the beauty of it. “

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How eco-warrior Greta Thunberg travels

Climate change activist to sail to US on ‘zero-carbon’ racing yacht to attend key summits

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Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg has found a suitably green way to travel from the UK to the US in order to spread her message - a high-speed racing yacht.

The 16-year-old is taking a sabbatical year from school to focus on her campaigning, but had been puzzling over how to cross the Atlantic to attend two key United Nations climate summits after travelling to Britain by train in April, reports The Times . Thunberg has described the summits - on 23 September in New York and 2-13 December in Santiago, Chile - as “pretty much where our future will be decided”, adds The Guardian .

“It’s on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean,” she said in June. “And there are no trains going there. And since I don’t fly, because of the enormous climate impact of aviation, it’s going to be a challenge.”

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The Stockholm-based teenager, who inspired the Fridays for Future global school climate strike movement, told the Associated Press (AP) that she did not want to travel by cruise ship either, because of their high emissions.

“Taking a boat to North America is basically impossible,” she said. “I have had countless people helping me, trying to contact different boats.”

However, yesterday Thunberg announced on Twitter yesterday that she had accepted “a ride on the 60ft racing boat Malizia II” and will set sail to New York City in mid August.

Based in Brittany and sponsored by the Yacht Club de Monaco, the yacht was built for the 2016-17 single-handed, round-the-world Vendee Globe race and is made with solar panels and underwater turbines, creating zero-carbon electricity.

The club said on its Facebook page that it is “honoured to be able to sail Greta Thunberg emission-free over the Atlantic”.

During the two-week journey, Thunberg will be accompanied by her father, Svante; the yacht’s skipper, Borris Hermann; a filmmaker; and Pierre Casiraghi, the grandson of Monaco’s late Prince Rainier III and US actress Grace Kelly.

After arriving in New York, where she will take part in several meetings and protests, Thunberg aims to travel by train and bus to the annual UN climate conference in the Chilean capital, with stops in Canada, Mexico and other countries.

Her father told the Financial Times in February that the family had bought an electric car and stopped flying when his daughter was 11 years old - a “rule that effectively ended Thunberg’s opera-singer mother’s international career”, notes the newspaper.

But while increasing numbers of people worldwide are following their lead in adopting greener lifestyles, Thunberg told AP that she is not sure how her message will be received in the US. Meeting with President Donald Trump, who opposes the radical measures that scientists say are required to limit global warming, would be “just a waste of time”, she added.

“I have nothing to say to him,” she continued. “He obviously doesn’t listen to the science and the scientists. So why should I, a child with no proper education, be able to convince him?”

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The inside story of Greta Thunberg’s upwind Atlantic crossing on La Vagabonde

• February 13, 2020

To sail climate activist Greta Thunberg across the Atlantic – eastbound – aboard La Vagabonde was the voyage of a lifetime for skipper Nikki Henderson. She shares the inside story

Photos: Elayna Carausu / Nikki Henderson

The sea was ominously flat. Not that I could see it – except during those electric illuminations – and I wasn’t sure how windy it was. We had isolated the batteries and switched off power to the boat in case of an electrical strike , so the anemometer screen was blank, along with the rest of our instruments, but I judged it was blowing 40 or 45 knots.

Then the rain started. It was torrential; driving horizontally but also sliding off the sail above me, and blinding me. The light of my head torch was the only visual thing keeping the boat going in the right direction as I intermittently shone it down at my feet to where the compass was located. “Riley, let’s furl – now.” I paused for what felt like a few minutes, but was more likely a few seconds, “Like NOW, now!”

The crew had to contend with serious North Atlantic seas… but did enjoy some fast boatspeeds

It was that feeling where the wind increases, and you know it’s stronger than you have felt all night. I could feel nature’s pressure on the back of my legs, and the wind must have been in the high 40 knots, maybe even 50. The boat was flying. Another flash came, lighting up the sky just long enough for me to see the towers of water surging up either side of us as we carved through the water.

“This is ****ing amazing! This boat flies. We must have hit 20 knots,” I screamed at Riley, as shouting was the only way he could possibly hear me. He ran forward and furled the headsail. The furling line had broken earlier that day, and we had tied it together temporarily meaning Riley could only furl by pulling the line right at the drum and tying it to the bow cleat. We both regretted not fixing that line earlier in the day.

When he came back to the cockpit the wind was already subsiding and the rain had stopped. I was on a total high, ready to increase canvas again. “Make that call earlier next time, Nik,” he said. I felt put out, and must have showed it. “Nik, my kid is down there.” I thought of baby Lenny, and Greta. It was one of the most grounding moments of my life. When I had first discussed this trip with Riley I had described it as “bigger than any of us.” Those words suddenly felt very, very real.

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How did we get here?

In the autumn of 2019, Greta Thunberg, 16, and currently the most famous teenager in the world, was in the United States, having sailed across the Atlantic on the IMOCA 60 Malizia for the UN Climate Action Summit. She planned to travel on to Chile for the 2019 meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, known as COP25.

But civil unrest in the country meant the event moved at short notice: back to Europe. Thunberg was looking for a solution that didn’t involve an aeroplane. On 1 November 2019 Thunberg sent out a tweet from Los Angeles: “As COP25 has officially been moved from Santiago to Madrid I’ll need some help… to find a way to cross the Atlantic in November.”

Thirteen days later she left Virginia, USA, on La Vagabonde . This 48ft Outremer performance cruising catamaran is a liveaboard yacht owned by Riley Whitelum and Elayna Carausu, creators of the La Vagabonde YouTube channel . Along with their 11-month-old son Lenny, they came to the rescue. “I hear a certain young girl needs a ride across the Atlantic,” was Whitelum’s typically laid-back offer.

Appreciating the risks associated with the North Atlantic, and their precious cargo of baby Lenny, and 2019 Time’s Person of the Year Greta Thunberg, the couple contacted professional sailors in search of someone to bolster the crew.

“Nikki, meet Greta” read the message on the group chat that was started late in the evening on Thursday 7 November. We talked and talked, and two days after that first text I met Greta for real. We arranged to meet outside Norfolk, VA airport, next to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s electric car. The Governator had lent Greta and her father, Svante, his car as a green method of transportation while on their US tour.

In my bag were three sets of foul weather gear to share around, a drysuit, a medical kit, a paper chart portfolio, a handheld GPS and minimal personal belongings. Six strangers came together, prepared a yacht for a 3,000-mile ocean passage, informed the world’s media of our plan and swiftly set sail. It felt like we were trying to prove the impossible possible.

Social experiment

Preparing for an ocean voyage is always stressful. Going to sea is always a challenge. Sailing with strangers is always a bit of a voyage into the unknown. This trip was like some epic social experiment: two Swedes, two Australians, one baby, and a Brit. Two fathers, one daughter, a mother and baby, a captain: and a skipper. A climate activist, an ex-rigger, a semi-retired actor, a team boss, social media influencers, introverts and extroverts, leaders and followers.

Skipper Nikki and Greta, Time Person of the Year 2019

We were united by one steadfast purpose; to cross 3,000 miles of North Atlantic ocean, and one deadline; Greta was due to speak at the COP25, so we had four weeks to compete the voyage. We were motivated by more fluid incentives. Greta to continue raising awareness about the climate emergency, Svante to support and protect his daughter, Riley and Elayna to support the climate movement, experience an adventure and capture it on videos. Lenny had no choice.

As for myself? I wrote down my thoughts at the time: “It was one of those moments in life that takes you by surprise. Where you have to look inside your heart to think what is right.

“To get to know the person behind the shell, the voice that the world is listening to, is such an opportunity. To have the chance to help her on her journey is remarkable. The greatest opportunity is spiritual: I will get to know someone who will inspire me.”

Heading west to east across the North Atlantic in November on a sailboat is not a recommended place to be. Even the pharmacist in Virginia commented on it while he was helping me find ear ointment that was suitable for a baby. “Conditions this year aren’t great, you know. You make sure you check the weather now…”

He had the right idea. In the winter, statistically there is a high risk of severe depressions or tropical storms. These strong fronts can pack quite a punch in wind speeds and sea state.

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Conflicting aims
• 3. Greta at sea

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Greta Thunberg Sets Sail For Home — And The U.N. Climate Conference

Laurel Wamsley

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg waves aboard the catamaran La Vagabonde as she sets sail for Europe from Hampton, Va., on Wednesday. Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg waves aboard the catamaran La Vagabonde as she sets sail for Europe from Hampton, Va., on Wednesday.

Two and a half months after she arrived in New York Harbor, Greta Thunberg set sail back to Europe.

The 16-year-old Swede's visit to the U.S. was a barnstorming tour for our time: She had demanded of world leaders at the United Nations, "You all come to us young people for hope. How dare you?" She had marched alongside millions in the Global Climate Strike. She had rallied with thousands of fellow students in places like Iowa City . She had stood with Native American activists at Standing Rock .

And she experienced life in the U.S., a country she says plays an "incredibly important" role in fighting climate change.

"You are such a big country," she told NPR in September. "In Sweden, when we demand politicians to do something, they say, 'It doesn't matter what we do — because just look at the U.S.'

"I think you have an enormous responsibility" to lead climate efforts, she added. "You have a moral responsibility to do that."

With her steely gaze and unwavering push to make the world's adults take the necessary steps to avert further climate disaster, Thunberg has touched off a global movement with young people at the forefront.

She is now both celebrity and oracle, ascending to worldwide notice since her first "school strike for climate" in August 2018, when she protested outside Sweden's parliament instead of going to class.

She had intended to make her way to Chile for the next round of U.N. climate talks, but unrest there spurred the COP25 annual climate conference to move from Santiago to Madrid.

But she couldn't just get a different flight: Thunberg won't fly, because of air travel's outsize emissions. She needed to find a boat going her way.

She put out a request on Twitter : "It turns out I've traveled half around the world, the wrong way:) Now I need to find a way to cross the Atlantic in November... If anyone could help me find transport I would be so grateful."

November isn't exactly prime sailing season in the North Atlantic, but up popped a reply from an Australian man named Riley Whitelum: "Greta it's Riley here from Sailing La Vagabonde. If you get in contact with me I'm sure we could organise something."

Turns out, Whitelum and Elayna Carausu have a catamaran, a baby and a million subscribers following their #boatlife on YouTube .

For the next few weeks, the world's most famous climate activist will be a part of it.

So happy to say I'll hopefully make it to COP25 in Madrid. I’ve been offered a ride from Virginia on the 48ft catamaran La Vagabonde. Australians @Sailing_LaVaga ,Elayna Carausu & @_NikkiHenderson from England will take me across the Atlantic. We sail for Europe tomorrow morning! pic.twitter.com/qJcgREe332 — Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) November 12, 2019

La Vagabonde is outfitted with solar panels and hydro-generators , so it has a minimal carbon footprint. Thunberg had sailed from Europe to New York on a boat, though unlike that vessel, this catamaran has a toilet.

The voyage is expected to take two to four weeks, and Thunberg hopes to reach Spain in time for the climate conference taking place Dec. 2 to 13. The boat's location can be tracked online .

As the catamaran set sail Wednesday morning from Hampton, Va., temperatures were in the 30s, and Thunberg and her fellow sailors — including her father, who traveled with her — were bundled against the cold.

Thunberg showed her typical aplomb before taking to the high seas.

"I'm looking forward to it," she told the AP, "just to be able to get away and recap everything and to just be disconnected."

She had one more message for Americans: Vote.

"We must realize this is a crisis, and we must do what we can now to spread awareness about this and to put pressure on the people in power," she told The Guardian . "The U.S. has an election coming up soon, and it's very important that for everyone who can vote, vote."

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Greta Thunberg wraps up 15-day carbon-free voyage to New York City

She made the journey to call attention to climate change ahead of a united nations summit.

By Justine Calma , a senior science reporter covering climate change, clean energy, and environmental justice with more than a decade of experience. She is also the host of Hell or High Water: When Disaster Hits Home, a podcast from Vox Media and Audible Originals.

Share this story

Teen climate sensation Greta Thunberg has made it to New York City after her 15-day voyage by yacht from Plymouth, England. 

After disembarking to a cheering crowd in lower Manhattan, Thunberg opened a press conference saying, “Well all of this is overwhelming.”

“The trip was surprisingly good. I did not feel sea sick once,” Thunberg said. 

Thunberg made the trip across the Atlantic to attend a United Nations climate summit taking place in September — and she did it without leaving a carbon footprint. She traveled aboard the Malizia II, which has its own solar panels and hydro-generators to power the yacht. (Her journey did spark some criticism for the emissions associated with it because others will fly to New York to bring the yacht back to Europe, although those flights will reportedly be offset.)

Thunberg has become a leading figure among young activists

Sixteen-year-old Thunberg has incited students across the globe to strike for the climate. She started skipping school to protest climate inaction outside Swedish Parliament in August 2018. Since then, tens of thousands of young people have joined in on the movement, walking out of class on coordinated “Fridays for the Future.”

Thunberg has become a leading figure among young activists concerned that they will bear the brunt of the climate crisis created by generations before them. Realizing the future ahead of her, Thunberg told the crowd gathered in Manhattan that she became depressed at 11 years old. “I got out of that depression by promising that I’m going to do everything I can to change things. I started going to marches and demonstrations,” Thunberg said.

Thunberg said that she will miss the “peace and quiet” she had sailing across the Atlantic, but is looking forward to being dry, and eating food that isn’t freeze-dried after two weeks at sea. She has another journey ahead of her later this year: traveling to Santiago, Chile by bus, train, and boat for another United Nations climate conference in December.

In the meantime, she’ll be gearing up for the UN summit in New York in September. She told the gathered crowd that she planned to “make sure that world leaders have all eyes on them during this conference — so they cannot continue to ignore this.”

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Activist Greta Thunberg reaches New York after sailing across the Atlantic

By Brian Pascus

Updated on: August 28, 2019 / 11:59 PM EDT / CBS News

Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg arrived in New York City on Wednesday after traveling across the Atlantic Ocean in a zero-emission yacht. She is attending several events in the city next month, including the U.N. General Assembly, U.N. Youth Summit on Climate and the Climate Action Summit.

She stepped foot on land just after 4 p.m. and the 16-year-old then addressed reporters. She said "everyone always asks about Donald Trump — 'Listen to the science' and he obviously does not do that. If no one has been able to convince him about the climate crisis and the urgency, why would I be able to?" 

Thunberg, looking slightly embarrassed, said "all of this is very overwhelming" of the crowd who welcomed her to Manhattan. Though she encountered some rough seas, she said her trip across the Atlantic wasn't as uncomfortable as she expected, according to The Associated Press. Thunberg mentioned that she didn't get seasick once, but said "this is not something I want everyone to do. 

"It is insane that a 16-year-old would have to cross the Atlantic Ocean to make a stand," she said. "The climate and ecological crisis is a global crisis, the biggest crisis that humanity has ever faced, and if we don't manage to work together and to cooperate and to work together despite our differences, then we will fail."

Thunberg, used the boat to raise awareness to the greenhouse gases emitted by the use of commercial airplanes. She tweeted that her vessel, named Malizia II, was anchored off Coney Island on Wednesday morning and that they were "clearing immigration and customs."

As Thunberg arrived in New York, she took time to tweet some images:

Manhattan! pic.twitter.com/8SxPYk2WRk — Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) August 28, 2019

The United Nations welcomed Thunberg with a flotilla of 17 sailboats — each branded with an icon from its Sustainable Development Goals:

The @UN has sent out one boat for each of the 17 sustainable development goal to greet us! Thank you! pic.twitter.com/AU5ZSVj5vD — Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) August 28, 2019

Thunberg's yacht had no kitchen, no heating, no fridge and no bathroom. The vessel generated electricity through solar panels and wind turbines. Thunberg documented parts of her journey on Twitter, where she included videos of the high seas, photos of herself and the crew, and short commentaries about climate change.

On Day Four, she described conditions on Malizia II "like camping on a roller coaster." Some of her videos even demonstrated the difficult conditions her crew experienced while on the journey.

Day 12. We are getting closer to the North American mainland. Rough conditions, but downwind sailing. pic.twitter.com/n9huwHUSGI — Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) August 25, 2019

Thunberg recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of the start of her  climate change  movement. Last August, she began striking alone outside the Swedish parliament, and soon, students around the world began walking out of school, demanding action from their governments. She's been called "the voice of the planet," and has even been  nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize . 

While she's here in the U.S., Greta will participate in two global climate strikes in addition to attending the U.N.'s Youth Summit on Climate on September 21 and Climate Action Summit on September 23. It's unclear how she plans to eventually travel back home.

Pamela Falk and Peter Martinez contributed to this report.

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Greta Thunberg crossed the ocean on a carbon-free sailboat. Can we do it too?

To build a transatlantic ferry that's cheap, clean, and quick, we'll need to, well, build a better boat.

By Steve Fletcher/The Conversation | Published Aug 29, 2019 4:00 PM EDT

• Environment

I have travelled from Plymouth, England, to the UN headquarters in New York many times, often to discuss how to protect the oceans from climate change. The deeply uncomfortable irony was that the carbon emitted on my fossil fuel-powered journey directly contributed to the problem I was there to solve.

Greta Thunberg’s decision to travel the exact same journey to the UN Climate Action Summit on state-of-the-art sailing boat Malizia II shows that there are principled alternatives. But is there a way for the rest of us to cross the Atlantic without taking to the skies?

Thunberg’s 14-day voyage was significantly faster than the typical sail time of three to four weeks, but that’s still not for anyone in a rush. Speed comes at the cost of comfort, too. Pictures from inside Malizia II show a pared-down interior, even lacking a functional toilet on board. Such extreme measures are unlikely to interest most travelers and, at any rate, hopping on one of the world’s fastest wind-powered yachts isn’t an option for most of us.

But sailing is a more feasible option than you might think. Private boats cross the ocean constantly. New online services that match boat owners with travelers mean that hitching a ride is more plausible than ever. For those with the right skills, this could be as a member of the boat’s crew, and for those without, as a passenger. Some boats require payment; others don’t.

Malizia 2 is fitted with solar panels and hydro generators making it one of the very few ships in the world allowing trips like this to be emission free. Malizia 2 also has an onboard lab to measure ocean surface CO2 and water temperature in cooperation with Max Planck institute. pic.twitter.com/XKCDgaRYZt — Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) August 22, 2019

The market is changing, too. Companies such as UK-based VoyageVert are actively exploring opportunities to develop sail-powered oceanic travel for groups of up to 200 people and envisage a fleet of transoceanic sail-powered passenger vessels. Traveling in such a way would drastically cut the carbon cost of crossing the Atlantic—though it’s not likely to be cheap. For climate-conscious travelers with time—and probably money—to spare, sailing is the only way to travel.

A transatlantic ferry service?

But what about travel for the masses? A potentially quicker and more cost-effective alternative would be to take a ferry. Many countries are connected by ferries, but a transatlantic ferry service does not yet exist—largely because of plentiful, faster, and cheaper flights. The closest alternative is to take a seven-day voyage in a cruise ship, which would set you back around $2,070 for a basic cabin and a return ticket.

This isn’t exactly cheap, nor will it save much on your carbon footprint. Cruise vessels are one of the most energy-intensive of all tourism activities, emitting significant quantities of greenhouse gases and health-damaging pollutants including nitrous oxide, sulphur dioxide, and particulate matter. In fact, the carbon dioxide generated per passenger in a standard-class cabin on a seven-day cruise aboard a large modern vessel is approximately 1.5 times that of a single economy flight between London and New York.

Admittedly, some of these emissions will be from the many activities on the ship rather than fuel and basic power consumption. An alternative ferry service with many of the luxuries of the cruise ship experience stripped away would be more climate-friendly, though by how much is difficult to say as ferry companies don’t routinely disclose carbon emissions. And the isolation of a seven-day oceanic journey with few activities may not appeal to many travelers.

But the carbon cost of these journeys should come down significantly in the next 20 years. The traditional reliance of vessels on heavy fuel oil , which creates air pollution and contributes to climate heating, is reducing. Thanks to new International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations to substantially reduce air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions from ships in the next decade, greener fuels are slowly coming into use.

Like cars, hybrid vessels combining conventional engines with batteries are also becoming increasingly common. Cruise companies are considering even greater use of battery power in response to the new 2020 regulations, as well as to minimize pollution in the sensitive environments many of their boats disturb, such as coral reefs and fjords.

Other technologies such as solar collectors, conventional sails, and keel-mounted turbines are increasingly contributing to the propulsion, electricity, and heating of ships. My estimate is that collectively, these technologies could reduce carbon emissions by as much as 50 percent over the next 20 years.

But while these innovations will reduce both carbon emissions and damaging air pollution from vessels, if anything they’re likely to increase travel time. As such, transatlantic surface travel is likely to remain of limited appeal, even if prices become more affordable.

Hydrofoil technology that lifts a vessel’s hull out of water—thereby reducing drag and increasing speed—does have the potential to significantly reduce journey times. But for this to affect transatlantic crossings, the size and weight of ocean-going vessels would need to tumble, which means using much lighter materials that either don’t yet exist or are cost prohibitive.

Until then, journey time will remain the primary barrier to low-carbon ocean travel. For now, the only answer for most of us wanting to minimize our impact on the planet is to minimize how much we travel across it—especially when it comes to crossing vast expanses of water.

Steve Fletcher is a Professor of Ocean Policy and Economy, University of Portsmouth. This article was originally featured on The Conversation .

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Greta Thunberg sets sail for New York on zero-carbon yacht

Climate activist begins voyage from Plymouth to Trump’s US with father and two-man crew

On white-crested swells under leaden skies, the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has set sail from Plymouth on arguably her most daunting challenge yet.

A two-week crossing of the Atlantic during hurricane season in a zero-carbon yacht – harnessing wind, sun, and hydro power – is the first obstacle. But it is unlikely to be the toughest in an odyssey through the Americas over many months.

This will be both the ultimate gap year and a journey into the heart of climate darkness: first to the United States of president Donald Trump, who has promised to pull out of the Paris climate agreement , and then down to South America, possibly including Brazil where president Jair Bolsonaro is overseeing a surge of Amazon deforestation .

In between, the 16-year-old Swede will add her increasingly influential voice to appeals for deeper emissions cuts at two crucial global gatherings: the Climate Action Summit in New York on 23 September and the the UN climate conference in Santiago in early December.

The reception awaiting her on the other side is likely to be mixed, with the climate issue a polarising point in US politics.

In a taste of the hostility that is likely to come from supporters of the fossil fuel industry, Steve Milloy, a Fox News contributor and former member of the Trump transition team, described Thunberg on Twitter earlier this week as “the ignorant teenage climate puppet”.

The young founder of the school climate strike movement appeared unfazed in a quayside press conference before she boarded the vessel. “There’ll always be people who don’t understand or accept the science. I’ll ignore them,” she said. “Climate delayers want to shift the focus from the climate crisis to something else. I won’t worry about that. I’ll do what I need.”

Speaking to a throng of several dozen reporters from around the world, she said her primary goal was to raise awareness among the public about the climate emergency. “People (need to) come together and put pressure on people in power so they have to do something,” she said.

Asked if she will meet Donald Trump , the teenager said it would be a waste of time because the US president hasn’t been persuaded by the experts he has already spoken to. “I’m not that special. I can’t convince everyone,” she said.

The voyage is a demonstration of her declared values, which revolve around reducing emissions. A flight to New York would have been much quicker, but it would pump close to 1,000kg of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Conventional cruise ships often have an even bigger footprint.

Instead, Thunberg – along with her father, a cameraman and a two-man crew – are taking a zero carbon option.

The Malizia II is an 18 metre (60ft) racing yacht that was built for round-the-world challenges and has just completed the Fastnet race, which runs every two years. While the wind propels it, the vessel generates the power for lighting and communication through solar panels and underwater turbines. The racing team have removed sponsorship logos from the hull and emblazoned Greta’s slogan “Unite Behind the Science” on the mainsail.

The yacht is designed for speed rather than luxury so conditions will range from basic to difficult. There is no toilet or shower on the boat, only blue plastic buckets. Inside the cabins the lights are dim so Thunberg will need a headlamp or torch to read and keep her journal. Internet access is also likely to be patchy, so her 883,000 Twitter followers may have to wait longer than usual for updates via satellite phone. Her diet will be freeze-dried vegan meals – she has given up meat, which is a major source of emissions.

The young Swede is braced for sea sickness. Although the waves were small as she left Mayflower Marina in Plymouth , she will be fortunate if they remain that way. August is part of the hurricane season in the Atlantic. Even in moderate swells, the vessel is noisy and bumpy.

The experienced German captain, Boris Hermann, said the 3,500 nautical mile journey would demonstrate that it is possible to cope without fossil fuels and get closer to nature. “I want to show that this can be positive and exciting,” he said. “And that solidarity with Greta is not limited to eco-activists.”

Thunberg accepts that solar yachts are not for everyone but says she is taking the opportunity to demonstrate there are alternatives. “I don’t tell people what to do. People can do what they want.”

The journey marks a new stage in the remarkable rise of the young Swede, who was unknown outside of her family and school until she started a climate strike last August. She has been diagnosed with Aspergers and has at various times experienced depression, anxiety and selective mutism. Today, however, she has become the spokesperson for the global climate movement and its most recognisable face.

Her Fridays for Future campaign has now mobilised more than a million students across the globe. She has been invited to UN summits, feted at the World Economic Forum in Davos , nominated for the Nobel peace prize , collaborated on a song with the band the 1975 , appeared on the cover of countless magazines and been credited with injecting new life into the climate movement.

Last month, the head of the trillion-dollar Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) described the campaign by Greta and others as the greatest threat to the fossil fuel industry.

“Some things are actually changing, like the mindsets of people. It’s not fast enough, but it’s something,” she said.

The scale of the movement will be tested on 20 September, when Thunberg and others have called for a global general strike for the climate.

By that time Thunberg should be in the US, where she plans to meet the UN secretary general, António Guterres, as well as US politicians. She has been promised a warm welcome from the congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with whom she has already discussed strategies to raise climate ambitions and mobilise campaigners.

Supporters hope Thunberg’s 12 months off school will be a world-changing gap year. After the US, Thunberg will head south to the UN climate summit in Santiago. Asked if she would also visit Brazil, Thunberg was vague. “I’ll travel around the whole continent,” she said. “I’m taking it step by step … I’ll travel for I don’t know how long. I want it to be loose. Not a tight schedule so that it can change as time goes by.” That includes the return voyage. “I don’t know yet how I will get home.”

As she walked towards the yacht in her black waterproofs, there were cheers, applause and cries of “Safe journey.” By the time the vessel pulled into the harbour, the skies cleared, and better weather is forecast this evening and next week

On Tuesday, Thunberg will pass the first-year anniversary of her campaign in the middle of the Atlantic. “I will see how I will celebrate. I don’t know yet. I will think about it,” she said. “I think it will be quite an adventure.”

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Greta Thunberg's environmentally friendly sailing adventure no pleasure cruise

The teenage climate activist will set sail wednesday from england to new york to attend environment conference.

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Greta Thunberg's two-week voyage to the United States will be no pleasure cruise.

The 16-year-old climate change activist, who has inspired student protests around the world, will leave Plymouth, England on Wednesday, bound for New York in a high-tech, but decidedly low-comfort sailboat.

Highlighting the urgency of cutting carbon emissions, the young Swede last month announced that while she would not fly to environmental conferences, she had found a way to get there without hurting the planet.

Pierre Casiraghi, the grandson of Monaco's late Prince Rainier III and American actress Grace Kelly, and fellow yachtsman Boris Herrmann offered her passage on a racing yacht as she travels to UN climate summits next month in New York and in Santiago in December.

"It's not very luxurious, it's not very fancy, but I don't need that. I need only a bed and just the basic things," Thunberg told The Associated Press. "So I think it will be fun, and I also think it will be fun to be isolated and not be so limited."

Sailing on the 18-metre Malizia II, outfitted with solar panels and underwater turbines to generate electricity, Thunberg will make a zero-carbon transatlantic journey.

But to call it a no-frills passage would be an understatement. The sailboat is built for high-speed, offshore racing, with weight kept to a minimum. The only alterations for the voyage are fitting curtains in front of the bunk and adding mattresses for comfort. There is no toilet or fixed shower. There's a small gas cooker and the food will be freeze dried.

Inside, the yacht resembles the interior of a tin can. It is dark and grey, with no windows below deck.

Herrmann, the boat's skipper, will take turns with Casiraghi steering the craft. He described life on board as a mixture of camping and sailing, with a thin mattress and sleeping bag the only comforts.

"It's a very simple life and then the rest of the day depends on the wind," Herrmann told The Associated Press. "It can be calm and smooth, and going along and you can read a book, or it can be really rough and you hold on and try to fight seasickness, and can be really hard."

Casiraghi's and Herrmann's Team Malizia was founded to sail the biggest ocean races — the Vendee Globe 2020 and the Ocean Race 2021. They also developed the Malizia Ocean challenge, a science and education project aimed at teaching children about climate change and the ocean. Their vessel has an onboard sensor that tracks carbon dioxide levels in seawater, a measure of how atmospheric carbon is changing the oceans.

Leaves school to highlight climate change

Thunberg became a global celebrity last year when she refused to go to school in the weeks before Sweden's general election to highlight the impact of climate change and put pressure on politicians to do something about it.

She continued her school strike on Fridays after the election, spurring thousands of young people around the world to follow suit. Since then, she has met the Pope, spoken at Davos and attended anti-coal protests in Germany.

She is now taking a year off school to attend the events in North and South America, and meet with some of the people most affected by climate change. She decided not to fly to New York because of the emissions caused by air travel and plans to use the least carbon-intensive methods of travel available as she continues her trip.

"By this journey I hope to increase awareness among people, to spread information and communicate the science about what is really going on so people can understand what is really going on with the climate and ecological crisis," she said. "That is what I am hoping to achieve with everything, and that will also lead to international opinions so that people come together and put pressure on the people in power so that they will have to do something."

Rising levels of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, are already increasing global temperatures, according to the UN. This will lead to shifting weather patterns that threaten food production and rising sea levels, though scientists hope that by curbing emissions catastrophic consequences can be avoided.

• 5 ways to make air travel greener

Thunberg will be accompanied on her transatlantic voyage by her father, Svante, and filmmaker Nathan Grossman of B-Reel Films, who will document the journey. She has brought audio books and has notebooks to fill.

Beyond that, everything depends on the wind.

• Greta Thunberg, teen climate activist, sailing from Europe to U.S.

The Atlantic Ocean in hurricane season can be a rocky place. Herrmann plans a southern route since three of the five sailors on board have no experience. During a trial run in Plymouth Sound on Monday, Thunberg said she was seasick for "five minutes" when the boat stood still.

"Of course, I will be a little bit seasick," she said. "But I don't think I will be very seasick."

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Greta Thunberg’s Slow Boat to New York

By Emily Witt

In “ Moby-Dick ,” Ishmael says that “whenever it is a damp, drizzly November of the soul,” when the impulse to knock people’s hats off for no reason gets too strong, it is time to take to the sea. Melville described men “posted like silent sentinels” at the edges of Manhattan, “fixed in ocean reveries.” Last Wednesday, in drizzly August, a crowd of two hundred or so waited at the North Cove Marina, in lower Manhattan, for the arrival of Greta Thunberg , the sixteen-year-old climate activist from Sweden.

There were reasons to “start growing grim about the mouth,” as Melville put it: the Amazon rain forest was on fire; glaciers were calving into the sea; Tropical Storm Dorian was gathering strength in the Caribbean; scientists were trying to artificially inseminate the last two northern white rhinos on earth ; there was lead in the water in Newark. The Endangered Species Act had been gutted , and the E.P.A. had announced new protections not for air or water but for marine diesel engines.

Last year, Thunberg began striking by skipping school every Friday to protest government inaction on climate change, inspiring kids around the world to do the same. On August 14th, she departed from Plymouth, England, on the Malizia II, an emission-free sailboat, to attend a climate summit at the United Nations on September 23rd. (She avoids airplanes, which are among the worst sources of carbon emissions.) During the two-week journey, she had posted several dispatches on Twitter. Early Wednesday morning, she documented her first sighting of the dim lights of New York. “Land!!” she wrote. After clearing customs and immigration while anchored off Coney Island, she waited on the boat for the incoming tide. With no engine, the Malizia had to rely on natural forces to propel it to its landing place.

By 1:30 p.m. , a crowd of supporters and international media had assembled at the Malizia’s berth, alongside a gleaming mega-yacht called the Gran Finale. “We’re here to give her a warm welcome to our city,” Spencer Berg, a freckled sixteen-year-old, said. He wore a pin that read “There is no planet B.” Berg, who has organized strikes at his school, credited Thunberg with changing his outlook: he used to be “really mad and depressed about climate change”; now he was “mad and active about climate change.”

On the dock, people turned to the mouth of the Hudson, waiting for the Malizia’s dark sails to materialize out of the gloom. “You can see the Statue of Liberty now, the haze is clearing,” a silver-haired woman said. She wore a pin that read “Granny Peace Brigade.” “I love the life I’ve had, and I love all the creatures,” she said. “It’s our responsibility to be part of this amazing world.” A fourteen-year-old named Alexandria Villaseñor, who has been striking at the U.N. every Friday, had come to greet the boat. She had been exchanging messages with Thunberg, who advised her to bring a sleeping bag and a thermos to each strike when it’s cold. At school, she has arranged to get the assignments she misses from her teachers. “My generation will be so affected to the point where school won’t matter anymore, because we’re running from the next disaster,” she said.

At two-thirty, Thunberg posted a photograph of herself with the New York skyline behind her. A shriek of delight went up. A little girl with a flower crown worthy of a pagan ritual waved a “Welcome Greta!” sign. A woman gave out posters of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals. “I’ve got industry, peace and justice, decent work,” she said.

“Do you have gender equality?” a demonstrator asked.

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“I have reduced inequality,” the woman offered.

Finally, the thin black line of a sail, tacking slowly back and forth toward the Statue of Liberty, was visible. “Hey, everyone, we see Greta’s boat!” an activist could be heard live-streaming. The youngsters sang a song: “We’re going to strike because the waters are rising. We’re going to strike because the people are dying.”

The boat took more than an hour to make its way to port, in what felt like a very nineteenth-century setting for a very twenty-first-century problem. The Malizia was escorted by a candy-colored flotilla of seventeen small boats whose sails listed each of the U.N.’s goals. Jet Skis and ferry boats made oblivious circles around the little fleet. “Listen to the proof, you owe it to the youth,” the crowd chanted. The boat passed Ellis Island, and soon the words “Unite Behind the Science” could be seen on one sail. A small silhouette on the prow lifted its arm and waved. The crowd cheered and waved back.

As the Malizia drifted in to dock, Thunberg could be observed watching the approach. She wore Crocs and a black waterproof sailing outfit, which had “Greta” printed on the back and “G. Thunberg” on the front. Her hair was in a single braid. She had brought her hand-painted school strike sign all the way from Sweden. It seemed like an occasion where the Mayor should be present, or a brass band, or dignitaries bearing a fruit basket, but no official delegation welcomed Thunberg. She stepped off the boat and onto a floating dock, then ascended a ramp to a stage, where she faced rows of news cameras and handheld phones beaming her arrival around the world. She stood with a placid expression, her hands folded in front of her. The boat’s captain summarized the journey in a clipped German accent, using nautical terminology. “We are extremely relieved that this has all worked out exactly as planned,” he said.

When it was her turn, Thunberg spoke in the precise and measured language for which she has become known. “It is insane that a sixteen-year-old had to cross the Atlantic Ocean to make a stand,” she observed. She reported that not once had she been seasick. She gave words of encouragement to her fellow-activists. She said that after participating in the U.N. strikes she will travel by “trains, buses, and probably even sailing” to Chile, for another U.N. climate conference. A reporter asked what she would miss about being on the water.

“To not have contact with anyone, and to just not have anything you have to do, and to just literally sit for hours and stare at the ocean, not doing anything,” she said. “To be in this wilderness, the ocean, and see the beauty of it—that I am also going to miss.” Then she returned to the boat to get her things. ♦

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Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is sailing to America amid a storm of online attacks

Two days into her transatlantic voyage aboard a hyper-efficient sailing yacht, 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg is already weathering rough seas — and a deluge of online attacks.

The Swedish teenager set sail Wednesday on her nearly 3,000-mile trip from Plymouth, England, to New York, where she plans to attend the United Nations Climate Action Summit in September.

Thunberg is making the journey aboard the 60-foot, carbon-neutral Malizia II sailboat to avoid flying. Air travel emits as much carbon dioxide annually as some of the world’s major economies, according to Tristan Smith, a lecturer at University College London’s Energy Institute. Cruise ships are also significant emitters.

A sailboat journey is an unusual method of cross-continental transportation in the 21st century, and Thunberg’s trip has drawn attention from across the world. Fans are cheering Thunberg on and tracking her progress. Critics, meanwhile, have been ruthlessly derisive.

We are on our way! Leaving Plymouth and heading for New York. Follow our journey here https://t.co/qJn5ShWQbB pic.twitter.com/U2Lbv3Xgzs — Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) August 14, 2019

Arron Banks, a British businessman who has bankrolled the Brexit campaign, mused on Twitter about a calamity befalling the teenage voyager.

“Freak yachting accidents do happen in August …” he wrote.

Banks’s comments drew a swift backlash from British politicians and celebrities. Green Party M ember of Parliament Caroline Lucas, whose encouraging words to Thunberg prompted Banks’s tweet, said the Brexit-backer’s message “makes me sick to the stomach."

“I have made a formal complaint to Twitter,” she wrote.

Freak yachting accidents do happen in August ... https://t.co/6CPePHYLtu — Arron Banks (@Arron_banks) August 14, 2019

British actress Amanda Abbington also rallied behind Thunberg.

“If you are a grown up, fully-fledged adult and you are mocking this young girl for trying to save the planet then I genuinely feel sorry for you,” she wrote on Twitter . “I also think you are incredibly cruel, vicious and ignorant.”

Banks defended himself by saying that his tweet “was a joke,” adding “you lefties have no sense of humour.”

“Obviously I don’t hope she encounters a freak yachting accident!” he wrote, adding that Thunberg was “being used,” though he did not specify by whom.

Thunberg is no stranger to criticism. The teenager has emerged as one of the world’s most prominent voices on climate action after her school strikes in Stockholm inspired youth around the world to demand that global leaders address climate change. Thunberg was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in March.

While celebrated by many, her fame has also exposed her to vigorous opposition.

Conservative French politicians mocked Thunberg when she spoke to French lawmakers last month as a “prophetess in shorts.”

Steve Milloy, a former member of President Trump’s transition team, described her last week as “a teenage puppet.”

Thunberg has appeared undeterred, however, telling her critics last month “we become the bad guys who have to tell people these uncomfortable things because no one else wants to, or dares to.”

She has also vowed to ignore climate change skeptics.

“Climate delayers want to shift the focus from the climate crisis to something else. I won’t worry about that. I’ll do what I need,” she told reporters at a news conference ahead of her trip.

Thunberg hasn’t responded to the latest wave of criticism Wednesday. Internet access aboard the Malizia II is limited, although she was able to share a progress update Thursday on Twitter.

Day 2. 100 nautical miles west of Cape Finisterre. A very bumpy night but I slept surprisingly well. Some dolphins showed up and swam along the boat last night! pic.twitter.com/gsvs49BFJe — Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) August 15, 2019

Thunberg is making the journey with her father, Svante, and a small team: Boris Herrmann, the 38-year-old German captain of the Malizia II; Pierre Casiraghi, who heads the yacht’s racing team; and documentary filmmaker Nathan Grossman.

The trip came together after Herrmann’s team offered to sail Thunberg to New York.

“We will make sure she will reach New York in the safest way possible,” he said. “I feel humbled that Greta accepted our offer as the lowest-carbon option to cross the Atlantic — despite the lack of comfort for her.”

Zero-emissions travel isn’t easy. The Malizia II is an elite racing boat but lacks many amenities.

It was built in 2015 out of composite material meant to reduce weight and withstand extreme weather. The vessel is powered by solar panels and an underwater turbine. It doesn’t have a toilet and much light, so Thunberg will have only a bucket as a bathroom and a headlamp by which to read and keep her journals (she’s reportedly packed eight ).

She’ll eat freeze-dried meals, the New York Times reported , and drink seawater treated in a desalination machine. She plans to share sporadic communiques with the outside world by sending messages to her friends via satellite phone to post on social media. There are only two beds on board, which Thunberg and her father will sleep in. The rest of the team plans to sleep on beanbags.

The Malizia II’s mainsail is emblazoned with Thunberg’s slogan: “Unite Behind the Science.”

Before she set off, Thunberg told reporters she was looking forward to the trip, even though she expected to feel seasick.

“If it’s really hard I just have to think it’s only for two weeks, then I can go back to as usual,” she said.

"I might feel a bit sea sick and it's not going to be comfortable" Climate change activist Greta Thunberg will spend two weeks travelling across the North Atlantic on a boat to attend a crucial climate change conference in New York [tap to expand] https://t.co/e9XrVVjBhN pic.twitter.com/NMxVM9abSV — BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) August 13, 2019

So far, the sailing hasn’t been smooth. The first night “was bouncy and rough,” Herrmann tweeted Thursday morning.

Though it could remain choppy, the voyage has already begun to fulfill one of Thunberg’s goals: raising awareness about climate change.

Still, sailboats remain extremely unlikely to become a viable form of international travel anytime soon, said Smith, the University College London lecturer.

“The cost would be astronomical” for most people, he said. “Essentially very few people have the luxury or the ability to take two weeks over a voyage.”

But, he added, Thunberg’s trip may prompt many to reconsider how frequently and by what means they travel. Many Europeans have already begun to make the switch to rail for overland trips and cut back on flights across the ocean. And in the business world, some shipping companies are starting to harness wind power to make shipping more efficient, Smith said.

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Greta Thunberg: Activist got 'final warning' to move before arrest at London protest, trial hears

The 21-year-old activist, from sweden, was arrested during the demonstration near a hotel in mayfair last october as oil executives had a meeting inside..

Thursday 1 February 2024 17:52, UK

Greta Thunberg was given a "final warning" ahead of her arrest for refusing to move during a protest in central London, her trial has been told.

The 21-year-old climate campaigner was part of a demonstration near Mayfair's InterContinental Hotel on 17 October last year as oil executives gathered inside for a meeting.

Thunberg has now gone on trial at Westminster Magistrates' Court along with four other activists.

The court heard that on the day of the demonstration, protesters started to meet at the site at about 7.30am and police talked to the demonstrators about moving for better access for passers-by.

Prosecutor Luke Staton said a couple of protesters "were slowly abseiling down the side of the building" after gaining access to the roof just before 10.30am.

A section 14 condition was put in place at about 12.30pm, meaning the protest could continue but on the pavement to the south of the hotel.

It was said police found the move "necessary" to prevent disruption, as the "majority" of people inside the hotel could not leave and people could not get inside.

Mr Staton told the court that Swedish activist Thunberg was warned by one officer, before another officer "gave her a final warning".

"She said that she was staying where she was and so she was arrested," Mr Staton said.

Two Fossil Free London (FFL) protesters and two Greenpeace activists also appeared in court on Thursday for trial, after each pleaded not guilty in November to breaching the Public Order Act.

Environmental protesters demonstrated "in solidarity" with the defendants outside court on Thursday, holding up banners reading "climate protest is not a crime" and "who are the real criminals?".

Read more: Thunberg pleads not guilty as she appears in London court Thunberg joins protest against Farnborough Airport expansion

The other defendants were similarly informed of the section 14 condition and did not move to the designated protest area, the court heard.

Mr Staton said: "The Crown's case is that all five of these defendants took part in a public assembly.

"They knew or ought to have known that a section 14 condition had been imposed and they all failed to comply with that condition."

This is a limited version of the story so unfortunately this content is not available. Open the full version

Thunberg made notes as proceedings went on.

The trial, which is expected to last two days, continues.

Most Beautiful Metro Stations in Moscow

Visiting Moscow? Get yourself a metro card and explore Moscow’s beautiful metro stations. Moscow’s world-famous metro system is efficient and a great way to get from A to B. But there is more to it; Soviet mosaic decorations, exuberant halls with chandeliers, colourful paintings and immense statues. Moscow’s metro is an attraction itself, so take half a day and dive into Moscow’s underground!

The best thing to do is to get on the brown circle (number 5) line since the most beautiful metro stations are situated on this line. The only exception is the metro stop Mayakovskaya one the green line (number 2). My suggestion is to get a map, mark these metro stops on there and hop on the metro. It helps to get an English > Russian map to better understand the names of the stops. At some of the metro stops, the microphone voice speaks Russian and English so it’s not difficult at all.

Another thing we found out, is that it’s worth taking the escalator and explore the other corridors to discover how beautiful the full station is.

Quick hotel suggestion for Moscow is the amazing Brick Design Hotel .

These are my favourite metro stations in Moscow, in order of my personal preference:

1. Mayakovskaya Station

The metro station of Mayakovskaya looks like a ballroom! Wide arches, huge domes with lamps and mosaic works make your exit of the metro overwhelming. Look up and you will see the many colourful mosaics with typical Soviet pictures. Mayakovskaya is my personal favourite and is the only stop not on the brown line but on the green line.

2. Komsomolskaya Station

Komsomolskaya metro station is famous for its yellow ceiling. An average museum is nothing compared to this stop. Splendour all over the place, black and gold, mosaic – again – and enormous chandeliers that made my lamp at home look like a toy.

3. Novoslobodskaya Station

The pillars in the main hall of Novoslobodskaya metro station have the most colourful stained glass decorations. The golden arches and the golden mosaic with a naked lady holding a baby in front of the Soviet hammer and sickle, make the drama complete.

4. Prospect Mira Station

The beautiful chandeliers and the lines in the ceiling, make Prospekt Mira an architectural masterpiece.

5. Belorusskaya Station

Prestigious arches, octagonal shapes of Socialistic Soviet Republic mosaics. The eyecatcher of Belorusskaya metro station, however, is the enormous statue of three men with long coats, holding guns and a flag.

6. Kiyevskaya Station

The metro station of Kiyevskaya is a bit more romantic than Belorusskaya and Prospect Mira. Beautiful paintings with classical decorations.

7. Taganskaya Station

At the main hall Taganskaya metro station you will find triangle light blue and white decorations that are an ode to various Russians that – I assume – are important for Russian history and victory. There is no need to explore others halls of Taganskaya, this is it.

8. Paveletskaya Station

Another and most definitely the less beautiful outrageous huge golden mosaic covers one of the walls of Paveletskaya. I would recommend taking the escalator to the exit upstairs to admire the turquoise dome and a painting of the St Basil’s Cathedral in a wooden frame.

Travelling with Moscow’s metro is inexpensive. You can have a lot of joy for just a few Rubbles.

• 1 single journey: RMB 50 – € 0,70
• 1 day ticket: RMB 210 – € 2,95

Like to know about Moscow, travelling in Russia or the Transsiberian Train journey ? Read my other articles about Russia .

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Wow! It is beautiful. I am still dreaming of Moscow one day.

It’s absolutely beautiful! Moscow is a great city trip destination and really surprised me in many ways.

My partner and I did a self guided Moscow Metro tour when we were there 2 years ago. So many breathtaking platforms…I highly recommend it! Most of my favorites were along the Brown 5 line, as well. I also loved Mayakovskaya, Arbatskaya, Aleksandrovski Sad and Ploshchad Revolyutsii. We’re heading back in a few weeks and plan to do Metro Tour-Part 2. We hope to see the #5 stations we missed before, as well as explore some of the Dark Blue #3 (Park Pobedy and Slavyansky Bul’var, for sure), Yellow #8 and Olive #10 platforms.

That’s exciting Julia! Curious to see your Metro Tour-Part 2 experience and the stations you discovered.

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Books of the Times

Young, Cool, Coddled and Raised on the Internet

The best stories in Honor Levy’s “My First Book” capture the quiet desperation of today’s smart set. But there is such a thing as publishing too soon.

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By Dwight Garner

MY FIRST BOOK, by Honor Levy

“Thank God I won’t have to deal with the internet.” According to Bruce Jay Friedman, those were the last words his friend Mario Puzo ever said to him. We forget — or at least I do — how many writers from the last century made it into the age of email. Muriel Spark lived long enough to write a series of online diaries for Slate .

We count on our best young fiction writers to bring us news from the digital nervous system. Honor Levy, in “My First Book,” a collection of stories that is indeed her first book, does so with special bite and élan. What does she sound like when she plugs in? Here is the start of “Love Story,” this collection’s opener.

He was giving knight errant, organ-meat eater, Byronic hero, Haplogroup Rlb. She was giving damsel in distress, pill-popper pixie dream girl, Haplogroup K. He was in his fall of Rome era. She was serving sixth and final mass extinction event realness. His face was a marble statue. Her face was an anime waifu. They scrolled into each other. If they could have, they would have blushed, pink pixels on a screen. Monkey covering eyes emoji. Anime nosebleed GIF. Henlo frend. hiii.

It was Harold Ross’s policy, when he was editor of The New Yorker, never to run a poem he did not understand. I responded to the way these sentences crackled even before I looked up “haplogroups” and learned that they are genetic classifications.

Levy maintains this tone, and this frazzled online love story, across nine pages. The cultural information piles up vertiginously. Reading Levy is what it must have felt like to read Ann Beattie on her generation in the early 1970s.

The bottom falls out of “Love Story,” or perhaps there was no floor to begin with. Online the young man is Pyramus, and the girl is Thisbe: “He’d burn a church for her.” He thinks, “I’m Ryan Gosling in Drive . I’m American Psycho . I’m Joker . I’m Taxi Driver. ” About her, we read, “Her thousand-yard stare said she’d been on the carousel, in the trenches, and under the apple tree.” In real life, she’s a teen with her parents in an Olive Garden. He’s in a Wal-Mart aisle. They are about to withdraw back into their carapaces. And so here we are, convincingly lost amid America’s memes and mirrors in 2024, among what Joyce in “Finnegans Wake” called “the unhappitents of the earth.”

Levy is a young Bennington graduate from California, who has published stories in The New Yorker and New York Tyrant . She has a fine intake filter; her book unloads a ton of fresh writing. That’s the good news. The bad news is that she was encouraged to publish “My First Book” too soon. The falloff is steep between this book’s best stories and its lesser ones, a few of which I suspect were typed on a MacBook a long time ago.

In this collection’s finest work, Levy’s sentences are cold poetry of a sort. She deals individual cards rather than handles an entire deck. Her stories are vignettes, and the observations whoosh past your ears: “We wouldn’t be collectivizing the Adderall sector”; on drugs, “I could dig a hole to China and save the Uyghurs”; “Ronan Farrow is the only person who could truly relate to him”; “No one wants a Holocaust comparison, but isn’t this what we learned on those field trips we all had to take to museums of tolerance?”; “I wonder where the girls with mustache finger tattoos are now”; “Last night, Ivan and I were texting about all the hot art-world-adjacent millennial girls he knows who have been diagnosed with autism.” There are jokes about taking Greta Thunberg’s and Barron Trump’s virginity.

A few of these characters are coddled; they are expensively educated; they have money. (One is a “post-leftist with a nicotine addiction and a vagina and white privilege and obsessive-compulsive disorder and a birthday in September.”) Others do not.

What pushes Levy’s stories beyond being merely on the level of smart magazine essays is the empathy you can sense below the starkness of her sentences. A typical observation: “When I’m at a party and I look across the room I can see everyone holding their red Solo cups and hurting.” Her characters are desperate and unfulfilled. They jockey for dominance in unlighted territory.

There is an interesting sense here of young people brought up amid a war — a cultural one. Some push back against prevailing orthodoxies. One character is nearly canceled when, on a college radio station, she says, “Trigger warnings trigger me.” She further thinks that writing supposedly blackhearted men’s names on a Google spreadsheet “does not make you a good person.” She dislikes the urge to denounce. She is wary of “people using faux sincerity and sentimentality for political gain.” It is possible to be a person of the left, in her estimation, without checking your BS detector at the door.

Levy is eyeballing a generation so crammed with cultural information that everything threatens to tip over into a joke. But jokes are where the trouble lies. When no one gets your joke, suddenly you’re Jonathan Swift accused of wanting to eat babies. The tranquilizing pills that you take for poise won’t help you now.

Generations no longer understand one another because we haven’t been injected with the same memes. “We even make memes about this,” Levy writes, “our failure to understand anything but memes.” Her characters beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly to their TikToks. The big blue planet steams around them.

The lesser work in “My First Book” sinks to high school graduation speech level. “We are the future of the planet” and “I wonder if we will ever get to where we are going” and “Time has never moved faster than it is moving right now” and so on. Wish this stuff into the cornfield. It is out of place here.

“Perhaps, being lost, one should get loster,” Saul Bellow wrote in “Humboldt’s Gift.” Is a hot take a stab at being found? Levy can dispense these as well as anyone. Crucially, though, she understands that “a hot take won’t keep you warm at night.”

MY FIRST BOOK | By Honor Levy | Penguin Press | 212 pp. | $27

Dwight Garner has been a book critic for The Times since 2008, and before that was an editor at the Book Review for a decade. More about Dwight Garner

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Moscow and beyond

Red Square & Moscow City Tour

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Description

Highlights:.

• Experience medieval Kitay Gorod (China town).
• Wander picturesque Red Square and Alexander Garden.
• Explore grand Christ the Savior Cathedral on our Red Square tour.
• Breathtaking panoramic views from Patriarch bridge.
• Enjoy a hearty lunch on the large open verandah and marvel at the stunning views of the Kremlin.
• Learn about Russian culture from the local through relaxed cultural discussions.

Tour Itinerary:

Red square:.

Russia and Moscow are synonymous with Red Square and the Kremlin and that's hardly surprising as you'll find these places absolutely stunning!

• - Walk-through the Resurrection Gate and don’t forget to flip a coin so you’ll be sure to come back one day!
• - Visit the world's famous Kazan Cathedral .
• - See the State Department Store (GUM), once the Upper Trading Stalls, which were built over a century ago and still operating!
• - Admire the lovely St. Basil's Cathedral! The French diplomat Marquis de Custine commented that it combined "the scales of a golden fish, the enamelled skin of a serpent, the changeful hues of the lizard, the glossy rose and azure of the pigeon's neck" and wondered at "the men who go to worship God in this box of confectionery work".
• - Walk by Lobnoye Mesto (literally meaning "Execution Place", or "Place of Skulls"), once Ivan the Terrible's stage for religious ceremonies, speeches, and important events.
• - Entering the Alexander Garden , you’ll take in spectacular views of Russian architecture from ancient to Soviet times, as well as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with an eternal flame. Watch Changing of the Guard Ceremony every hour in summer and every half an hour in winter.

Kitai-gorod:

Stroll along medieval Kitai-gorod with its strong ancient Russia feel, known for its bohemian lifestyle, markets and arts.

• - Nikolskaya Street. Here you will find the Russia's first publishing house, the second oldest monastery, and Ferryn Pharmacy, known as the number one pharmacy back in Soviet times and famous for its Empire-style architecture.
• - Ilinka Street. The financial street of the Kitaigorod (China Town) district, where you’ll find the Gostiny Dvor (Merchant’s Yard), which is now a showroom for Ferraris and Maseratis. The street was designed in the 1790s by Catherine the Great.
• - Varvarka street. The oldest street in Moscow, which dates back to the 14th century, and still has remnants of early Muscovite architecture, such as the Old English Court and the Palace of the Romanov’s.
• - Kamergersky Lane. Only a small road of about 250 meters, it is home to some of the oldest artifacts of the city, as each building holds a fascinating story. Some of Russia's most famous writers, poets, and composers from as far back as the Golden Age of Russian culture, have lived or worked on this lane.

Historic City Center

Walk the historical old center of Moscow with its cool local vibe, including the main Tverskaya street , and indulge in desserts in the first grocery “Eliseev's store” , housed in an 18th century neoclassical building, famous for its baroque interior and decoration.

From our tour. Impressions of our American tourist:

At 3:30, as energy flagged, lunch was on the agenda at a Ukrainian restaurant.  Just in time!  We asked our guide to order for us.  We all had the same thing....borscht (the Ukrainian version has beans and more tomatoes than the Russian version, which has more beets and includes beef). 

The special high bread served is called galushki.  Our main course was golubtsy...a dish of minced meat rolled in braised cabbage leaves.  Both dishes called for optional sour cream as a topping....of course, yes, please....I recommend it. 

Full, satisfied, and completely refreshed, it was off to Red Square and St. Basil's and GUM department store.  Red Square is not so named because of the color of the brick walls of the Kremlin.  Rather the word for 'red' and the word for 'beautiful' are similar in pronunciation....and, there you have it. 

As we made the turn by the National Museum in front of which is the mounted sculpture of the "Marshall of Victory," Giorgy Zhukov from WWII and caught our first view of St. Basil's, my friend and I simultaneously emitted "Oooohhhhh!"  There it was....the iconic onion domes of St. Basil's!  Hooray....it was open until 7....we had about 30 minutes and were allowed in, AND we could take photos with no flash. 

Now, I can give you a taste of what we saw in the other cathedrals in Cathedral Square.  What we learned is that St. Vasily and St. Basil are one in the same....Russian/English.  He was a common man who wandered Moscow unclothed and barefoot.  But, all, even Ivan the Terrible, heeded his opinions derived from his visions.  Ivan had this cathedral built over his tomb. 

As we exited and took photos up close of the onion domes, Inna presented us with chocolate (how did she know we were ready for another energy boost, and we each got a big piece of chocolate.  The baby's name pictured on the wrapper of this famous Russian chocolate is Alyonka....the Russian Gerber baby, don't you think? 

One could wear out the credit card in GUM's (capitalized because it is actually a government abbreviation), but the 'kitty' and my credit card stayed in my pocket as we strolled through the glass-topped arcade. 

We then strolled through some of Moscow's lovely pedestrian streets; paused to listen as a wonderful quartet performed Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" in an underground passage to cross the busy street (hooray!....we DID have our 'classical concert' experience after all; a request Alina tried in vain to fill because none was scheduled those days), saw the Bolshoi, which means 'big' (my friend has yet to recover that their performance schedule did not coincide with our cruise), saw the Central Telegraph Building, dating from the 1930's, and made our way to the Ritz-Carlton to see the night view of Moscow from the rooftop bar, called O2. 

There were fleece blankets to wrap yourself in....yes, it got that cold when the sun set.  We each ordered something hot to drink...the ginger, mint, lemon tea served to me in a parfait glass (for 600 rubles...about $9....you pay for the view here!) was delightful and hit the spot perfectly.  It was time to call it a night....

What you get:

• + A friend in Moscow.
• + Private & customized Moscow tour.
• + An exciting city tour, not just boring history lessons.
• + An authentic experience of local life.
• + Flexibility during the tour: changes can be made at any time to suit individual preferences.
• + Amazing deals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the very best cafes & restaurants. Discounts on weekdays (Mon-Fri).
• + A photo session amongst spectacular Moscow scenery that can be treasured for a lifetime.
• + Good value for souvenirs, taxis, and hotels.
• + Expert advice on what to do, where to go, and how to make the most of your time.

*This Moscow city tour can be modified to meet your requirements.

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