Svante Thunberg admitted that he changed his approaches to climate change because he wants his daughter to be happy.
Greta Thunberg's father expressed his concern about the hate his daughter faces due to her climate activism.
Svante Thunberg, the father of the 16-year old Swedish activist, told BBC that he initially thought it was a bad idea for his daughter to skip her school to organize a mass school strike, especially since it caught the attention of the public eye.
When asked what specifically made him worried, Svante mentioned the fabricated news made by the people who "don't want to change" since it generates hate.
But Svante also noted that his daughter seems to be handling it "incredibly well". Greta will mostly laugh at her detractors and Svante admitted he had no idea how she does that.
Among her detractors is the US President Donald Trump who told her to "chill" and work on her anger management issue by watching old movies with her friends.
In response, Greta changed her bio in Twitter to: "A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend."
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"It cures her depression."
Despite his concern, Svante did not mention anything about asking his daughter to halt her activism. In fact, he was even expressing his support because Greta became happier ever since she started it.
Prior to her first school strike in 2018, Greta suffered from depression for "three or four years" and had stopped talking and going to school, Svante revealed. He described this experience as the "ultimate nightmare for a parent" especially when Greta began skipping her meals.
The entire Thunberg family, including the younger sister Beata, began spending more time with Greta to help her. Malena Ernman, Greta's mother and a former Eurovision Song Contest participant, even cancelled some of her contracts.
Then, over the years, Greta became passionate about tackling climate change. She even called her parents "huge hypocrites" for not taking the matter seriously, Svante recalled.
After changing some of their behavior like going vegan and refusing to travel by airplane, Greta became more energetic, Svante also added. The activism changed her and now she's happy with her life.
But Svante admitted that he did not do it for the world, even if he knows those were the right things to do, but for his daughter, who along with Beata, was "all that matters" to him.
As her father, Svante still sees his daughter as an ordinary child who "dances around" and "laughs a lot". And in the future, he was hoping that things would become "less intense" so Greta could go back to an ordinary child's life, including going to school.
The 16-year old Swedish activist gained global recognition after her dramatic speech at a UN Climate Forum, where she called the world leaders for prioritizing profits instead of discussing the climate change. She claimed that her passion for climate change was attributed to her Asperger's Syndrome -- a form of autism -- because it allows her to think outside the box.
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