Age and Ageism in Greta Thunberg’s Climate Activism

This paper sets out to investigate the rhetorical strategies deployed by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, an inspiration for young people globally since she started “School Strike for Climate” in 2018 when still a minor. One of Thunberg's most powerful arguments amplifies the perceived deterioration of intergenerational solidarity, pitting the young versus the old, who are accused of stealing their children’s future. In the face of her provocation, the analysis intends to reflect on the use of the increasing disconnect between ‘irresponsible’ adults and ‘sensible’ young people for the sake of persuasion, starting from the kind of media coverage – from supportive to critical – Thunberg has been receiving. To this end, a selection of thematically related news items from the quality press and from blogs will be analysed alongside her speeches. The methodological toolkit here adopted will combine Discourse Analysis with insights from argumentation theory that has enriched the tradition of Aristotelian rhetoric with an up-to-date theoretical framework. The analysis will start from the basic elements of audience construction (ethos) by means of the speaker’s credentials, or lack thereof, emotional appeal (pathos) to the prospect of an imminent catastrophe, and recourse to reason (logos) through facts and figures. It will then proceed to discuss in what ways argumentation structures are not only couched in contemporary discourses on the environmental crisis, but also in a generational divide. In sum, by illustrating viewpoints that can be quite dissonant, the paper intends to contribute to the understanding of the possible reasons whereby the age issue is rising as a key identity dimension in the public and political agenda, within and beyond the climate emergency debate.