Climate activist Greta Thunberg burst into hysterical laughter upon learning that the protest movement she started in 2018 is still going on, asking if people “still do that”.
The revelation came in a YouTube documentary published last month by German journalist Hubertus Koch entitled “Riding Tanks Into The Climate Crisis”, which went viral this week and saw the Swedish campaigner ask if people were “really” continuing the strikes.
Thunberg founded the youth-led Fridays for Future movement in August of 2018, when she spent three weeks protesting outside the parliament building of her native Sweden to demand greater environmental action.
According to the Fridays For Future website, the campaign went viral on social media and has since expanded to include 14,000,000 people across 7,500 cities on all continents.
In the documentary, Koch informed Thunberg that a Fridays for Future demonstration was taking place in the German capital that same day.
“Is it?!” Thunberg asked in shock.
“Really?! They still do that?!”
After laughing hysterically at the revelation, the activist then turned to the camera and jokingly said “Cut!”
Speaking later in the film, the activist took aim at those who keep their campaigning within the boundaries of what is widely accepted.
“If you are an activist, but actively choose to stay within the play field of what is mainstream, you are not an activist, you are just an influencer trying to get attention,” she said.
“Like, we have to get friction, we have to push whatever we perceive to be acceptable.”
Thunberg recently returned to the global climate stage, making her first appearance at the annual UN climate talks in five years at the COP31 Climate Summit in Antalya, Turkey, earlier this week.
She has also in recent years expanded her focus to include pro-Palestinian activism, previously making a courtesy call to President Catherine Connolly at Áras an Uachtaráin on the 17th of December 2025 during a visit to Dublin for a Gaza fundraiser.
While the campaigner expressed disbelief that her original protest movement is still active, she continues to be heavily promoted as a role model within the Irish education system.
As previously reported by Gript, a recent CSPE textbook dedicates a full page to celebrating her achievements, urging students to watch her speeches online.
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Additionally, the State-funded Green Schools programme, which is run by An Taisce and receives €3.5 million in annual taxpayer funding, recommends that teachers show Junior Infants children an illustrated picture book about Thunberg to promote climate action.
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