Greta Thunberg appears on the first cover of Vogue Scandinavia

(CNN) – Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg was revealed as the cover star of the first issue of Vogue Scandinavia. Made by the Swedish duo of photographers and conservationists Alexandrov Klum, the enigmatic cover shows Thunberg in a recycled trench coat and sitting with an Icelandic horse named Gandalf in a forest outside Stockholm.

“For this first issue, I am incredibly proud to feature Greta Thunberg on the cover,” says magazine editor-in-chief Martina Bonnier. in the cover letter of the edition. “Not only is he a unique Scandinavian figure and force for change, but he also embodies the love of nature, the pursuit of sustainability and the unabashed fearlessness that is at the core of our vision.”

Thunberg first captured global attention in 2018 when he skipped school at the age of 15 to protest in front of the Swedish Parliament, demanding that the government cut its carbon emissions. Soon catalyzed a youth climate strike movementAnd now, at 18, Thunberg is one of the most visible environmental activists in the world. She has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for three consecutive years.

In a published profile In Vogue Scandinavia, Thunberg highlighted the role of fast fashion – the mass production of cheap and fashionable clothing that keeps prices low through labor exploitation and poor quality – in worsening the climate crisis.

“If you buy fast fashion, you are contributing to that industry and encouraging its expansion and encouraging it to continue its damaging process,” he told the magazine. “Of course, I understand that for some people fashion is an important part of how they want to express themselves and their identity.”

While sharing the cover of Vogue on her social media accounts, Thunberg also spoke out against the industry for the “greenwashing“, or promoting an image of ecological awareness without making a significant change, with symbolic and ambiguous gestures in relation to sustainability.

“Many make it seem like the fashion industry is starting to take responsibility, spending fancy amounts on campaigns that are presented as ‘sustainable’, ‘ethical’, ‘green’, ‘climate neutral’ or ‘fair’ “, wrote on Twitter. “But let’s be clear: this is almost never anything other than pure green makeup.”

Thunberg and Gandalf, the Icelandic horse. Credit: Alexandrov Klum / Vogue Scandinavia

In 2018, 2.31 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions came from the fashion industry, which represents 4% of the world total.

The inaugural issue of Vogue Scandinavia, which is available to order online and focuses on a central theme of nature, coincides with the publication of a new landmark report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on climate change, in which the United Nations (UN) described as “code red for humanity“The report concludes that there have already been” widespread and rapid changes “in the global climate, some of which are irreversible at this point, and that it is” unequivocal “that humans are the cause.

The voice of a generation

The message from Thunberg’s first campaign, “School Strike for Climate”, rebounded around the world in 2018, inspiring tens of thousands of other young people to organize their own calls to action. The following year, he embarked over the Atlantic Ocean on a widely publicized trip to New York City to attend the UN Climate Action Summit. And he has not stopped lashing out at world power actors for fostering complacency rather than urgency.

“I want them to act like they would in a crisis. I want them to act like our house is on fire. Because it is,” Thunberg said at the 2019 World Economic Forum.

But Thunberg’s direct approach to tackling global warming has not been well received by everyone. Elsewhere in the new Vogue interview, he addressed his critics, most notably former US President Donald Trump, who tweeted in 2019 that Thunberg had a “anger control problem“.

Thunberg’s oversized trench coat is made from a variety of recycled coats. Credit: Alexandrov Klum / Vogue Scandinavia

“You have to see it from a broader perspective,” he told Vogue. “Why do they write this kind of thing? It’s because they feel like we’re making too much noise and they want to silence us, either by scaring or intimidating us or to cast doubt … So that’s, in a way, a very positive sign that we are having an impact. “

He added, “They’re not evil, they just don’t know what they’re doing. At least that’s what I’m trying to think.”

He also reflected on the disturbing impact the climate crisis has had on his formative years. “Ideally, you would just go back to school and finish school and not have to worry about the weather,” he said in the interview. “But as long as there is a need for activists, I will probably be an activist.”