WITH cold, hard eyes, Greta Thunberg jabs a finger forward – like Lord Kitchener in the famous “Your country needs you” wartime posters.

On her smart black jacket, the words “Can You Hear Me?” are daubed in white.

8 GQ magazine has named Greta Thunberg their 'Game Changer Of The Year' Credit: PA:Press Association

For men’s magazine GQ, more used to feting A-list showbiz stars, the striking cover featuring the 16-year-old eco warrior has caused quite the stir.

GQ hails the pig-tailed Swede the Game Changer Of The Year for dragging climate change to the top of the global agenda — where politicians, scientists, celebrities and activists have previously failed.

But is Greta a green prophet or a schoolgirl puppet controlled by more sinister forces behind her?

The cover coincides with her much-hyped trip across the Atlantic aboard a “zero carbon” yacht to attend the UN climate action summit in New York.

AIR RAGE

It is a move designed — Meghan and Harry take note — to emphasise the damage flying does to the environment.

When she arrives in the US later this month, she will receive a hero’s welcome with anyone who is anyone lining up to get alongside the new poster girl for the Left.

So far, so woke for the teen who has already met Pope Francis and been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

But as she contends with her basic rations and bucket toilet somewhere across the Atlantic, a more cynical picture has emerged of a well-intentioned but naive child being manipulated by energy giants and pushy celebrity parents — including a fame-hungry mum who once appeared on Eurovision.

8 Thunberg addresses the National Assembly in Paris Credit: Getty - Contributor

8 Greta's journey across the Atlantic began on August 14 and is expected to take two weeks

Greta’s achievements in just a year are undoubtedly phenomenal.

Her “school strike for climate” began 12 months ago today and sparked a global movement which saw 1.6million people in 133 countries go out on demonstrations.

Greta, who has a form of autism called Asperger syndrome, is a charismatic and forthright speaker who has managed to wrap senior politicians round her finger.

'YOU LIED TO US'

Pulling no punches, she told MPs at the Houses of Parliament: “You lied to us. You gave us false hope. You told us that the future was something to look forward to.”

She added that unless CO2 emissions are reduced by at least 50 per cent by 2030, “we will be in a position where we set off an irreversible chain reaction beyond human control, that will most likely lead to the end of our civilisation as we know it”.

Now Gretamania is about to arrive on US shores — and it will not be without controversy.

Arron Banks, co-founder of the Leave.EU campaign, ignited fury last week by tweeting of her solar-powered voyage: “Freak yachting accidents do happen in August.”

'NO SENSE OF HUMOUR'

After being deluged with criticism, he wrote: “It was a joke . . . you lefties have no sense of humour.”

And in response to a tweet which pointed out that she is a child, he replied: “Quite and one being used.” And that is the debate.

8 Malena Ernman entered the Eurovision song contest in 2009 for Sweden

8 Greta and her father Svante Thunberg meeting with Boris Herrmann from sailing team Malizia Credit: Reuters

Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg was born in Swedish capital Stockholm in January 2003 to Svante Thunberg, an actor, and his opera star wife Malena Ernman.

She is distantly related to Svante Arrhenius, the first scientist to predict that carbon emissions would lead to warming.

Malena was Sweden’s 2009 Eurovision hopeful, belting out her song La Voix. Blonde, glamorous and already a star in her home-land, Malena, 48, was seeking to make an international break-through like compatriots ABBA and the five other Swedish acts to have won the contest.

Yet she trailed a disappointing 21st out of 25, with 33 points.

Greta first learned about climate change aged eight and says she was shocked that adults did not appear to be taking it seriously.

DEEP DEPRESSION

It was one factor that would lead to a deep depression when aged 11, which saw her stop eating and going to school, and then stop speaking to everyone bar her family and one teacher.

It was around this time that she was diagnosed with Asperger’s, obsessive compulsive disorder and selective mutism.

She has said: “Autism makes me different, and being different is a gift, I would say. It also makes me see things from outside the box.

“I don’t easily fall for lies. I can see through things.”

Greta’s school lessons on the environment saw her unable to stop thinking about the destruction of the planet.

She said: “Our teachers showed us films of plastic in the ocean, starving polar bears and so on. I cried through all the movies.

“My classmates were concerned when they watched the film, but when it stopped, they started thinking about other things.

“I couldn’t do that. Those pictures were stuck in my head.”

8 Barack Obama praised Greta Thunberg and said we should celebrate young people who are speaking up on climate change

8 Founder of the Swedish climate organisation We Don't Have Time, Ingmar Rentzhog Credit: Alamy

Her parents put their careers on hold to give Greta and her younger sister Beata, 13, who has similar medical challenges, the special care they needed.

And Greta began to pressure her family to change their lifestyles.

Svante, 50, and Malena turned vegan and bought an electric car, and in 2016 Greta convinced her mother to stop flying, which impacted her singing career.

Malena went on to back the “flight-shaming” movement that started in Sweden a year later.

And a year ago today, painfully introverted schoolgirl Greta’s life would change forever.

SCHOOL STRIKE FOR CLIMATE

On August 20, 2018, she launched her one-girl school strike at the Swedish parliament, holding a hand-drawn wooden sign declaring “skolstrejk för klimatet” (school strike for climate).

Businessman, PR chief and green activist Ingmar Rentzhog passed by and posted her image on his Facebook page.

The story was picked up by a local paper, went viral and a global movement was born.

Yet critics have claimed it was mum Malena that orchestrated the campaign with the help of Ingmar.

An investigation by Standpoint magazine claimed Ingmar did not stumble on Greta’s protest by accident but had been tipped off the week before by a climate activist.

The publication also says that Ingmar had met Malena a few months earlier when they shared a stage at a climate conference.

Ingmar’s green campaigning firm We Don’t Have Time rocketed in value by £1million shortly after Greta was invited on to its youth advisory board.

Greta later said: “It turns out they used my name as part of another branch of their organisation that is a start-up business.

“They have admitted clearly that they did so without the knowledge of me or my family.

“I no longer have any connection to We Don’t Have Time. Nor has anyone in my family. They have deeply apologised.”

8 A Thunberg float makes its way through the annual Rose Monday Carnival parade in Dusseldorf Credit: Getty Images - Getty

In May last year Ingmar became chairman of a think tank called Global Utmaning (Global Challenge).

Its founder, Kristina Persson, is a former Social Democrat Party politician and was the Swedish government’s “minister for the future” between 2014 and 2016.

Global Challenge’s senior advisers include former Swedish Water chief executive Catharina Nystedt Ringborg, an adviser to the International Energy Agency and a former vice-president of the Swedish-Swiss energy giant ABB.

Catharina is also a member of Sustainable Energy Angels, a green energy venture capital firm, which includes leading members of the Swedish energy sector.

Greta’s dad Svante says neither he nor Greta “feel qualified” to answer questions about Ingmar’s business interests and say they have never worked with Global Challenge.

Meanwhile, Greta’s mum has gained rather well from her daughter’s sky-high profile.

Shortly after Greta’s first strike, Malena’s memoir, Scenes From The Heart, written with Svante and their daughters, was released.

Malena said she had actually discouraged Greta from the strike and denied claims that Greta is told what to do.



'WE COULDN'T SUPPORT HER'

Writing on Facebook, she said: “We, as parents, advised her against it and said we couldn’t support her because we have to make sure she goes to school.”

While Greta has said: “A lot of people like to circulate rumours about someone ‘behind me’ or that they ‘pay’ me or ‘use’ me to do what I do. But ‘behind’ me is only myself. I’m totally independent and I only represent myself.

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“And I do what I do for free.”

Now, as her yacht bumps through the Atlantic waves, she will have plenty of time to contemplate how best to present her message in the world’s biggest economy.

And to ponder exactly how she will get home without resorting to planes.

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