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Students will be walking out of class on Friday to protest climate change thanks to this amazing kid.

If you like people who "tell it like it is" and courageously speak truth to power, you'll love Greta Thunberg.

When it comes to taking action on climate change, Greta Thunberg doesn't mess around. The 16-year-old Swede's encyclopedic knowledge and brutal bluntness regarding the climate crisis have propelled her onto the international stage, where she calmly and assuredly tells powerful politicians and leaders that they are failing.

Thunberg is a unique figure, to say the least. As a child on the autism spectrum who has spent years studying climate change, she exemplifies the laser-sharp focus and intense dedication such kids are capable of. As a teen activist, she shows us what it means to make your voice heard and rally the masses. As a human being, she reminds us that nothing is more urgent than taking immediate, meaningful action to save the future of our planet.

And she does it all with an even-tempered frankness that is both jarring and refreshing.

Her speech to the UN climate summit is a must-see. This girl did not come to play.

When organizers invited Thunberg to speak at the COP24 summit last December on behalf of Climate Justice Now, I wonder if they knew that the world's leaders were going to have their asses handed to them by an angel-faced girl in Pippi Longstocking braids.

Imagine being 15 years old and telling the most powerful people on the planet—to their faces:

You only speak of green eternal economic growth because you are too scared of being unpopular. You only talk about moving forward with the same bad ideas that got us into this mess, even when the only sensible thing to do is pull the emergency brake. You are not mature enough to tell it like is. Even that burden you leave to us children. But I don't care about being popular. I care about climate justice and the living planet. Our civilization is being sacrificed for the opportunity of a very small number of people to continue making enormous amounts of money. Our biosphere is being sacrificed so that rich people in countries like mine can live in luxury. It is the sufferings of the many which pay for the luxuries of the few.

The amazing thing about Thunberg is that she says things like this in the sweetest, most matter-of-fact manner imaginable. It's incredible to watch.

"The year 2078, I will celebrate my 75th birthday. If I have children maybe they will spend that day with me. Maybe they will ask me about you. Maybe they will ask why you didn't do anything while there still was time to act. You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes. Until you start focusing on what needs to be done rather than what is politically possible, there is no hope. We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis. We need to keep the fossil fuels in the ground, and we need to focus on equity. And if solutions within the system are so impossible to find, maybe we should change the system itself. We have not come here to beg world leaders to care. You have ignored us in the past and you will ignore us again. We have run out of excuses and we are running out of time. We have come here to let you know that change is coming, whether you like it or not. The real power belongs to the people."

YES. Go girl.

Thunberg's activism has earned her a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Thunberg certainly has a way with words, but her primary focus is on taking action. Last year, she staged a full-time sit-in on the steps of Swedish parliament to protest climate change inaction. In the beginning, she sat alone. Now thousands of young people around the world are joining her.

On Friday, March 15, students in more than 1600 locations in more than 100 countries will partake in school strikes to bring their leaders' attention to climate change and protest inaction on the climate crisis.

1659 places in 105 countries. And counting. Tomorrow we schoolstrike for our future. And we will continue to do so… https://t.co/97NgJjH8R3
— Greta Thunberg (@Greta Thunberg) 1552542874.0

Check out the teen-founded and teen-led organization Youth Climate Strike U.S., inspired by Thunberg's activism.

Tomorrow, @climatestrikeus will be leading one of the biggest environmental school strikes in history. ELLE spoke t… https://t.co/oOy0bPMG9K
— ELLE Magazine (US) (@ELLE Magazine (US)) 1552569664.0

No wonder Thunberg has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. If anything can unite the planet, it should be the desire to save our beautiful, life-giving home from destruction, and the collective will to make that happen.

As Thunberg told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland:

"We are at a time in history where everyone with any insight of the climate crisis that threatens our civilization–and the entire biosphere–must speak out in clear language, no matter how uncomfortable and unprofitable that may be. We must change almost everything in our current societies. The bigger your carbon footprint, the bigger your moral duty. The bigger your platform, the bigger your responsibility.

Adults keep saying: “We owe it to the young people to give them hope.” But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is."

“Our house is on fire.” A part of my speech at the World Economic Forum today. Thank you for inviting me! #wef https://t.co/LvTWiwEiOu
— Greta Thunberg (@Greta Thunberg) 1548433030.0

Joy

Airbnb host wakes his guest up in the middle of the night so she wouldn't miss the northern lights

Best. Host. Ever.

@penslucero/TikTok

Pency Lucero taking in the Northern Lights

Seeing the northern lights is a common bucket list adventure for many people. After all, it ticks a lot of boxes—being a dazzling light show, rich historical experience and scientific phenomenon all rolled into one. Plus there’s the uncertainty of it all, never quite knowing if you’ll witness a vivid streak of otherworldly colors dance across the sky…or simply see an oddly colored cloud. It’s nature’s slot machine, if you will.

Traveler and content creator Pency Lucero was willing to take that gamble. After thorough research, she stumbled upon an Airbnb in Rörbäck, Sweden with an actual picture of the northern lights shining above the cabin in the listing. With that kind of photo evidence, she felt good about her odds.

However, as soon as she landed, snow began falling so hard that the entire sky was “barely visible,” she told Upworthy. Martin, the Airbnb host, was nonetheless determined to do everything he could to ensure his guests got to see the spectacle, even offering to wake Lucero up in the middle of the night if he saw anything.

Then one night, the knock came.

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nature

Democracy

Reporter reveals she's a school shooting survivor on air and offers advice to Covenant parents

Even while struggling through her own grief, she was able to provide guidance to parents.

Photo by Heather Mount on Unsplash

Tennessee reporter and school shooting survivor gives advice to parents.

On March 27, the Covenant School, a private elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, experienced a school shooting where three 9-year-old children and three staff members lost their lives. The news of the event took over the airwaves as more details were released.

But for one reporter covering the shooting live, the event hit close to home in more than one way. Joylyn Bukovac, a local reporter for WSMV 4, was reporting live from the scene at the Covenant School when she revealed that she was a survivor of a school shooting herself. Bukovac explained that when she was in the eighth grade, someone opened fire at her school.

"About 380 school shootings have happened since Columbine, my middle school being one of them, this school being one of them," she said. "Some people have been reaching out to me saying, 'Enough's enough. When is all of this gun violence going to change?'"

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covenant school shooting

Science

Conjoined twins with fused brains separated; surgeons practiced for months in virtual reality

Arthur and Bernardo finally get to see each other face to face.

Image by sasint/Canva

Surgeons prepared to separate 3-year-old conjoined twins in Brazil using virtual reality.

The things human beings have figured out how to do boggles the mind sometimes, especially in the realm of medicine.

It wasn't terribly long ago that people with a severe injury had to liquor up, bite a stick, have a body part sewn up or sawed off and hope for the best. (Sorry for the visual, but it's true.) The discoveries of antibiotics and anesthesia alone have completely revolutionized human existence, but we've gone well beyond that with what our best surgeons can accomplish.

Surgeries can range from fairly simple to incredibly complex, but few surgeries are more complicated than separating conjoined twins with combined major organs. That's why the recent surgical separation of conjoined twin boys with fused brains in Brazil is so incredible.

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Education

Germany's most famous castle isn't a real castle. It's an elaborate 'work of fan fiction.'

Though it looks medieval, it was built in the 19th century by an eccentric "fairy tale king" who spent much of his life constructing his own elaborate fantasy world.

Public Domain

Neuschwanstein Castle sits atop a rock ledge in the Bavarian Alps.

Even if you haven't heard of Neuschwanstein Castle, there's a good chance you've at least seen pictures of it. Set atop a tree-covered rock ledge in the Bavarian Alps, the picturesque castle looks like it was conjured straight out of a fairy tale. In fact, it served as inspiration for Disney Imagineers as they designed "Sleeping Beauty's Castle" in Disneyland, and it's regularly named the top castle to visit in Germany.

There are estimated to be around 25,000 castles in Germany, but Neuschwanstein is unique among them. Most notably, it's not a real castle and never was. While it bears the look and feel of a well-preserved medieval castle, it was actually built in the 19th century, and rather than serving as a fortress, it served as the fantasy castle of an eccentric king obsessed with Richard Wagner's operas and medieval mythology.

Ludwig II came to the Bavarian throne in 1864 at age 18 with no experience in government or politics. Two years later, Prussia conquered Austria and Bavaria, and Ludwig's powerful status as king was greatly diminished. Not that he was particularly interested in governance anyway; he was more drawn to the romantic idea of having his own kingdom.

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interesting history

Pop Culture

People share the 18 things that are a 'subtle sign' someone is really smart

"They effortlessly communicate complex concepts in a simple way."

via PixaBay

Albert Einstein

One of the strangest things about being human is that people of lesser intelligence tend to overestimate how smart they are and people who are highly intelligent tend to underestimate how smart they are.

This is called the Dunning-Kruger effect and it’s proven every time you log onto Facebook and see someone from high school who thinks they know more about vaccines than a doctor.

The interesting thing is that even though people are poor judges of their own smarts, we’ve evolved to be pretty good at judging the intelligence of others.