Two weeks on the open sea have come to an end: If the wind doesn’t let them down, Greta Thunberg is likely to arrive in New York on Wednesday. The United Nations want to provide a special welcome.
Photo series with 17 pictures
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After two weeks on the Atlantic, the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is about to arrive in New York. On Wednesday morning, the 16-year-old and her team were on the racing yacht “Malizia” less than 100 kilometers as the crow flies from the North Cove Marina in Manhattan. At a distance of 51 nautical miles (94 kilometers) the boat with the sailing professional Boris Herrmann from Oldenburg was much slower than before. The team expected an arrival in the afternoon New York time – in Germany it will be between 7 and 11 p.m.
This marks the end of an adventurous sailing trip across the pond for the 16-year-old. The northern German sailing professional Boris Herrmann and his co-skipper Pierre Casiraghi set out on August 14th in Plymouth in southern England with her, her father Svante and a filmmaker on the “Malizia”. It was planned that the transatlantic trip should last about 14 days.
The UN sent 17 boats to greet them
Thunberg himself also seems to be looking forward to the arrival. She posted this photo on Instagram with the comment: “Country! The lights of Long Island and New York City are ahead.”
To greet Thunberg, the United Nations want to send 17 sailing boats out onto the water in front of Manhattan. Each of them stands for one of the UN sustainability goals and has a corresponding symbol on the sail, as the UN announced to the German Press Agency on Tuesday upon request. There is also a guide boat. The sustainability goals are considered the global resolutions of the United Nations and its member states. In addition to the increased commitment to the climate crisis, they also include the fight against poverty or for equal rights for women.
Several factors play a role in arrival
Exact arrival times for longer sailing passages like that of Thunberg are difficult to predict – especially across an ocean. The “Malizia” had partly made use of strong winds, but before New York these decreased considerably, which had an effect on the speed of the sailboat. When arriving in New York, three other factors also play a role: On the one hand, the racing yacht has to travel up the Hudson River to the harbor, which, depending on the forecast light winds, can take up to four hours. On the other hand, the boat has a draft of almost five meters, which is why it can only enter two hours before and two hours after high tide. In addition, US Customs is closed at 10 p.m. at night.
Thunberg does not take air travel because it emits a particularly large number of climate-damaging greenhouse gases. That is why she decided to make the way across the Atlantic on an ocean-going sailing yacht.
Greta Thunberg (l), climate activist and skipper Boris Herrmann wave from the board of the ocean-going yacht “Malizia”. Photo: Kirsty Wigglesworth / Archives
A year ago, the young Swede sat in front of the Reichstag in Stockholm to protest for her country’s more courageous commitment to the climate. From their once lonely “school strike for the climate”, the international climate protection movement “Fridays for Future” has since developed. In many German cities, too, a number of students no longer go to school on Fridays, but rather take to the streets to go on climate strike. Scientists and many others have now joined their protest.
Thunberg is less known in the USA
On the other side of the ocean, Thunberg wants to take her fight against the climate crisis to a new level. And that should become a real task in the USA: In the country of the coal-friendly government of President Donald Trump, it is less well known than in Europe, where it has meanwhile thousands of supporters – and has contributed to a rethinking of the climate in many social classes. The USA is one of the countries that emits the most CO2 worldwide, Trump has withdrawn the country from the Paris climate agreement – there is a lot of work waiting for Thunberg overseas.
After their arrival, however, a few days of rest are initially planned. Afterwards, in addition to the United Nations youth climate summit on September 21 and the UN climate summit of the heads of state and government two days later, a series of large climate protests await them. She also wants to meet other activists, decision-makers and those affected by climate change. In December she will then take part in the World Climate Conference in Chile, South America. The Swede took a year off from school for all of this.
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