Arctic coverage is highlighted as Greta Thunberg guest-edits biggest Swedish daily

Thawing permafrost featured on the front cover, while a story of ice loss in the Barents Sea was featured.

By Deutsche Presse-Agentur - December 7, 2020
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Climate protection activist Greta Thunberg speaks to participants of the climate demonstration Fridays for Future. Thunberg worked as guest editor-in-chief for one day in the biggest Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter. (Christian Charisius / DPA)

STOCKHOLM — Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter’s edition that appeared on Sunday was dominated by climate-related articles, reflecting teen climate activist Greta Thunberg’s one-day stint as guest editor-in-chief.

The first section featured a headline photo of a huge crater in Siberia illustrating how the permafrost is melting, and a feature article about a village in Russia’ Arctic at the shores of the Barents Sea where the ice has disappeared.

In the arts section, Thunberg, 17, engaged in a conversation with Sir David Attenborough, 94, on raising awareness about climate change.

[Greta Thunberg joins climate protest in Arctic Sweden]

“Handing over responsibility for Sweden’s largest daily newspaper to a minor, an uneducated activist is completely incomprehensible. It’s crazy. If it were not for the absurd fact that we are in an existential crisis that is still ignored by our society,” Thunberg wrote in a editorial.

Thunberg has inspired a global movement calling for action on climate change, and often criticized mainstream media outlets for failing to give sufficient attention to the climate crisis.

Earlier this year she met Dagens Nyheter staff to discuss the issues.

The meeting, along with feedback from readers who have also voiced criticism of the newspaper’s coverage of the climate crisis, prompted the invitation to Thunberg, said editor-in-chief Peter Wolodarski.

The paper sells about 350,000 copies daily and reaches around 1 million people online.

A year ago, Thunberg was invited to be guest editor for a day at British broadcaster BBC’s Radio 4.

Anna Careborg, editor-in-chief of Dagens Nyheter’s Stockholm rival Svenska Dagbladet, has said she would not mirror the initiative, citing it risked blurring the line between news and opinion journalism.

Reporting by Lennart Simonsson in Lahti, Finland.