The Impact of a Teen Climate Activist and the Internet
By: Mallory Johnson
At the tail end of 2022, social media personality, businessman, and former professional kickboxer Andrew Tate posted a now infamous tweet addressed to 19-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg. The tweet bragged about his 33 cars, and how they have very high carbon emissions. This tweet caused a chain reaction that led to Andrew and his brother being charged with sex trafficking in Romania. Let’s start at the beginning.
On December 27th, Andrew Tate tweeted, along with a photo of him with a car of his:
“Hello Greta Thunberg
I have 33 cars.
My Bugatti has a w16 8.0L quad turbo.
My TWO Ferrari 812 competizione have 6.5L v12s.
This is just the start.
Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions.”
Greta Thunberg quoted Andrew’s tweet in a joking manner, saying,
“Yes, please do enlighten me. Email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com” to which Andrew replied, “How dare you?” Greta’s tweet quickly became one of the most liked tweets on Twitter, with millions of likes. According to sportskeeda.com, this was “ten times the likes of Tate’s post.”
Shortly after this, Andrew Tate posted a two-minute rant video that was the beginning of the end for him and his brother. In the video, he is ranting about Greta Thunberg and climate activism. He orders pizza, with the pizza chain’s name and logo clearly visible. As he is being passed the pizza box, he says, “let’s make sure this box is never recycled!” The thing is, he got pizza from a chain that is exclusive to Romania. The Romanian authorities have been waiting for confirmation that the brothers are in Romania so that they can arrest them for sex trafficking. Once the rant was posted, the authorities received their confirmation and arrested the brothers. Shortly after this, Greta tweeted “This is why you always recycle pizza boxes.” I saw screenshots of Andrew’s website on Twitter, and it was horrifying. He brags about his career and how he abuses women. Recently, news broke that all of Andrew’s 33 cars were being seized. In conclusion, do not mess with Greta Thunberg!