SHE’S the icon of a young generation rising up against climate change. But Greta Thunberg also stirs up derision and scorn among those who see her as a mere puppet of eco-evangelism.

At 16, the Swede has become the voice for millions of worried youths who sort their garbage, clean beaches, turn their noses up at meat and airplanes, and vote for green parties.

Just over a year ago, at the start of the school year, the then-ninth grade student left her books at home and began sitting outside the Swedish parliament to raise awareness about the climate emergency.

Her “school strike” made the rounds of social media before gaining momentum in the international press — and the “Fridays for Future” movement was born.

The Greta phenomenon went viral. Her Twitter and Instagram accounts now have more than 6 million followers.

As the unofficial spokesperson for her generation, Thunberg wants to sound the alarm about global warming among the world’s politicians, as witnessed in her rousing “How Dare You?” speech at the U.N. climate summit Monday.

“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words,” she thundered, visibly angry and close to tears.

The teen has spurred millions of youths to protest, drawn by her fragile intrepidness, her steely determination in sharp contrast to her young voice.

All of that drives her detractors crazy. For the most scornful, such as Australian columnist Andrew Bolt, Thunberg’s a doomsayer, “the deeply disturbed messiah of the global warming movement,” with the neuroses of an autistic teenager [she has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome].

It’s all because “she’s powerful,” said Canadian biologist Severn Cullis-Suzuki who once found herself in Thunberg’s position. At the age of 12, she addressed the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992.

“She’s calling for a revolution so of course she’s getting pushback. They try to silence her” by discrediting her, Cullis-Suzuki said.

Extraordinary, almost mystical references abound when it comes to Thunberg, born in 2003 in the least “religious or spiritual” country on the planet.

Famed French environmentalist and wildlife photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand has called her “a miracle.” Former U.S. President Barack Obama said she was “changing the world.”

French philosopher Michel Onfray described her as a “cyborg” while U.S. conservative commentator Michael Knowles said she was a “mentally ill” teen responsible for “climate hysteria.”

Some studies declare her rise to fame is more orchestrated than first thought, with PR marketing consultant Ingmar Rentzhog and her mom, well-known opera singer Malena Ernman, serving to her fame discovery.

Thunberg’s climate struggle began quietly in August 2018 when she skipped school for the first three weeks, and then on Fridays to spend the day outside Sweden’s parliament with a sign labeled “School strike for climate.”

Since then, Thunberg, most often seen wearing her hair in tightly knit braids, has diligently continued her weekly protest until recently.

“I’m planning to continue until Sweden is in line with the Paris agreement and that might take a while,” she said in late 2018.

Her demands have attracted attention. She has been asked to address global leaders and has now adorned the cover of international magazines such as Time and Vogue.

Around the world, young activists have heard the call and modeled protests of their own after Thunberg’s, leading to both praise and criticism.

“We are after all just children. You don’t have to listen to us,” she said during a speech to France’s National Assembly in July, responding to some of her critics.

It was in school, when Thunberg was about “8 or 9,” that her interest in climate issues was first piqued.

“My teachers told me that I should save paper and turn off the lights. I asked them why and they said because there’s something called climate change and global warming, caused by humans,” Thunberg said.

The notion was strange to the young girl, who felt that if that was the case, “then we would not be talking about anything else.”

Since then she has stopped eating meat, drinking milk and buying new things unless “absolutely necessary.”

Thunberg’s family, who lives in a spacious and cozy Stockholm apartment, has also made changes to their lifestyle.

As an opera singer, her mother Ernman used to travel the world, but she has bowed to her daughter’s cause and given up on flights, now performing only in Nordic countries.

Her mother, father Svante Thunberg, an actor turned producer, and younger sister Beata became aware of how much the climate issue weighed on Thunberg’s shoulders when she became depressed.

At age 11 Thunberg stopped eating, started missing school and even stopped talking as the “existential threat” of climate change loomed overhead, her father said.

When she was 12, Thunberg was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, a mild form of autism.

“My brain works a bit differently so I see the world from a different perspective,” Thunberg said.

“I am very direct, I say it the way it is, and when I decide to do something, I do it without doubt,” she continued, adding that she considers her condition a strength.

Thunberg, who graduated from the ninth grade in June, has had to catch up on her studies from abroad due to her many travels.

That hasn’t stopped her from getting mostly straight A’s, with the exception of physical education and home economics.

“If I hadn’t striked from school and traveled so much, I could have gotten an A in all subjects,” she confessed to newspaper Dagens Nyheter in June.

“But it’s worth it,” she quickly added.

In April, Thunberg met Pope Francis in Rome as part of the second anniversary of “Laudato Si,” the Catholic Church’s encyclical on ecology and climate change, whose subtitle “On Care for Our Common Home” echoes Thunberg’s own words of “Our house is on fire.”

Critics say that kind of language muddles the climate fight’s scientific message, hurts technological innovation and masks other environmental challenges.

“The climate issue has eclipsed all other environmental issues like cruelty to animals, the meat industry and pesticides. And those who question [Thunberg’s] positioning are quickly accused of being climate sceptics,” political scientist Katarina Barrling said.

Thunberg has also been accused of sowing anxiety rather than delivering a rational argument.

“I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day,” she told the World Economic Forum in Davos in January.

Lately, she seems to have changed her tune. “I want you to listen to the scientists,” she urged the U.S. Congress last week.

While the teen’s upbraiding of adults has irritated some abroad, her comments raise few eyebrows in Sweden.

Her impudence, pigtail braids and baby face are reminiscent of the famous storybook character Pippi Longstocking, an emancipated child experiencing the world on her own — a model drawn from Sweden’s education system and its child-rearing traditions.

“It’s no coincidence that Thunberg is Swedish. I don’t think she would have existed without Pippi or Lisbeth Salander,” the tattoed hacker from the “Millennium” crime series, according to Swedish essayist Elisabeth Asbrink.

Barrling, the analyst, said that “for decades the Swedish school curriculum has prioritized students’ critical thinking rather than accumulation of knowledge.”

But what good has Thunberg really done?

She’s defending human rights, said an international organization which earlier this month honored her and Fridays for Future with a top prize. Thunberg has also been nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

The Nobel committee has honored environmentalists in the past — Al Gore, the IPCC, Wangari Maathai of Kenya — linking their work to democracy efforts.

But Thunberg’s contribution remains to be seen, said Henrik Urdal, the head of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo.

“She’s been creating a very impressive momentum on climate change, [but] the question is: Is this relevant for the peace prize?” he said.(SD-Agencies)