“So scary are the consequences of a collapse of white privilege that many Americans have flocked to a political platform that supports and translates violence against the defenseless as strength,” Toni Morrison wrote, in 2016.

The sixteen-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg says that all she wants is for adults to act on the terrifying information that is all around them. But the impact of her message does not come only from her regard for the facts—she is an uncanny, gifted orator.