There's no doubt that Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg is one of the most important and controversial people of 2019.

The Swedish teenager came close to winning the Nobel peace prize for her climate change activism, delivered a damning speech to world leaders at the UN Climate Summit, and also inspired the Extinction Rebellion movement: one of the largest collective protests in history.

Check out this video of Greta Thunberg making a speech to world leaders:

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As a result of this, one of her supporters decided to create a mural depicting Thunberg to honor her political demonstrations. But now, that same mural has been vandalized within just a few hours of it being completed.

Artist AJA Louden decorated a wall in the town of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, because he believed in Thunberg's environmentalist advocacy.  However, a few hours after Louden finished the drawing, it was defaced by two different people, who wrote: "Stop the Lies. This is Oil Country!!!"

In a statement delivered to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, one of the anonymous graffiti artists said: "This is Alberta. This is oil country. My father has worked in the oil industry."

Watch the vandal cover Greta's mural with graffiti: 

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They added: "We don't need foreigners coming in and telling us how to run our business, support our families, put food on our tables. I think it's absolutely intolerant of them to tell us how to change our lives and our people. She should go back to her country and try to make her country better. Just shut up until you have solutions."

However, Louden appeared to be indifferent to the fact that his work had been defaced, telling CBC: "Nothing lasts forever - one of my favourite things about that wall is that anyone is allowed to express themselves there, so I'm not upset at all."

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However, this isn't the first time that people have destroyed an image of Thunberg. Recently, an effigy of Greta Thunberg was hung from a bridge in Rome.

Greta Thunberg - the teenage climate activist from Sweden, who condemned world leaders for not taking enough action as far as tackling climate change is concerned - was earlier today named as one of four winners of the 2019 Right Livelihood Award.

The honour is an immense one, not least because the award in question is known as Sweden’s 'alternative Nobel Prize'. Furthermore, each of the four winners will receive a million kronor (roughly $100,000).

This is the moment Greta Thunberg criticised world leaders at a climate summit at the United Nations in New York:

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"People are suffering, people are dying, entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth," Thunberg said in her profound speech.

"How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you're doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight," she continued. "You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency, but no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act then you would be evil and that I refuse to believe."

What many also picked up on was that when the 16-year-old spotted President Donald Trump, who once said climate change was a hoax invented by the Chinese, she appeared to give him this no-nonsense glare:

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In any case, Thunberg won the award "for inspiring and amplifying political demands for urgent climate action reflecting scientific facts," the Right Livelihood Foundation said in a statement, according to Reuters.

Thunberg began protesting outside Swedish parliament about a year ago. Inspired by the young activist, millions of young people all over the world took to the streets to demand their governments to take action in the fight against climate change.

Greta Thunberg has pledged to give a $1m prize she just won to groups that are working to halt climate change and protect the environment, it is revealed.

Thunberg, 17, was awarded the Gulbenkian prize for humanity (a Portugese award) for the away that she has "been able to mobilise younger generations for the cause of climate change and her tenacious struggle to alter a status quo that persists,” said chair of the prize jury Jorge Sampaio.

Watch Greta Thunberg slam world leaders over their inaction on climate change:

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And Greta Thunberg has already announced her intention to donate the prize fund to climate groups, posting a video to Twitter to express her gratitude for the award. Per the Guardian, she said in the video;

“That is more money than I can begin to imagine, but all the prize money will be donated, through my foundation, to different organisations and projects who are working to help people on the front line, affected by the climate crisis and ecological crisis,”

In a series of tweets, Thunberg wrote of the news;

"I’m extremely honoured to receive the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity. We’re in a climate emergency, and my foundation will as quickly as possible donate all the prize money of 1 million Euros to support ...

"... organisations and projects that are fighting for a sustainable world, defending nature and supporting people already facing the worst impacts of the climate- and ecological crisis - particularly those living in the Global South.

"Starting with giving €100.000 to the SOS Amazonia Campaign led by Fridays For Future Brazil to tackle Covid-19 in the Amazon, and €100.000 to the Stop Ecocide Foundation to support their work to make ecocide an international crime."

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Thunberg has also previously won Amnesty International’s top human rights prize, as well as the Swedish Right Livelihood Award - which is often dubbed as an alternative to the Nobel prize.

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg is getting her own TV series on climate change, the BBC has announced.

As per the television outlet's website, the 17-year-old, who rose to global fame after skipping school to protest the climate change crisis has agreed to document her efforts to save the planet in a documentary series.

It follows her campaign for global change to save the planet from environmental catastrophe, but it also addresses life for Thunberg and how being thrust into the spotlight at such an early age has affected her.

In the video below, Thunberg rebukes world leaders for failing to address the climate change crisis: 

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The series is being created by BBC Studios' Science Unit. However, a potential release date and platform are not yet known.

The Executive Producer for BBC Studios, Rob Liddell, said: "Climate change is probably the most important issue of our lives so it feels timely to make an authoritative series that explores the facts and science behind this complex subject.

"To be able to do this with Greta is an extraordinary privilege, getting an inside view on what it's like being a global icon and one of the most famous faces on the planet."

Trump's former aide was slammed over this 'gross' joke about Greta Thunberg's body:

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Thunberg's activism began in 2018 when she organized a "School Strike for Climate" in front of the Swedish Parliament. It has now evolved into a global movement that has become known as the #FridaysforFuture demonstrations.

Thunberg hit the headlines earlier this month after being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for a second year running. Meanwhile, in January, she once again rebuked world leaders at the World Economic Forum.

The Swedish activist, who was named TIME magazine's Person of the Year for 2019, stated: "Pretty much nothing has been done since the global emissions of CO2 has not reduced. If you see it from that aspect, what has concretely been done, if you see it from a bigger perspective, basically nothing ... it will require much more than this, this is just the very beginning."

On Monday, an effigy of the very passionate teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg was hung from a highway bridge in Rome, Insider reports.

The effigy of the 16-year-old was hung near the Italian capital's main international airport Fiumicino and included Greta's trademark pigtails and a yellow poncho.

This is the moment Greta Thunberg criticized world leaders at a climate summit at the United Nations in New York:

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Virginia Raggi, the mayor of Rome, tweeted to condemn the "shameful" act. Raggi also expressed her solidarity with the young activist.

A translation of the tweet reads: "The Greta Thunberg dummy found hanging from a bridge in our city is shameful. My solidarity is with her, her family and all of Rome. Our efforts with the climate [change] don't stop here."

According to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the effigy also came with a sign which read: "Greta is Your God!" The same publication reported that the effigy was removed from the bridge by firefighters and local police.

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The teenager drew worldwide attention when, at a climate summit at the United Nations in New York, she condemned world leaders for not taking enough action to tackle climate change.

"People are suffering, people are dying, entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth," Thunberg said in her profound speech.

"How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you're doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight," she continued. "You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency, but no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act then you would be evil and that I refuse to believe."