Greta Thunberg responds to 'deplorable' sexually explicit cartoon of her

Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg has responded to a vile sexually explicit cartoon of her that was found on a sticker bearing a Canadian oilfield company logo.

The sticker depicts a nude woman engaging in a sexual act with a man. The word 'Greta' is written on the woman's lower back, and a pair of hands pull at the woman's braids.

Printed on a sticker which also bears the logo of X-Site Energy Services, an oilfield company based in Alberta, Canada, the cartoon has caused widespread outrage over the graphic sexual depiction of the 17-year-old activist.

Now Thunberg has addressed the sticker, taking to Twitter with a measured response.

"They are starting to get more and more desperate... This shows that we're winning," she captioned a retweet of an article about the sticker.

There has been widespread outrage since the sticker first came to light earlier this week, with over 3,400 people signing a petition calling for X-Site executives to step down and issue a public apology to Thunberg.

"The graphic in this article is completely deplorable, unacceptable and degrading," Canada's minister of culture, Leela Sharon Aheer, tweeted.

"This is not what our province stands for. Whoever is responsible should be ashamed and apologise immediately."

According to HuffPost, an oil industry worker from Canada claimed the sticker was handed out as promotional material at job sites, then images of them began circulating among colleagues.

"It was completely disgusting and wrong," the anonymous worker said.

He later showed the sticker to Alberta local Michelle Narang, who said she called the general manager of X-Site, Doug Sparrow to ask if he knew about the graphic sticker.

Narang described the sticker as appearing to depict the rape of a minor, to which Sparrow reportedly replied: "She's not a child, she's 17."

The sticker was later investigated by the Royal Canadian mounted Police, who determined it was not considered child pornography and did not constitute a criminal offense.

Sparrow also told City News Edmonton that X-Site was not involved in making the sticker, nor were any of the company's employees.

He also shut down the company's social media pages following intense backlash and online "attacks".