Science Greta Thunberg Megathread - Dax Herrera says he wouldn't have a day ago (I somewhat doubt that)

Why is Greta Thunberg so triggering? How can a 16-year-old girl in plaits, who has dedicated herself to the not-exactly sinister, authoritarian plot of trying to save the planet from extinction, inspire such incandescent rage?

Last week, she tweeted that she had arrived into New York after her two week transatlantic voyage: “Finally here. Thank you everyone who came to see me off in Plymouth, and everyone who welcomed me in New York! Now I’m going to rest for a few days, and on Friday I’m going to participate in the strike outside the UN”, before promptly giving a press conference in English. Yes, her second language.

Her remarks were immediately greeted with a barrage of jibes about virtue signalling, and snide remarks about the three crew members who will have to fly out to take the yacht home.

This shouldn’t need to be spelled out, but as some people don’t seem to have grasped it yet, we’ll give it a lash: Thunberg’s trip was an act of protest, not a sacred commandment or an instruction manual for the rest of us. Like all acts of protest, it was designed to be symbolic and provocative. For those who missed the point – and oh, how they missed the point – she retweeted someone else’s “friendly reminder” that: “You don’t need to spend two weeks on a boat to do your part to avert our climate emergency. You just need to do everything you can, with everyone you can, to change everything you can.”

Part of the reason she inspires such rage, of course, is blindingly obvious. Climate change is terrifying. The Amazon is burning. So too is the Savannah. Parts of the Arctic are on fire. Sea levels are rising. There are more vicious storms and wildfires and droughts and floods. Denial is easier than confronting the terrifying truth.

Then there’s the fact that we don’t like being made to feel bad about our life choices. That’s human nature. It’s why we sneer at vegans. It’s why we’re suspicious of sober people at parties. And if anything is likely to make you feel bad about your life choices -- as you jet back home after your third Ryanair European minibreak this season – it’ll be the sight of small-boned child subjecting herself to a fortnight being tossed about on the Atlantic, with only a bucket bearing a “Poo Only Please” sign by way of luxury, in order to make a point about climate change.

But that’s not virtue signalling, which anyone can indulge in. As Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, and their-four-private-jets-in-11-days found recently, virtue practising is a lot harder.

Even for someone who spends a lot of time on Twitter, some of the criticism levelled at Thunberg is astonishing. It is, simultaneously, the most vicious and the most fatuous kind of playground bullying. The Australian conservative climate change denier Andrew Bolt called her “deeply disturbed” and “freakishly influential” (the use of “freakish”, we can assume, was not incidental.) The former UKIP funder, Arron Banks, tweeted “Freaking yacht accidents do happen in August” (as above.) Brendan O’Neill of Spiked called her a “millenarian weirdo” (nope, still not incidental) in a piece that referred nastily to her “monotone voice” and “the look of apocalyptic dread in her eyes”.

But who’s the real freak – the activist whose determination has single-handedly started a powerful global movement for change, or the middle-aged man taunting a child with Asperger syndrome from behind the safety of their computer screens?

And that, of course, is the real reason why Greta Thunberg is so triggering. They can’t admit it even to themselves, so they ridicule her instead. But the truth is that they’re afraid of her. The poor dears are terrified of her as an individual, and of what she stands for – youth, determination, change.

She is part of a generation who won’t be cowed. She isn’t about to be shamed into submission by trolls. That’s not actually a look of apocalyptic dread in her eyes. It’s a look that says “you’re not relevant”.

The reason they taunt her with childish insults is because that’s all they’ve got. They’re out of ideas. They can’t dismantle her arguments, because she has science – and David Attenborough – on her side. They can’t win the debate with the persuasive force of their arguments, because these bargain bin cranks trade in jaded cynicism, not youthful passion. They can harangue her with snide tweets and hot take blogposts, but they won’t get a reaction because, frankly, she has bigger worries on her mind.

That’s not to say that we should accept everything Thunberg says without question. She is an idealist who is young enough to see the world in black and white. We need voices like hers. We should listen to what she has to say, without tuning the more moderate voices of dissent out.

Why is Greta Thunberg so triggering? Because of what she represents. In an age when democracy is under assault, she hints at the emergency of new kind of power, a convergence of youth, popular protest and irrefutable science. And for her loudest detractors, she also represents something else: the sight of their impending obsolescence hurtling towards them.

joconnell@irishtimes.com
https://twitter.com/jenoconnell

https://web.archive.org/web/2019090...certain-men-1.4002264?localLinksEnabled=false
Found this thought-provoking indeed.

 

[George Floyd Sneed]

I still don't understand why anyone would listen to a fugly sixteen year old vegan with autismo who had a tantrum at the UN.

I will point out that it’s been at least a month since anyone has paid attention to her. She’s yesterday’s news. That mural will be repainted with something else in a few months, probably sooner if pee oh cees complain enough.

 

[The Great Chandler]

I just had a stupid dream last night were she constantly screams "HOW DARE YOU HOW DARE YOU" to her bodyguards. You think she does this autism pretty often?

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

I will point out that it’s been at least a month since anyone has paid attention to her. She’s yesterday’s news. That mural will be repainted with something else in a few months, probably sooner if pee oh cees complain enough.

You have any of those people in your life that insist XYZ story that was posted yesterday is the worst and most important disaster ever and we need to change it now now now, but if you ask them a month later they've forgotten about it entirely and are onto whatever new thing WaPo told them to throw a tantrum about? Those are the only people who ever took her seriously in the first place.

 

[Malagor the dank omen]

You have any of those people in your life that insist XYZ story that was posted yesterday is the worst and most important disaster ever and we need to change it now now now, but if you ask them a month later they've forgotten about it entirely and are onto whatever new thing WaPo told them to throw a tantrum about? Those are the only people who ever took her seriously in the first place.

Like i said, many people like Greta are just there to give journos clicks and keep the revenue up. They need disasters, drama and horrible things so people give them a tiny sliver of attention to their inane garbage. Because if it's for honest to god news we have far more professional people that do it for much less than them.

They need to keep generating new stuff to keep the presses going. Like you say, Greta will eventually become past century news and people will remember her as this kid that threw tantrums and looked like a pudgy gnoblar. They will move on to whatever new thing the LGBTQOUCHMYLETTERS claim to be fighting for, new race riots provoked by a thug getting gunned down or elections not going the way they want.

 

[Arkancide Pact]

Looks like you don't know what adjusted data is. It's not "lol we gonna adjust the data by adding 2 degrees lmao haha people won't find out".

In statistics, an adjusted data set will use some kind of algorithm to account for certain inherent biases that exist in the data set. Even though the biased data might not have a grand impact, it's still something that must be avoided since it violates one of the fundamental premises of statistics.

Climate change is real or otherwise is beyond the point here. No sampling method is perfect, there's stupid stuff such as human errors, instrumental calibration integrity and what-not. In an ideal world, all this should be accounted for.

Actually, I do. I know all about instrument calibration and correcting for measuring bias. They didn't adjust current temps upward 3 degrees, that'd be idiotic and obvious. They adjusted old temps downward, making the past retroactively colder.

The claimed reason is to make up for measurement bias. But the explanation doesn't hold water because the urban heat island effect is stronger now, not 100 years ago.

My point is, the data is right there in the open, the entirety of the warming of the past 100 years, all 2.5 degrees, is only in the adjusted data. The raw data directly from the instruments doesn't show any warming.

It's up to you if you buy their explanation, when they bother to acknowledge this discrepancy, which is rare. But all those scary upward graphs you see are based on arbitrarily adjusted numbers.

 

[MrJokerRager]

I will point out that it’s been at least a month since anyone has paid attention to her. She’s yesterday’s news. That mural will be repainted with something else in a few months, probably sooner if pee oh cees complain enough.

Since when does California listen to pocs. Black people stoped gay marriage from being legalised there ironically and they had to use the State Supreme Court to reverse that, so much for the will of the people. It's mostly white liberals and progressives that will cause that mural to be changed. Or better, paint over that George Washington mural with Greta being golden showered by mandingos.

Edit: on a side note, a cheerleader from my college days that I cyberstalk said she liked her on her social media page, still does not stop my cyber stalking and lurking.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

I will point out that it’s been at least a month since anyone has paid attention to her. She’s yesterday’s news. That mural will be repainted with something else in a few months, probably sooner if pee oh cees complain enough.

Meanwhile we'll enjoy the birds giving some nice additions to that mural with some birds droppings.

 

[heathercho]

Apparently someone found a photo of a Greta clone in the Uni of Washington Archives.

Three children operating rocker at a gold mine on Dominion Creek, Yuk…

archived 18 Nov 2019 01:06:03 UTC

archive.li

Three children operating rocker at a gold mine on Dominion Creek, Yukon Territory, ca. 1898

digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu

This lil' Greta could argue her childhood was "stolen", she had to work in the gold mines. Though, I guess she's mining and destroying the planet, so her childhood means jackshit. The irony.

 

[AltisticRight]

Actually, I do. I know all about instrument calibration and correcting for measuring bias. They didn't adjust current temps upward 3 degrees, that'd be idiotic and obvious. They adjusted old temps downward, making the past retroactively colder.

The claimed reason is to make up for measurement bias. But the explanation doesn't hold water because the urban heat island effect is stronger now, not 100 years ago.

My point is, the data is right there in the open, the entirety of the warming of the past 100 years, all 2.5 degrees, is only in the adjusted data. The raw data directly from the instruments doesn't show any warming.

It's up to you if you buy their explanation, when they bother to acknowledge this discrepancy, which is rare. But all those scary upward graphs you see are based on arbitrarily adjusted numbers.

Point taken, I'll retract my somewhat ignorant statement, my apologies.

Do I buy their explanations, obviously not. This is hysteria, not science. Even if it was science originally, the bandwagon has been derailed and now it's about power grabbing and population control.

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

I just had a stupid dream last night were she constantly screams "HOW DARE YOU HOW DARE YOU" to her bodyguards. You think she does this autism pretty often?

Ive never seen those three words expressed by anyone but high-society elderly, often as a defensive card to pull on being called out on bullshit. I'm on board with her mother teaching her this kind of lingo, and for once I'm fine with an entire human being's existence being to bring relevance to an issue for a few weeks. Bill Gates has already been on high pressure in cleaning out third world problems, but hey if this brat managed to escape the claws of middle-eastern "swedes" and got to add a bit of positivity to the world, good on her.

Now fuck off back to school, you've done your work.

 

[Pumpkin Girl IRL]

I just had a stupid dream last night were she constantly screams "HOW DARE YOU HOW DARE YOU" to her bodyguards. You think she does this autism pretty often?

Dreaming about her is the bigger warning sign here, I think.

 

[Arkancide Pact]

Point taken, I'll retract my somewhat ignorant statement, my apologies.

Do I buy their explanations, obviously not. This is hysteria, not science. Even if it was science originally, the bandwagon has been derailed and now it's about power grabbing and population control.

Oh no offense taken, it's hard to tell genuine disagreement or misunderstandings from knee jerk denial sometimes.

It was the 10 year anniversary of climategate this weekend. Remember that, when the emails leaked about them modifying climate records to hide trends that disagreed with their ridiculous "hockey stick" graph? And then the media was like "it's ok it's still totally legit".

And for some reason it worked....

 

[Freddy Freaker]

Oh no offense taken, it's hard to tell genuine disagreement or misunderstandings from knee jerk denial sometimes.

It was the 10 year anniversary of climategate this weekend. Remember that, when the emails leaked about them modifying climate records to hide trends that disagreed with their ridiculous "hockey stick" graph? And then the media was like "it's ok it's still totally legit".

And for some reason it worked....

Because they'd already succeeded in turning climate science into a psuedo-religious doomsday cult among millenials. They're also good at burying previous incorrect "settled science" going back to the 70s. And a lot of people will call just say you're a denier/conspiracy theorist/MAGA chud if you try to point it out

 

[Karl der Grosse]

Not winning the Nobel Peace Prize really took the sails out of her whole campaign. She's Kony 2012, only less impressive since at least those guys managed to make a movie. No, she's more like Kony 2012 on Facebook, a free and easy way for people to virtue signal without ever actually doing anything.

 

[Freddy Freaker]

Not winning the Nobel Peace Prize really took the sails out of her whole campaign. She's Kony 2012, only less impressive since at least those guys managed to make a movie. No, she's more like Kony 2012 on Facebook, a free and easy way for people to virtue signal without ever actually doing anything.

So does that mean she's gonna be caught masturbating on the street in Stockholm and picked up by MAP activists?

 

[Karl der Grosse]

If she does, she'll be dropped from the sequel, just like that Kony dude.

 

[AnOminous]

Not winning the Nobel Peace Prize really took the sails out of her whole campaign. She's Kony 2012, only less impressive since at least those guys managed to make a movie. No, she's more like Kony 2012 on Facebook, a free and easy way for people to virtue signal without ever actually doing anything.

She's like the Kony dude who went nuts and started publicly masturbating. I wonder when her public autistic screechdown will be.

So does that mean she's gonna be caught masturbating on the street in Stockholm and picked up by MAP activists?

She seems barely functional and autistic as hell and it seems nearly inevitable she'll eventually decompensate in public, although it may somehow be written off as incredibly brave and beautiful like it has been so far.

 

[Tasty Tatty]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=qLPbnJ3Kbu4
Apparently someone found a photo of a Greta clone in the Uni of Washington Archives.
View attachment 1013508

Three children operating rocker at a gold mine on Dominion Creek, Yuk…

archived 18 Nov 2019 01:06:03 UTC

archive.li

Three children operating rocker at a gold mine on Dominion Creek, Yukon Territory, ca. 1898

digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu

This lil' Greta could argue her childhood was "stolen", she had to work in the gold mines. Though, I guess she's mining and destroying the planet, so her childhood means jackshit. The irony.

OMG, they're cloning them, just like the Eves in the X-Files.

 

[Farmer Dave]

i'm not naive enough to see the hypocrisy of a bunch of 1st worlders claiming they're saving the earth while also directly benifitng from a system that exploits the environment, but i don't get why so many people in this thread are opposesed to enviormentalism. i like nature. pollution is bad. strip-mining is bad. i don't see how any of these opinions are controversial.

 

[Dante Alighieri]

i'm not naive enough to see the hypocrisy of a bunch of 1st worlders claiming they're saving the earth while also directly benifitng from a system that exploits the environment, but i don't get why so many people in this thread are opposesed to enviormentalism. i like nature. pollution is bad. strip-mining is bad. i don't see how any of these opinions are controversial.

Environmentalism is shit and has been hijacked by authoritarian cunts who push for everything that just happens to give the fucks in government more power and more money while making life harder for me and my family.

I've done more for the environment by picking up trash in a park than this autistic swedish bitch and her sycophants.