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.

 

[Wallace]

Lets ignore any discussion about her sincerity, or the people backing her. Let’s be charitable and assume she’s just a well-intentioned, motivated activist. If that’s the case, there’s wrong with that, and it’s miles more than what most people are willing to achieve.

The thing that makes the situation seem fucked to me is how her message it’s being propogated. It’s not being used to elevate discussion on the climate, it’s being used to build panic, urgency and mindless devotion to the current orthodoxy of “solutions”. It’s being used to build a case for empowering the institutions she’s addressing to a dangerous degree.

People are treating her message as an excuse to oversimplify an unimaginably complex problem into an emotional appeal, without thinking about the consequences. It’s politics as usual, and some people are just being asshole about it, but I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss anyone wanting to peel back the bullshit as just being butthurt about a little blonde girl.

One of the problems is that the message from environmentalists has changed recently. We are now past the tipping point of irreparable damage to the planet; even if every industrialized country in the world were to stop all carbon emissions overnight, it would be too late. That doesn't encourage people to change their ways, it does the opposite.

 

[Duke Nukem]

I just love how all these politician and activist types like to whine about how we're killing the planet while they fly around in planes that spew mountains of greenhouse gases and have gourmet meals in five star hotels and shit. I haven't seen a single activist pick up trash from a Los Angeles street full of hobos or give up their luxury items that aren't always environmentally friendly (especially iPhones which as a bonus are made in China, the biggest polluter in the world)

No, they just tell us to shut up, live in pods or shitty communal housing, drive Priuses, and eat bugs for protein. Swedish scientists are even advocating cannibalism to "fight climate change" so LOL at the idea of taking anyone from Sweden seriously.

 

[Haramburger]

I love that Hogg is basically forgotten at this point.

It's only a matter of time until he's caught doing gay porn now.

He was already in the backseat to his fellow female students and a dog driving a truck. Now, with Greta stealing the limelight? Hogg's gonna shoot up a false flag in an attempt to score pitybux, I'm certain of it.

 

[NoSpiceLife]

Has that letter she wrote been posted yet, where she states that her parents have nothing to do with pushing her, she has no team behind her, she writes all her own stuff, etc., throws in her Ted talk for shits and giggles? Just wondered if anyone knows who she wrote it to?

 

[Knojkamarangasan_#4]

Considering her flashback thread (swedish forum thats similar to kf although more general stuff too but is similar in many way) why haven’t she been moved into the careercow section yet? Her parents are desmondareamazing levels of crazy and a proper english op exposing their shady past would be kinda justified. I’m so sick of this media parade and downright mass hysteria of a ”poor girl” than can legally fuck here in Sweden. It’s ridiculous and anyone who isnt a raging psychotic leftist can see through it but yeah its much easier to just go around doing what’s trendy. Man I’m so happy seeing Kont2012’s spiritual succsessor Greta2019

...sigh

 

[Hux]

The only reason why her backers and the rest of their activist/corporatist ilk refuse to say anything about China or India is because then they know that they'll have to answer for their NIMBYism that made the push to relocate all of the west's heavy industry to those countries. These people did nothing to help the Earth, all they did was just have it be pushed somewhere else. That shit is basically the equivalent of telling a kid to clean the reeking garbage out of their room only to come back to find out that, despite the room being clean, they just shoved all that shit in their closet and called it a day despite the stink still being there

 

[Iwasamwillbe]

Did anyone post the Trump tweet blowing Greta off with sarcasm yet?

 

[Secret Asshole]

She's a severely malnourished, mentally ill vegan. Her parents are fucktarded scum, exploiting their kid for massive amounts of money. The future is going to suck for her once people grow tired of her 'celebrity' status. Nobody likes getting talked down to by children, let alone a sped. She doesn't realize this because she's autistic and probably brain damaged from malnutrition combined with a vegan diet. I mean people have already commented on her appearance. Stress, malnutrition and a terrible fucking vegan diet will age the ever living fuck out of you.

Also, her parents stole her childhood. Nobody else.

 

[Sheryl Nome]

the age of consent in sweden is 15, and thats horrifying.

Greta could have had sex already and really maybe humanity should end

 

[InvertedDickEnthusiast]

Did anyone post the Trump tweet blowing Greta off with sarcasm yet?

A few, yeah. Such a good troll.

 

[Red Hood]

I didn't ever hear the Tragedy of Greta Thunberg. It's not a story the climate activists would tell me. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

For real though, I feel so bad for this kid. It was heartrending watching her in that latest speech. She starts to tear up right as everyone in the room patronizingly laughs off her "we'll be watching you" opener (and why not? That line would be a joke coming from an adult, let alone a child). From there she struggles to stay composed enough to regurgitate this meaningless script she's been handed. She has to fulfill her duty as the climate activism mouthpiece after all, right? And if she succumbs to the pressure and fucks it up, she's done: there's no coming back from that.

Why are her parents okay with her becoming such a spectacle?

Because they likely profit from it.

 

[Sheryl Nome]

Why the fuck is she suing France of all countries? We’re literally an example of how nuclear energy should be used.

Hell, even Macron, our highly unpopular, corporate puppet President that’s been courting the French Green lobby for months now, gave up and said Greta’s speech is “too extreme” , and that he doesn’t think that “France is delayed” when it comes to reducing its emissions.

He also said that Greta Thunberg tries to “antagonise our societies”, that Poland is way worse than France when it comes to polluting, and that, if French youth is so worried about climate and the environment (speaking of the Climate March this weekend in Paris), they should just spend a day per week cleaning up beaches or something instead of protesting.

As much as I dislike Macron, he does have very good points there, points that I never would’ve expected from someone so desperate to rim the Greens for votes.

Its fine, France is going to get rid of all of its nuclear energy

France to close 14 nuclear reactors by 2035: Macron

President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that France would shut down 14 of the country's 58 nuclear reactors currently in operation by 2035, of which between four and six will be closed by 2030.

phys.org

now eat those bugs, bigot.

 

[Kane Lives]

I don't get it. Why should I listen to a hysterical teen telling me things that she likely only half-understands or more likely, being fed to her by her handlers?

Do these dimwits think people are that gullible? Don't answer that, it's rhetorical.

 

[Wendy Wheelchair]

Greta Thunsperg is her official name, JSYK

 

[Iwasamwillbe]

Cross-posted from the Trump thread

Notice the uptick of "young people" rhetoric coming from leftists and Democrats right now.

They're blatantly trying to manipulate children at this point.

 

[Dynastier]

Cross-posted from the Trump thread

Notice the uptick of "young people" rhetoric coming from leftists and Democrats right now.

They're blatantly trying to manipulate children at this point.

They also want them to be able to vote.

This is obviously an indication that they realize their ideas are good and logical. Children are well known for their critical thinking skills and life experience.

 

[Crystal Golem]

Did you see the picture of AOC towering over this girl? AOC is 5'4

So wait is greta sub 5'?

 

[FierceBrosnan]

Its fine, France is going to get rid of all of its nuclear energy

France to close 14 nuclear reactors by 2035: Macron

President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that France would shut down 14 of the country's 58 nuclear reactors currently in operation by 2035, of which between four and six will be closed by 2030.

phys.org

now eat those bugs, bigot.

So what's the alternative or is this happening the typical bureaucratic fashion where they make one really big dumbass decision with 0 followup to what will replace it? Cutting the few remaining coal plants makes sense, but upping wind output isn't going to cover the loss of the nuclear plants unless they plan on putting a wind turbine on top of every building in France.

 

[Quindoll]

Why the fuck is she suing France of all countries? We’re literally an example of how nuclear energy should be used.

Hell, even Macron, our highly unpopular, corporate puppet President that’s been courting the French Green lobby for months now, gave up and said Greta’s speech is “too extreme” , and that he doesn’t think that “France is delayed” when it comes to reducing its emissions.

Data from: https://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/overview.php?v=booklet2018&dst=CO2pc&sort=des9
I really feel for you here. The selection of countries they want to sue is weird. Lets take a look:

CO2 emmission per capita in tons for the year 2017:

Argentina per capita CO2: 4.74
Brazil per capita CO2: 2.35
France (and Monaco) per capita CO2: 5.20
Germany per capita CO2: 9.70
Turkey per capita CO2: 5.32

From these I only get the one from Germany. But they didnt choose: Saudi Arabia: 19,39, Canada: 16,85, The USA: 15,74. Even China is at 7.72 tons per capita.

Maybe another perspective is needed. How about we look at GDP to CO2 ratios. Because its better to have stuff made in a country with a low GDP/CO2 ratio compared to a country with a high GDP/CO2 ratio, even if that means the CO2 emissions per capita are higher. Same source and also year 2017:

Argentina ton CO2/1000$: 0.25
Brazil ton CO2/1000$: 0.17
France (and Monaco) ton CO2/1000$: 0.13
Germany ton CO2/1000$: 0.21
Turkey ton CO2/1000$: 0.21

Why wasnt South Africa with 0,71 called out? Why not China with 0.51?

If we go by size alone. China, India and USA should be the target.

And that really mind boggeling. It makes no sense at all. You have a country like France - which is doing fine compared to the rest- and you still get shit on.

Also there is a small gem. In Germany Luisa-Marie Neubauer is also an activist like Greta. Sadly she likes to fly and was pretty open about it. Showing of how many countries you have seen is apparently above virtual signaling about the climate. My german is bad but I try to translate for a bit:

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoB36JFN0WQ

>Our planet is close from destruction
Her: I dont want to tell you how bad the situation with our climate is or that the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere is the highest since humans existed. But we know whos fault it is. The climate doesnt care who is destroying it, the climate doesnt care whos responsible.

Cut:

Now follows a list of countries she already visited.

Her again: Nobody alone is at fault for the destruction of the climate. The contrary is the case. The responsibility lies only on a few shoulders.

The images have been deleted from her instagram. She is also only 23 years old and has seen more countries then most people ever will. Shes also a student so I dont even want to imagine her GDP/CO2 ratio.

 

[Parsnip_FitzGarlic]

I love that Hogg is basically forgotten at this point.

It's only a matter of time until he's caught doing gay porn now.

It'll be hard (heh) to top the time he claimed to have survived seven assassination attempts just to stay in the news.