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]

Am I the only one who hears "both her and her sister were diagnosed with Autism" and has the biggest fucking X to doubt ever? Autism is rare as fuck in girls. Two in the same generation?

Sounds to me they just have a couple of spoiled brat kids and figured Internet Assburgers was the easiest way to deal with it.

Honestly, it could be both. I have no doubt her parents are shit.

 

[Sam Losco]

Arnold is buying lending? the bitch a Tesla.

https://www.teslarati.com/greta-thunberg-tesla-model-3-arnold-schwarzenegger/

Spoiler: Text

A spokesman for former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has confirmed that the iconic Hollywood action star has arranged a Tesla Model 3 for climate change activist Greta Thunberg, who is scheduled to participate in several key protests around the United States and Canada this month.

In a statement to motoring publication Car and Driver, Schwarzenegger’s spokesman explained that the former governor had previously asked the young, fiery activist to give him a call “if she needed anything.” And with Thunberg needing help arranging her transportation around North America, Schwarzenegger volunteered his help. Thanks to the former governor’s small assistance, “Greta can travel fully electric through the United States and Canada,” the spokesman added.

When initial reports of the Hollywood legend arranging the transportation needs of Thunberg emerged, social media users were speculating which of Schwarzenegger’s electric vehicles he would lend to the activist. Some speculated that the former governor might even lend his personal favorite EV, a fully-electric Hummer. According to Schwarzenegger’s spokesman, “getting (Arnold’s) electric Hummer across the country would be quite a challenge so it isn’t his personal car.” Thus, the choice was made and the governor opted to set up the activist with a Tesla Model 3 instead.

While a friendship between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Greta Thunberg might seem quite random, the two are actually both powerful voices in the climate debate. The two had met previously earlier this year in Vienna, with the former governor stating that he was “starstruck” by the young activist, whose bold, no-frills approach in calling for climate action has made her a powerful force in the environmental scene.

Just last week, Thunberg delivered one of her most passionate speeches at the UN, calling out world leaders for their general inaction on the climate crisis. In a fiery speech, Thunberg highlighted the damages incurred by the planet as well as the repercussions of climate change on future generations.

“For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. 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… The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees [Celsius], and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control. Fifty percent may be acceptable to you. But those numbers do not include tipping points, most feedback loops, additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution or the aspects of equity and climate justice. They also rely on my generation sucking hundreds of billions of tons of your CO2 out of the air with technologies that barely exist. So a 50% risk is simply not acceptable to us — we who have to live with the consequences.

“How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just ‘business as usual’ and some technical solutions? … There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today, because these numbers are too uncomfortable. And you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is. You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not,” she said.

Thunberg has since headed to several rallies since, including one in Montreal, Canada, where around 500,000 people attended a climate strike, so it appears that she is already using the Tesla Model 3 that the former governor had arranged for her. The massive demonstration was held simultaneously with similar strikes across the globe, with the total number of activists reaching several millions worldwide.

 

[millais]

Arnold is buying lending? the bitch a Tesla.

https://www.teslarati.com/greta-thunberg-tesla-model-3-arnold-schwarzenegger/

Spoiler: Text

A spokesman for former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has confirmed that the iconic Hollywood action star has arranged a Tesla Model 3 for climate change activist Greta Thunberg, who is scheduled to participate in several key protests around the United States and Canada this month.

In a statement to motoring publication Car and Driver, Schwarzenegger’s spokesman explained that the former governor had previously asked the young, fiery activist to give him a call “if she needed anything.” And with Thunberg needing help arranging her transportation around North America, Schwarzenegger volunteered his help. Thanks to the former governor’s small assistance, “Greta can travel fully electric through the United States and Canada,” the spokesman added.

When initial reports of the Hollywood legend arranging the transportation needs of Thunberg emerged, social media users were speculating which of Schwarzenegger’s electric vehicles he would lend to the activist. Some speculated that the former governor might even lend his personal favorite EV, a fully-electric Hummer. According to Schwarzenegger’s spokesman, “getting (Arnold’s) electric Hummer across the country would be quite a challenge so it isn’t his personal car.” Thus, the choice was made and the governor opted to set up the activist with a Tesla Model 3 instead.

While a friendship between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Greta Thunberg might seem quite random, the two are actually both powerful voices in the climate debate. The two had met previously earlier this year in Vienna, with the former governor stating that he was “starstruck” by the young activist, whose bold, no-frills approach in calling for climate action has made her a powerful force in the environmental scene.

Just last week, Thunberg delivered one of her most passionate speeches at the UN, calling out world leaders for their general inaction on the climate crisis. In a fiery speech, Thunberg highlighted the damages incurred by the planet as well as the repercussions of climate change on future generations.

“For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. 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… The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees [Celsius], and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control. Fifty percent may be acceptable to you. But those numbers do not include tipping points, most feedback loops, additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution or the aspects of equity and climate justice. They also rely on my generation sucking hundreds of billions of tons of your CO2 out of the air with technologies that barely exist. So a 50% risk is simply not acceptable to us — we who have to live with the consequences.

“How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just ‘business as usual’ and some technical solutions? … There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today, because these numbers are too uncomfortable. And you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is. You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not,” she said.

Thunberg has since headed to several rallies since, including one in Montreal, Canada, where around 500,000 people attended a climate strike, so it appears that she is already using the Tesla Model 3 that the former governor had arranged for her. The massive demonstration was held simultaneously with similar strikes across the globe, with the total number of activists reaching several millions worldwide.

Buying some Amtrak tickets is probably the cheapest and greenest way to travel across North America over long distances. To produce each Tesla car battery, you probably curse an entire Chinese village with heavy metal poisoning.

 

[Positron]

E-cars are not green. Get her a bicycle instead.

 

[Stoneheart]

E-cars are not green. Get her a bicycle instead.

she can just run, like that other retard...

 

[CWCissey]

Arnold is buying lending? the bitch a Tesla.

https://www.teslarati.com/greta-thunberg-tesla-model-3-arnold-schwarzenegger/

Spoiler: Text

A spokesman for former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has confirmed that the iconic Hollywood action star has arranged a Tesla Model 3 for climate change activist Greta Thunberg, who is scheduled to participate in several key protests around the United States and Canada this month.

In a statement to motoring publication Car and Driver, Schwarzenegger’s spokesman explained that the former governor had previously asked the young, fiery activist to give him a call “if she needed anything.” And with Thunberg needing help arranging her transportation around North America, Schwarzenegger volunteered his help. Thanks to the former governor’s small assistance, “Greta can travel fully electric through the United States and Canada,” the spokesman added.

When initial reports of the Hollywood legend arranging the transportation needs of Thunberg emerged, social media users were speculating which of Schwarzenegger’s electric vehicles he would lend to the activist. Some speculated that the former governor might even lend his personal favorite EV, a fully-electric Hummer. According to Schwarzenegger’s spokesman, “getting (Arnold’s) electric Hummer across the country would be quite a challenge so it isn’t his personal car.” Thus, the choice was made and the governor opted to set up the activist with a Tesla Model 3 instead.

While a friendship between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Greta Thunberg might seem quite random, the two are actually both powerful voices in the climate debate. The two had met previously earlier this year in Vienna, with the former governor stating that he was “starstruck” by the young activist, whose bold, no-frills approach in calling for climate action has made her a powerful force in the environmental scene.

Just last week, Thunberg delivered one of her most passionate speeches at the UN, calling out world leaders for their general inaction on the climate crisis. In a fiery speech, Thunberg highlighted the damages incurred by the planet as well as the repercussions of climate change on future generations.

“For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. 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… The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50% chance of staying below 1.5 degrees [Celsius], and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control. Fifty percent may be acceptable to you. But those numbers do not include tipping points, most feedback loops, additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution or the aspects of equity and climate justice. They also rely on my generation sucking hundreds of billions of tons of your CO2 out of the air with technologies that barely exist. So a 50% risk is simply not acceptable to us — we who have to live with the consequences.

“How dare you pretend that this can be solved with just ‘business as usual’ and some technical solutions? … There will not be any solutions or plans presented in line with these figures here today, because these numbers are too uncomfortable. And you are still not mature enough to tell it like it is. You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not,” she said.

Thunberg has since headed to several rallies since, including one in Montreal, Canada, where around 500,000 people attended a climate strike, so it appears that she is already using the Tesla Model 3 that the former governor had arranged for her. The massive demonstration was held simultaneously with similar strikes across the globe, with the total number of activists reaching several millions worldwide.

*looks at the maid Arnie boffed*

Oh DEAR GOD NO!

 

[Spatula]

Mexican cartels extorting avocado producers raises price of guacamole, report says

Next time a restaurant tells you “Guac will be extra,” this might be the reason why.

www.foxnews.com

Blood Avocados No More: Mexican Farm Town Says It's Kicked Out Cartels

Americans will mash up and scarf down millions of the fruits in one day — Super Bowl Sunday. According to authorities in Mexico, at least one town grows what you might call "conflict-free avocados."

www.npr.org

To be honest, this is because Mexico in general is a shit hole.
If conquistadors didn't manage to grow tomatoes in Europe, the cartels would do the same to tomatoes too.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

Greta's speech is covered in death metal version. Do you think it still need some improvements?

 

[neverendingmidi]

Greta's speech is covered in death metal version. Do you think it still need some improvements?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=CLxpgRqxtEA

I know this was posted earlier, but it makes me laugh simply because I saw it on Facebook, and the first comment was "Do you feel good for making fun of a child?"

Which made me laugh harder.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

I know this was posted earlier, but it makes me laugh simply because I saw it on Facebook, and the first comment was "Do you feel good for making fun of a child?"

Which made me laugh harder.

I suspect they might not like the Greta memes and they keep coming.

 

[CitationNeeded]

I mean I'm for carbon pricing and it would make it harder for poor people but you know, I just want to make sure those resources are allocated efficiently.

Its not really my fault if the gas being utilized by a poor black man has low economic output in comparison to the carbon output.

Tax me more daddy government. It makes me feel like I'm doing something!

You've got lots of rhetoric but no facts, no numbers, just lots of assertions.

Us average temp is constant since at least 2005. Raw NOAA data shows a slightly cooling earth. So fuck off with your carbon credits, worry about ships literally dumping toxic waste in the water (not carbon, thank God).

You're being a useful idiot.

 

[Hummingbird]

I know this was posted earlier, but it makes me laugh simply because I saw it on Facebook, and the first comment was "Do you feel good for making fun of a child?"

Which made me laugh harder.

One of my favorite comments about her is, "She's just mad because Willy Wonka kicked her and her dad out of his factory."

 

[Sheryl Nome]

Tax me more daddy government. It makes me feel like I'm doing something!

You've got lots of rhetoric but no facts, no numbers, just lots of assertions.

Us average temp is constant since at least 2005. Raw NOAA data shows a slightly cooling earth. So fuck off with your carbon credits, worry about ships literally dumping toxic waste in the water (not carbon, thank God).

You're being a useful idiot.

Don't know why you niggers are obsessed with carbon credits when i say carbon taxes despite them being different

Hoes mad.

 

[neverendingmidi]

Don't know why you niggers are obsessed with carbon credits when i say carbon taxes despite them being different

Hoes mad.

So you just want the money to disappear directly into the government's coffers without even the fig leaf of supposedly planting trees to support the environment.

I will at least respect you if you admit you just want the middle class to be murdered.

 

[CitationNeeded]

Don't know why you niggers are obsessed with carbon credits when i say carbon taxes despite them being different

Hoes mad.

I like how you retreat to basic racism to get the crowd back on your side.

You can talk about carbon floopaloops if you want. Link some facts, actual proposals. Otherwise you're just name-dropping ideas you vaguely heard of and expecting everyone else to just know what you mean.

Carbon credits are the cap and trade idea that republicans first had under Reagan, when it was a terrible evil capitalist scam to let the rich pollute. Then Al gore repackaged it and the parties switched sides. Now only evil capitalist scum are against it.

A carbon tax is a phrase Al gore also says, but I'm not familiar with anything approaching an actual policy that goes with that phrase.

But more importantly, nobody has actually demonstrated that carbon is a problem in the first place. Falsified studies and altered weather station data are the only 'evidence'.

 

[TFT-A9]

After every other instance in which people with the right resources manage to loophole, cheat or otherwise get around taxation I just don't have confidence in a carbon tax being a successful punch in the dick to gross polluters. Hitting the lower classes is going to have miserable returns on behavior and tax revenues, the middle classes are already getting punched in the dick by a number of other things, and... honestly taxation has never been my favorite way to correct behaviors.

Maybe direct fines to gross polluters, substantial ones. Not a tax per se, but still a penalty and money that can be diverted towards unfucking things.

 

[MembersSchoolPizza]

After every other instance in which people with the right resources manage to loophole, cheat or otherwise get around taxation I just don't have confidence in a carbon tax being a successful punch in the dick to gross polluters. Hitting the lower classes is going to have miserable returns on behavior and tax revenues, the middle classes are already getting punched in the dick by a number of other things, and... honestly taxation has never been my favorite way to correct behaviors.

You fucking exceptional moron. If we just keep doing exactly the same thing over and over again that has never worked, clearly it will begin working for us! Stop rocking the H.M.S. Feelsgood!

 

[AnimeGirlConnoisseur]

I'm getting really sick of seeing this frothing potato posted endlessly on every goddamn social media site I shitpost on. The memes of her juxtaposed against child laborers are funny as shit sometimes, but there are still those spergs that will start screeching about how they've ALL had their childhood stolen.

Nobody stole Greta's childhood. She made a conscious decision to be a spergy activist. In other words, Greta stole Greta's childhood.

I'm starting to realize the 'stolen childhood' line is nothing but utter emotional manipulation. Which further cements my hypothesis that either Greta is a puppet of her parents, or isn't nearly the spud people make her out to be.

I don't know if I would say that Greta's childhood hasn't been stolen. She should be playing Minecraft and Fortnite like a normal kid, not sperging out on TV. She wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for her wranglers. I think that Greta is a victim to some extent, but not a victim of climate change.

 

[CitationNeeded]

I don't know if I would say that Greta's childhood hasn't been stolen. She should be playing Minecraft and Fortnite like a normal kid, not sperging out on TV. She wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't for her wranglers. I think that Greta is a victim to some extent, but not a victim of climate change.

Eh, tons of religious kids get the same thing from a different angle. The church tells them their friends are going to hell unless they're"saved", aka converted.
Not saying it's right or ok but it's not unique to this girl.
The extreme attention is another matter, seems like child abuse to me but then, kids being fashion accessories isn't new.

 

[Cosmos]

<Driving a huge, smoke-billowing truck with “fuck you Greta” printed on the back along with a skeleton that’s presumably a death wish against Greta

This is just a new level of pathetic and trashy.