When a teenage girl has an angry, tearful strop, most parents just send them to their rooms until they’ve calmed down.
However, when 16-year-old Greta Thunberg got on to the stage at the UN this week and had a full-on adolescent meltdown, she was deafened by the applause.
Not from me, she wasn’t. Because I was in the bog, being sick.
“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood,” she sobbed.
“We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you?”
Right, well in the immortal words of Samuel L Jackson: “Allow me to retort.”
How dare we? No. How dare you sail to America on a carbon fiber yacht that you didn’t build which cost £15million, that you didn’t earn, and which has a back-up diesel engine that you didn’t mention.
SORRY MS THUNBERG
I’m sorry Ms. Thunberg, but if you’re going to lay into my generation, you must accept it when I lay into you and yours.
What about the pills you take when you have a headache?
What about the clean water that comes out of your tap? What about the food you can buy at any time of the day and night?
No 16-year-old was responsible for any of that.
What about the aid missions currently being run in some of the poorest countries of the world, or the drugs that help keep Aids at bay?
Think about all the movies you’ve enjoyed. Movies made by grown-ups. And all those comedians who’ve made you laugh.
And then pause for a moment to consider how soundly you sleep at night, knowing that adults are building and servicing and flying Sweden’s fighter planes. To keep you safe.
We gave you mobile phones and laptops and the internet. We created the social media you use every day and we run the banks that pay for it all.
So how dare you stand there and lecture us, you spoilt brat.
SPOILT BRAT
And yes, you are spoilt because when you told your mum and dad to stop using planes and give up meat, they didn’t behave like sane parents and ignore you. They actually said, “Yes, dear.” And did.
What they should have done is point out that life is tragic.
Some people are born bright and some are born stupid.
Some are beautiful and some are not.
Some have rich parents who give them everything but love.
Some have poor parents who have nothing to give except love.
Now shut up and let them get on with it.
This is how the world works. It’s how the world has always worked.
And banging your fists on the table won’t change a thing. You’ll learn that when you’ve got a few more years under your belt.
I agree with you that the world is heating up. You may even be right that man has something to do with it.
And there is no doubt that as deserts eat into currently habitable places in Africa and the Middle East, Europe will face an unimaginable refugee crisis.
Something needs to be done about that. So how’s this for an idea. Get back to school as quickly as possible and work hard in your science lectures.
Because science is what will solve the problem eventually. Not scowling and having screaming ab-dabs every five minutes.
Many thousands of people who you had the temerity to blame this week are trying to do exactly what you want.
So be a good girl, shut up and let them get on with it.
And no. You cannot stay out past ten. And you cannot go out in a skirt that short.
Read more at The Sun
Sorry you are dead wrong! She is not having a tantrum! She just wants a better world and this is an emergency! The scientists say we have 11 years and that’s it! The earth doesn’t care about climate change it will still be here when humans are not! She just wants people to wake up and do something! It’s easy to sit back and finger point but takes a brave person to actually do something and that’s what she is-an extremely brave person who is trying practice what she preaches! It’s sad that we’ve allowed corporations to run rampant without consequence. We allowed Monsanto to poison our food with cancer causing gmo’s and glyphosate, Purdue pharma to addict our people to opiods, Nestle to poison our water, Fossil Fuel companies to pollute our air and corporate media to distract us with propaganda and culture wars so we don’t look at who the real problem is! It’s all related folks!! WE need to treat our people and our planet better!! Don’t believe the conspiracy theories! it’s not a left wing plot to want a future that is habitable for humans!!
@Lisa Sorry you are dead wrong. Humankind cannot control climate.
There is no empirical proof that CO2 is causing global warming, hence climate change.
Lisa, you say some scientists have said we have 11 years. It is not exactly clear what you mean by that, since such a statemebt would normally be followed by “until [innsett something here]’.
Byt anyway, I believe you are referring to that report from the IPCC on what needs to be done to keep warming below 1.5 degrees. Now, we need to understand the context then. The SR15, as it is known, stands firmly on the findings in the Fifth Assesment Report of the IPCC – the AR5. The SR15 was commissioned as a document to state what it would take to keep warming below 1.5 degrees AS opposed to the focus og the AR5 on 2 degrees.
The answer given in the SR15 is that if the world wants to keep warming below 1.5 degrees there are a number of things that need be done, some of them leasing to massive restructuring og our economies, our welfare and our lives.
Nowhere in the SR15 is it stated that we MUST do it. It would be rather silly if the SR15 stated such a thing, since the AR5 which is the foundation of SR15 says we are fine within 2 degrees and will experience a worldwide increase in wealth and prosperity, including a global increase in the ability to deal with and mitigate environmental risks, hazards and problems.
Please try to pay attention and read the actual documents rather than someone elses biased opinions about it.
OK, so Jeremy got that bit wrong. You have to remember that AGW is generally regarded as gospel in the UK, and the generally held belief here is that the world is going to turn into a huge desert, so Jeremy has obviously fallen into the trap of thinking that AGW might just possibly be true (hedging his bets) and that such might be a consequence of current climate change.
However anyone who follows Jeremy regularly, knows that his articles are always controversial, irreverent and tongue-in-cheek attacks on the establishment view here in the UK and that yes, he does occasionally, get his facts wrong.
There is so little dissenting public voice in the UK to the current climate change histeria, that any comment, even if not completely correct is welcome.
Am I the only one that noticed the huge error in this article? “And there is no doubt that as deserts eat into currently habitable places in Africa and the Middle East, Europe will face an unimaginable refugee crisis.” Increased levels of carbon dioxide are greening the earth. There are instances of deserts expanding but the examples I’m aware of have been caused by mankind cutting down forests that act as a water reservoir. There are other cases where the process has been going one for hundreds of years. The author seems to be following the dogma that if it is bad, climate change is at fault.
The author is very right about all of the things that have been provided to Greta and others of her generation. It is very typical of younger people not to even think where their food, medicine, roof, and other items comes from. They come from the hard work of their parent’s generation and from fossil fuels.
“Am I the only one that noticed the huge error in this article?” -No sir! I also spotted that nonsense. 54% of the world has greened because of CO2, with only 4% of “eat”[sic] happening.
-regards
You are absolutely correct. Whoever wrote this article must believe that climate change is a problem. The fact is that the earth isn’t heating up. We’re not experiencing any unusual change. Anyone who knows anything about the history of climate knows that climate is cyclical. The global warming alarmist scientists know that too. They also know that a temperature increase comes before an increase in carbon dioxide. Mankind has contributed only about 4% of the recent increase in carbon dioxide, most of which was released from warming oceans.
Well sweet chicken face if you think your dreams were stolen maybe they were
not worth keeping . But go ahead tell us what your parents dreams were .
Sailing back are we ? Nah thought not .
Climate changes , always has and always will . Gets cold gets hot . I know dream stealing stuff . Why not compare dreams with a girl in central Congo who can’t even imagine what life style most Europeans . When was the last time
you ran around picking up dung to cook on ?
I want to projectile hurl every time some little whiner bitches about their tough life .
Sorry we do not follow the ranting and temper tantrums of a Brainwashed 16 year old child who is just being used as a tool by the Globalists Big Brother and the Useless Nations