
Do you agree with Greta Thunberg or do you think she's a political tool (or somewhere in between)?

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Just a hunch, but as the father of one pre-schooler and two elementary school kids I think it more than fair to say that you could not swing a dead cat in a crowded school and hit anyone who would give a fig about climate change. It is not a factor in their lives.
In fact, I interviewed my pre-school daughter, and she basically had no comment. My second - our little cuddler - said, "Oh", and went on about his new friend at school. My oldest, age 9, - whose life motto is, "Why walk around obstacles when just walk through them?" - kept remarking about how he wants to play football tomorrow - for the Redskins.
It is not a factor and because someone plants a child in front of a camera and sets about theatrically wailing and gnashing teeth is no reason to take it seriously. It is the pointless prattle of an age that prefers moral exhibitionism to the hard business of actual thought and practical action.
If some child has been terrorized by his/her parents, that is between them and child protective services. As a matter of public policy and sensible analysis it has no significance and is the illusion of seriousness.
The answer to romanticism about the idealism of youth is to recall that children are pint sized versions of the adults they criticize. Their passions are transients and their interests even more so.
Today that young lady was weeping and sobbing about the temperature of the planet. Tomorrow she will be looking across the classroom at that cute boy. It is that deep - which means that it is not deep at all. Perfect utter twaddle and it should be treated as such.
Besides, as someone once said, "Since our society equates happiness with youth, we often assume that sorrow, quiet desperation, and hopelessness go hand in hand with getting older. They don't. Emotional pain or numbness are symptoms of living the wrong life, not a long life."
Whether she was pure as the driven snow or the puppet of some nefarious powers that be is entirely irrelevant. What is rather more horrifying is that grown adults, who in theory at least should be raising children and not being raised by them, are taking this young lady with solemn seriousness and granting her, and her pre-adult compatriots, a degree of credibility that is rooted in a silly emotional romantic sentimentalism rather than a hard analysis of the data and the cost/benefit calculations that come with it.
You do realize that Greta Thunberg is 18 years old, right? So comparing her interests/activism to what your 9 year old child thinks is rather pointless.
@DryGermanGuy You do realize that teenagers are not usually the fonts of wisdom to whom we ought turn for scientific analysis and the basis of public policy, don't you?
I think there's some truth in her claims. The climate changes are most likely a combination between natural changes and these ones influenced by humans. Climate changes happen all the time and the ice age is one of the examples at that. It just happen quicker so animals and humans aren't capable to adapt or the nature to repair itself fast enough, so therefor people wants to slow it down becoming more environmental friendly. It's possible to develop new technologies like cars and airplanes using electricity or batteries instead of oil, plant based items instead of plastic and so on. I don't think meat and airplane shaming would help anyone, since shaming are just demotivating people. Why not finding other solution before trying to make people give up plane, meat and enjoyment in life?
It's possible to have your own opinions without being a political puppet or abused. Everyone gets influenced by someone else's when it comes to our own opinions and almost none of our thoughts are original. Greta Thunberg is raised in a democracy and in school Swedish children are taught to participate in discussions, make up their own political opinions and so on. Why should she be any different than everyone else's? She also seem stable, intelligent and knows what she's doing. Her reactions are simply just rhetoric to gain attention and as an attempt to achieve her political goal. I doubt people calling her "unstable" knows how the different rhetoric methods works. She may even not be as scared or angry she appears as, but thinks it's logical to think "better early than late". Some people appears less calm than what they actually are. It's advertisement and a sales man trick.
I also thinks it's smart to be early instead of too late, so I think what she's doing is all right.
I think this is the problem right here. (1) You guys aren’t listening, and (2) you don’t think teens can be passionate about a cause & and be able to voice their thoughts and opinions.
Why do you question “Do you agree with Greta Thunberg or do you think she’s a political tool?” To me, this completely omits what Greta was saying in her speech. It’s not new information that entire ecosystems are collapsing and dying, or the fact that species go extinct every year, but all you can talk about is whether or not Greta is a political tool?
It’s not new information either, that the Arctic and Antarctic ice is melting, but the U. N. reported yesterday that the ice is melting faster than previously thought. “Previously thought”? What were they doing before, that they’re realizing this now?
It’s not a phase for her to grow out of. Greta Thunberg is going to continue being an activist, even after she graduates and lives away from her parents. She has a mind of her own. She will continue to use her voice to speak out on causes that she’s passionate about.
I word the question that way because the number one criticism of her is that she's a political tool. Next question.
I think she honestly believes in what she is saying. I was taken aback how she said it until I read today that she has aspergers which gave me a better understanding of her speech mannerisms. If we take the term global warming off the table and used the term we need to clean up our earth it might make more sense to many people and there would be less argument about global warming. If we focused on keeping a clean environment it is a win win whether there turns out to be global warming or not. Leaving the Earth a big trash heap for the next generations really isn't fair and could ultimately affect the health of humans and possibly cause genetic abnormalities.
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I think it's pretty difficult to justify claiming she is a tool by the "radical left" when she is from a completely different country, was invited by Arnold Schwarzenegger (a Republican), is a high functioning autistic person (who are usually very independent minded and obsessive) and her body language and tone of voice is if someone who has conviction.
I don't see any signs of being manipulated here. I mean, she started out as some nobody who "protested" in front of her government building until she was recognized. Now the world recognizes her. On top of that she has called out politicians who went out of their way to support her. So I don't see any reasonable example of how she is a "shill being exploited by the radical left". I understand the inherent question of whether she is or not but c'mon, we all had strong opinions at that age and still fucking do. She's 16, not 11. She's autistic, not stupid. She does not have a "mental illness" like that pathetic third string loser from Daily Wire stated.
What does being from another country have to do with it? Europe is much more left leaning than the U. S., so the fact that she's from there is more proof that she's a radical leftists.
That's a stretch. By American standards Europeans are left. But the majority of political leaders are centre right it center left. Germany is centre right yet they are seen by Americans as far left because the overton window is so far to the right that universal healthcare is considered a socialist wet dream when even the most conservative of people in these countries would scoff at the idea of Universal healthcare being done away with.
Fighting to actually fix climate change is not far left. Climate science is not political. It's science. It just so happens the majority of right wing groups are so dumb that they refuse to acknowledge it exists or refuse to do anything about it.
Germany is seen as left leaning because they have Angela Merkel as a front woman, who is a radical leftist, they have thrown open their borders, and cut most of their military spending on top of having absurd social programs. They're also heavily into censorship as part of their shame from WWII.
And you can't possibly claim climate science isn't political, because it's used as a political weapon on a daily basis. They want it to be political. You wish it wasn't political, but if you don't want a study to be political then don't use it as ammunition in the political theater. And it's just as dumb to make alarmist statements that can be disproven simply by the passage of time to push your agenda as it is to ignore it. Claiming the world will end in six months is ludicrous, and when six months passes your credibility will be shot and people will disregard the entire subject of climate change on principle.
Lol, Germany doesn't have absurd social programs. Angela Merkle is from the centre right party and what makes someone a radical leftist? What qualifies someone as radical left? What makes someone radical right? There are no radical right wingers are there in your opinion?
And no, science is science. If in side (the right) largely denies it's existence because they are fucking retarded and use that belief as their sole counter argument against the science then the only people who politicized it are right wingers. Just because the majority of people who acknowledge it happen to be more left leaning doesn't mean it's politicized by them. It means they pointing something out and the people in charge who are mostly right leaning deny it so other people, like activists have to speak on behalf of the scientists because the science is out and nothing is being done about it. Don't blame the left for fighting against climate change. Blame the right for being massive cunts who care more for short term gain rather than the health of the planet and people on it.
A tool. After all, anyone who'd know at least something even remotely on eco-damage would know that problems are actually in developing (not developed) nations -- Asia, whole Africa basically etc., not first wold she's touring.
Besides, world's constantly changing with or without human involvement; Earth was much different when dinosaurs existed and humans didn't, while some tens of thousands of years ago nowadays northern Europe/Asia was covered in ice, which isn't the case nowadays.
But she has never been in those developing countries and won't ever be there, nor she'll care, as that's not the goal of those who are using this tool; their goal is to take oligarchical control over different businesses via regulations, destruction of competition & thievery of resources granted to "fight" "climate change" (which some 10-15 years ago was called "global warming", until after a few cold winters & summers folk started to ridicule, so it was scrapped).
However, since she's autistic (which apparently runs in a family -- her sister is an autistic too) she is unlikely to understand that.
Nor her parents are going to explain it to her, as they not only didn't gave much of a fuck about her during her upbringing (hence why she has "fashionable modern" disorders, such as aspergers, selective mutism, ocd; while her sister has [to add to everything Greta has] adhd which results in violent outbursts and shouting profane insults towards her own mom -- something that normally would be fixed with a belt and an asswhooping) since they're "artists" who're constantly hanging around the elite and never had time to educate her properly, leaving upbringing to google and TV; but also because they're bluntly monetizing her nowadays.
What, you think her parents aren't collecting much better deals in their careers (as the so-called artists are often tied to the so-called "elites" that are in bed with globalists) and simply money for prostituting their daughter?
China is the number 1 polluter, but Greta knows going there and espousing her beliefs is liable to get her thrown in jail. The Chinese don't fuck around.
Liberia [and most of Africa] is quite a shithole too with significant damage on eco-system;
However, she won't visit it, as she'll get raped, killed and eaten (in no particular order) by local cannibals.
I don't give a shit... if you do though, you realize she's a retard right?
It reminds me of when I found out my kid got to have a walkout from school... provided by the school. A walkout for what? I asked him and he was like "I dunno, I just didn't have to sit in class with the usual boring shit all day." I was like, "Yeah, I understand that sentiment dude."
I ended up looking it up... staged protest against the 2nd amendment. School shooting stuff. I called my kid in and pointed out to him how he just took part in a anti-second amendment protest walkout and asked him if he feels I should get rid of all my damn guns.
He didn't know what the hell was going on... it was just a day out of school for him and that is all he cared about. Back to Tunaburg... think she really cares or just glad to not be sitting on her ass in a classroom? Shit, when she started going off about how bad it is that she's not in class right now, I started to realize she has realized her little walkout had become more stressful than sitting on her ass in class all day.
I don't blame these kids for just being kids... or just human... take a good long hard mean look at the adults that are herding them around to say certain things though.
Either psycho or a puppet.
I hear her parents are commies, her dad is an actor, her granddad is a actor/director. It's hard not to catch the scent of theater when she speaks. Not to mention her accusatory tone is just grating.
On top of that every super lefty environmentalist comes out with lines like "any scientist worth their salt agrees with this" and it's like stfu. There are people who disagree and you should be eager to engage them to find out if you've been wrong. Greta says shit like "the science has been clear for 30 years", and it's like 1. Girl, you're 16 and ditched school to complain about science you learned when you where 12. How do you know anything? And 2. There are plenty of people who disagree and instead of being psycho about it and casting blame on everyone, maybe hear people out and welcome the idea that maybe someone finally has it right, in case you've had it wrong for 30 years. Instead every environmentalist wants to screech at the prospect of opposition -- they then protest, litter with fkn confetti all over the place, burn dumpsters then complain that Trump supporters clean the streets of blue states.
Weird how progressives can makes things otherwise reasonable to support seem utterly fkn retarded.
She isn't a political tool even if some politicians try to use her as one. You can have your own message, which could be distorted or misused by some people, and it doesn't actually invalidate your original message. She wasn't created in a lab by Al Gore for the express purpose of promoting another climate change movie. She is an individual with her own thoughts and feelings.
I agree with her on everything I have heard. I know she's not offering much in the way of solutions but when the governments of the world are refusing to even admit that there is a problem, then it is still useful and respectable to spend time campaigning for greater understanding of the problem.
I don't totally disagree with you, but the way Greta "argues" is 100% name and shame. She does't cite studies or research. She just glares at you with hateful eyes and tells you about how you personally ruined her childhood. That's not going to get anyone to listen to you. It's literally a little girl's temper tantrum.
She has every right to be angry. She was born into a world that is in steep decline only so a small number of people (over a very short amount of time) were able to profit far beyond anything they ever needed.
I'm not saying she should win an award for debating. But I do feel she is genuine.
It's not about a "right". That's asinine. It's about getting people to listen. Blind hate or righteous indignation isn't going to win any hearts and minds. It's just going to be a publicity stunt that will be forgotten in a week. Is that what you want? A little parade that no one will remember in 7 days? I'm not saying she's a total fake. I'm saying she's ineffective and annoying.
She is 16 man. Don't be too hard on her.
I'm not in here to claim she is the best person to speak about this. The question was whether we agree with her and whether we think she is a political tool.
Sorry if I came across as rude to you. It's somewhat upsetting to see so many men on the site act so crazy. Lock her up. Throw her in jail. Throw her in an institution. Do this. Do that. Grow up people.
At least most of the men I knew in real life don't say the nasty stuff that so many here do.
Hologragh, you are possibly the most sane person on this topic, and I agree with you completely
Climate change is real, and we need people like Greta to talk about it and have the leader of the world act, instead of talk but do nothing
@LoudShorty Thanks. I'm not sure if that makes me feel good or bad, though. Because I think my opinion is nothing special and it really just surprises me to see so many other people judging a 16 year old girl (who literally just wants to survive) for having feelings about how people treat the planet that we share.
"She does't cite studies or research."
She is not a researcher (and you can't even use spell check you pathetic troll). She doesn't need to cite 10 papers. However it isn't hard to see that the research that has been done is being ignored by the likes of Bolsonaro as the Amazon burns.
No politicians need to cite papers and references in their speeches not school children. President Andrew Yang will cite them in his PowerPoint presentation at the State of the Union.
Honestly, I knew very little about her.
From what i'm able to gather, she is leading a lot of public movement building to push for aggressive emissions reductions.
Fair enough. Voted B. Strikes seem dumb to me, but apparently it's getting a lot of attention. Does it move the needle in terms of what happens? I don't know.
Doesn't strike me as a 'tool of leftists'. She has more the Asperger black and white thinking, which maybe is not inappropriate. Just 'climate disaster we have to change it period.'.
Wanting to conserve the planet shouldn't be a left-right thing. Contrary to the wild dreams of green-new-deal types, actually reigning in emissions hard is going to fuck the working class hardest. But perhaps its necessary.
The thing is, wanting to conserve the planet IS a left wing thing because conservationists are just as ignorant as climate change deniers. Take nuclear power, for instance. Nuclear energy is cleaner, safer, and longer lasting than coal or fossil fuels, but "conservationists" hate it. So instead of implementing nuclear power on a larger scale and cutting emissions tenfold, they try to ban it entirely and even shut down existing plants servicing millions of people. That is not productive and it's not scientific. The left can't pretend they're the party of science and conservation if they won't even acknowledge currently existing technologies that can cut down on pollution right freakin' now.
The people I know are all pro-nuclear. Most of them are probably centrists.
Nuclear is a big part of the electricity generation where I live. However I'm skeptical that will be a big growth area. Costs on nuclear keep rising, while costs on some other green techs are falling.
I'd agree anti-nuclear climate activists are … dumb. But there's a large segment of people who want more nuclear, more carbon pricing, etc. which are the real solutions, and some investigation of carbon capture from the atmosphere should be warranted.
So wanting to conserve the planet is not a left wing thing, but some specific policies are left wing.
I'm frustrated with conservatives, since they have better solutions, but are for the most part insisting there's no problem, because that's what their base wants to hear.
I can't find much specific from Greta, and i'm not gonna go listen to her speeches. I mainly just see a lot of 'we need to act now and aggressively'.
This poor girl with fetal alcohol syndrome has been used by people who want increase prices for energy and fuel. (not necessary leftists)
You can see it like you want, but for me is using of handicapped people for some kind of agenda despicable.
Fight against the climate change while industry still ships parts around the world with very bad CO2-balance, only to assembly them in countries with cheap workforce, is absolutely pointless. Demand for stopping eating meat is just an illusion hence manure is most important thing for soil fertility. Artificial fertilizer that is produced with natural gas creates a lot of CO2 as well and isn't so efficient like animal manure fertilizer. It's just the desire of some people to raise praises for some goods like meat, oil, energy and it doesn't help ecosystem at all.
This is one of the reason why Greta Thunberg is so ineffective. She, and her custodians, are ideologically inconsistent. They complain about emissions but book a multi-million dollar cruise to bring her to the U. S. just to fly her fellow sailors home on jets with huge emissions. They make demands of lifestyle changes that only the rich and elite can afford to implement and use shame tactics against anyone unwilling to do so. There are so many holes in the way she is presented as a conservationist, and they are so glaringly obvious.
Western elites smell the coming recession, but they want their money. From their perspective it's absolutely irrelevant how they milk the western pleb, that generates most yield for them. They know that people who have less money won't buy the new I-phone all few months, but they know the pleb needs food and energy, so their interest shifted in this direction. Man made climate change is very beneficially from their point of view, because they can raise prices for energy and food in developed countries for the higher good of saving the planet. Somehow overpopulation and ridiculous high birth rates in underdeveloped regions, over fishing or pollution of soil and oceans is irrelevant in the "save the planet" agenda. This entire campaign concentrates on western population with their evil CO2 emission, while China and India pollute the atmosphere in same extent like the west does it. It's just a business model for profits, nothing more.
I agree with the message but not the tone she took. It is a HUGE problem and instead of trying to make things better like even in the 90s-2010s, today the world is going backwards on the issue with radical right wing assholes popping not just in the US, but also Europe, South America and Asia. None of them seemed to give a shit as the Amazon burned.
What I don't like is the tone which gives the right-wing assholes a way to exploit this. She was crying and shouting and the right only tolerates that when people like Trump do it and not 16 year old girls.
She is a political pawn. I have no doubt that she believes what she is saying, and I sympathize with her fear of the situation. But she's a 16 year old kid. She has no knowledge of climate science apart from the propaganda and fear that has been instilled into her by others.
It takes a minimum of a basic education in environmental science, political science, and business science to understand what's going on with this climate movement and offer reasonable solutions. Most people twice her age aren't qualified to have an educated, independent opinion on it.
But she's young, innocent, passionate, easy to deceive, and easy to manipulate to gain an emotional appeal to the underlying political agenda. She's a political puppet.
I feel sorry for the kid. I have no doubt that she is afraid and that she believes this propaganda. It's the puppet masters who are deceiving her and pulling her strings that I have a problem with.
Being an activist and being an alarmist are two entirely different things, but Greta is the latter. Making absurd claims that can be disproved simply by waiting a few months or a year is not how you get people to invest in climate change. You get them to invest by A) being a likable person and B) making arguments that stand up to basic criticism. Greta does neither.
I voted with the 48% that is the presumed consensus, that this poor kid has been used in a shameful tool to exaggerate and therefore minimize tha actual importance of this issue. These are the things that reinforce the idea that this is not really about the climate, but rather about making an entire population totally and completely under the control of the state. Eventual slavery. Convincing the population can only be saved by the government, they are the only hope for life. The elites see themselves as being at the top of the food chain when and if they take over all life on the planet, their objective. To do that, the government has to be all things to all people. It begins just like what we see happening, believe in the narrative, certain death by not obeying, OR bowing down in utter surrender to those who now have total power over you.
Putting an autistic teenager in the forefront as a puppet to an ideology while it clearly is psychologically harming her? To me first and foremost she is a case for child protective services independant of her message.
Furthermore her "argumentation" is ridiculous. When she says "I want you to panic" - it clearly shows she isn't quite right in the head. Everyone with a bit of experience dealing with emergencies knows that the LAST thing you want to do is panic. So what's left is fear-mongering. And considering her age and her parents as well as their parents family ties - it is clear that she isn't the one who has started that.
@Fakename- excellent response. I agree 100%. To use a autistic child in such an emotional way is repugnant to most common people.🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
In America, the Left has made their claim to be the ones who will save our planet, and simultaneously grabbing power to rule forever. They are obvious as hell, and may be the start of an actual civil war.
As a Swede myself who happens to know that her mother is a well known expressed leftist icon here, yes, she's a political tool. A way for the left to push their useless symbolic agendas that do nothing for the climate in real time.
All she has done is refrain from school and complained about something she has no real insight to. And, and this is most important, when in a Swedish interview before she went international, she was asked what exactly politicians and others should do instead of what they're doing now, and she admitted openly that she had no idea.
Take that in for a second. You know, I would think that if you truly cared for the climate, that you'd spend more time behind the school desk, educate yourself and then contribute to the ongoing research. And I wouldn't try to make climate threat into some fanatic religion either, especially not now when the scientist behind the hysteria was caught with propagating fradulent research.
People love to downvote when acting on emotion. Even though they have nothing to put up against ones arguments.
To be honest, I've never heard of her except at GaG. Judging from what I've seen here, people need to stop talking about her for her own sake. She's very young and being thrown in with the lions. I don't see good coming out of it. I think this is going to mess her up as a person.
Politics is nasty. I'm a politics addict. But sometimes I envy people who pay zero attention to it, and stay as far away as possible.
If she keeps it up, this girl will be used as a pawn by the machine. I can totally see her being eaten away by anger and hate. And for what? It won't accomplish a damn thing.
@goaded
Nope
I pay zero attention to the news unless somebody points it out to me. This is literally the first I've heard of it.
I started phasing out television news maybe 25 years ago, and quit reading the newspaper maybe 15 years ago. ( I used to read the paper cover to cover almost every day ) It's surprising how well you can keep up with the big picture without all that.
Is she just a "tool" because of her age? I think she's brave and smart and I am grateful that she has the courage to speak truth to power.
I would consider her a "tool" because her arguments lack substance. They're based mostly in shame and indignation, not in facts. I'd never dispute that humanity is having an impact on global climate change, but that doesn't make everyone who drives a car to work an idiot or everyone who takes a plane to a vacation a bigot. Nor does it make her solutions effective, or even plausible. Most climate change alarmists are vehemently against solutions that would make a huge impact on emissions today using existing technologies. That's hypocritical.
@Kiran_Yagami I agree completely!
Her parents carry the full blame for the condition she was in yesterday 23/09 in front of the UN General Assembly, they know she has asperger's and does not do well in places like that but they still let her be subjected to it, Child Protective Services need to be involved now as the parents are not putting the welfare of their child foremost in their minds. she is being used and coached behind the scenes and financed by someone who finds her useful, there is no substance to her "arguments" its all "Feelings".
I'm agree there should be clearer references to proven studies and having better arguments. Hopefully they would come later. I do however think sometimes you can only take one part at a time if you wants to gain attention. In first meeting you should try to gain attention and provoke feelings to make the case known, but on later meetings you should show the facts on the table. It may be easier to digest the information that way.
It's easy to assume she had a really bad day and the child protective service should intervene because of her strong reactions. If you ask me, it may just be rhetoric. Pure rhetoric. It's necessarily if you've a political goal. You may be in a good mood, calm and stable - yet make a strong reaction to gain the audience's attention. It doesn't have to be an autistic meltdown.
@EmoKate97 Hi, Kate. what's the age of consent for making a speech?
oh no, you got me!
this is free speech in motion, this criticism you read right now IS the result of free speech, and thank god there's a freespeech ability so we can call out the cognitive ability of someone who's autistic and being used as a propaganda piece
and fyi, i do believe in climate change
@EmoKate97 people who have Asperger's aren't retarded necessarily. I wasn't trying to "get you", I was asking a question for clarification
Im not against what she's saying, but its just that she's putting herself out there and overall it doesn't look good, it makes everyone in politics not take our movement seriously and opens global warming to criticism and ad hominem because Asperger is literally a disorder where people have trouble with empathy
@Kiran_Yagami go to the Maldives and tell the people there that their islands are not sinking!
@Dchrls78104 go tell China and India to stop destroying the earth then! No balls
@EmoKate97, it's a misconception autism means lacks of empathy or trouble with it. You're confusing it with personality disorders under the nick names "sociopath" and "psychopathy". Autism only makes it more difficult to understand certain social clues. It may be obviously for average people that's expected to open the door for your date in many cultures, but not everyone knows it or gets it.
@bolverk Those ultra lefties are using a child with a mental condition to promote whatever they would like to push. PELOSI YOU LOT ARE FUCKING MINDLESS TO ABUSE A CHILD SHAME ON YOU, I would never vote for this type of insanity. THE MEDIA YOU ARE ALUMP OF SHIT. Just as Trump will not speak to you, because you are propagating insurrection and using an underage mentally handicapped child to speak for you. THE DEMOCRATS HAVE LOST THE PLOT. AMERICANS GET RID OF THESE BUNCH OF LIARS THAT ARE JUST OUT THERE to grab power, at all costs. Are you democrats proud of this disgraceful ACT? Despicable.
Greta Thunberg might be a political tool, but if it's the case, she is exactly what politics needs, people who speak out on the major problems, denounce those who seem not to care about them, and ACTS in accordance with her stance (Because there is a huge lack of action in this world, to be honest)
I won't agree that she is "exactly what politics needs". She's what politics already has, talking mouth pieces that uninformed on the subject and divert all criticism with the shield of "you're a bigot!" while simultaneously trying to get you to fall in line by showering you with shame and indignation. We have plenty of those types already. What we need are well reasoned, well informed arguments with achievable, practical, and cost effective solutions. Not "STOP EATING MEAT BECAUSE COWS ARE BAD!"
Nothing more than a tool. Liberals like using kids and people with mental illness because then if he tried to say anything negative about them they just attack you saying why I'm attacking a kid Why are you attacking someone with mental illness. They know their ideas are false they know you actually think about them you realize they're all lies. So they need a way where they can give you their ideas but you're not about to question them here comes the autistic little kids to tell you how you're wrong and don't you dare question them
Meme material good, political activism bad. The amount of fetal alcohol syndrom signs makes me suspicious.



still lots of people getting mad about the smoke alarm waking them up because there house is on fire... she doesn't need to go on and on about stats and research... its all out there already and has been for the last 40 years.. also this wave of calling for action would have happened without greta. she is just the face of it
I cheated and read the entire thread before replying, and I didn’t vote. I appreciate the many thoughtful replies and the asker for posing the question. What I didn’t see mentioned, and don’t see mentioned ANYWHERE is anything about life. Life (living things, beings) is what makes this planet alive. As we (we don’t all do it) swagger about, extinguishing life at a scandalous pace we are making ourselves poorer. It is the hope of a few (the 1% if you will) that this will go unnoticed, or lightly regarded. We can all climb aboard with climate change and everybody wins. Start talking about compassion, caring, and sharing Earth with (what’s left of) them, and you will doubtless not be very popular. We can stop the destruction. We can reclaim segments of what’s been lost.
Mine is not a popular message
I think she is painfully naive and kinda hypocritical.
The people running the show are evil, they know that everyone else will come off worse and pay the consequences before they will.
She refuses to accept the obvious truth but we have to accept it?
Why?
Why can't we just close our eyes and drive full speed of the edge of a cliff feining blissful ignorance?
Does she think anyone gives a fuck about her little guilt trip? Does she think it will make any difference or that it solves the core problems?
It won't and doesn't.
If we had the political will to fix anything at all we wouldn't be living like this in the first place.
So... the problem with your question is that you're comparing two completely different questions in the same question and I don't know why you did that. You should have simply asked "do you agree with Greta or not." I have no idea why you included this "political tool" nonsense since it not only is not true, but has nothing to do with the first question you asked-- which was whether I agree with her message.
What makes you say the questions are unrelated? Greta being used as a political tool is the single most common criticism used against her, so OF COURSE the two are related. To think anything else is asinine. There are dozens upon dozens of responses to this very question stating outright that they believe she is a political tool. Your problem is that you personally find the accusation of her being a political tool offensive, therefor including it in my question somehow harms you, which is obviously untrue.
Oh! That's great! Dozens and dozens of people think she's a "political tool!" Wow! I love that standard for measuring whether something is objectively true or not!
Hey, let's try it out: I think that JFK was assassinated by aliens. Can we find "dozens upon dozens" of people who would somehow insanely agree with me? Great! That must make it true!
I think that car engines work because there are little gremlins inside that make the pistons turn. Can we find "dozens upon dozens" of people who would somehow insanely agree with me? Great! That must make it true!
I think that Snickers candy bars cause brain cancer. Can we find "dozens upon dozens" of people who would somehow insanely agree with me? Great! That must make it true!
No one here finds anything "offensive," dude. Don't stoop to that level of ignorance-- you asked a bad, irrational question and I told you why it was bad and irrational. "Offense" has nothing to do with it one way or the other.
Now you're the one conflating two different things. No said that just because a lot of people think it's true that it IS true. Dozens of people stating that she is a political tool is just that, dozens of people stating she is a political tool. Why you find that offensive is beyond me. It's just people's opinions. They're allowed to think that. This is a poll. Not a truth serum. Stop being so silly.
"No said that just because a lot of people think it's true that it IS true."
"There are dozens upon dozens of responses to this very question stating outright that they believe she is a political tool."
... Did you not read what you wrote? And... bud. Champ. Here, let me help you: There's this word called "implication," or its root, "imply," whereby a person does not need to specifically state something in order to actually say it. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/imply?s=t
That should help you.
Again, no one here is "offended." And it doesn't matter whether people think something-- what matters is what's actually true, dude.
@Badballie Thanks.
She is a mentality ill 16yr-old who walked out of school. With the means to travel the world (on jet-fueled planes) has the influence and connections to garner support from the UN. Her parents are members of Antifa with links to Geroge Soros organizations, who have clearly filled her with such anger, self-righteous and an apocalyptic view of the world and the future.
Now if she isn't a political tool, there isn't such a thing.
That's a well reasoned argument. What about climate change? What is your stance on that?
The Earth's climate has changed throughout history. We see the effects across the world, the climate is on a cycle. The Earth's axis is tilted 23.5 degrees from the plane of its orbit around the sun. But this tilt changes. During a cycle that averages about 40,000 years, the tilt of the axis varies between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees. Because this tilt changes, the seasons as we know them can become exaggerated.
The debate should be on the extent humans are effecting this, not if climate change is happening.
I don't think there's much room for doubt on our impact on climate change. I don't think we're as catastrophic as alarmists like Greta would have us believe, but we already know what pollution does. How would you fix it?
We should preserve the earth to the best of our abilities, that is common sense.
The earth has survived a collision with the moon, countless meteor strikes, ice ages, nuclear bombs set off in an attempt to destroy the atmosphere (The US actually did this). The earth and human life are more resilience than they would have you believe.
I live in the Uk, we equal to 1% of the world's population levels. If you want to make a real difference, you need to get China, America, India and Russia together who are producing a large number of the population and CO2 in the atmosphere, have them agree to lower their emissions. The rest of the world is largely irrelevant in this conversation if we are debating a coming "mass extinction".
How can you not agree with her? Little over 50% of the oxigen comes from the ocean and the rest is from forest's and what no. And we are killing off life on land and in the sea that creates an imbalance so great that the planet is heating up more then it should, melting off polar caps and gleaurs that acts like a coolent. Its only going to become hotter. The pH lvl in the sea is higher then ever before and that is killing off several types of life in the sea. Yes all of it is old news, we have known this for over 60 year's. But she is more vocal about it then most before her. It's time we listen
100% she's a tool. I feel bad for her because she seems distressed by what her handlers are having her do. I think she believes the world is coming to an end and it's making her miserable. But I think she's missing the bigger picture. She has no idea how complex the modern world is and what the cost in human lives would be if we went down the path of economy wrecking policies some of the climate activists are calling for. Not that I expect her to know that--she's just a 16 year old kid. But the d-bags exploiting her should know better or really are less concerned about the climate than they are with getting their hands on other people's money.
She is technically correct, the best kind of correct. Politicians are being very irresponsible and her generation will be one of the first to truly pay for it. She is acting like a rational human being should considering the urgency of the looming catastrophe they are about to experience.
The left is using her age and gender to shame anyone who disagrees with her. They want to take advantage by responding with "How dare you disagree with a child? How dare you talk back to a child? How dare you this, how dare you that, etc.". She is nothing but a political tool. She is not a scientist. I'm not taking anything she says seriously.
The argument for climate change has to come from respected scientists with proven experience and qualifications. She simply lacks any real credentials to be taken seriously by either side.
I agree with your point but on the other hand... she is just stating how she feels and asking people to help make a change... The argument for climate change still stands and is supported by scientists but no one is listening to them...
@OneRandom1 Exactly. She may not hold credentials but plenty of people who do are saying pretty much the same thing as her, and very few people are listening. That’s why people like her feel the need to speak out because no one is listening to the people who are qualified and have been warning us about this for decades.
I agree, it's important that ordinary people show that they believe the science. But people who don't believe the science seem to disbelieve it because of political leanings more than anything else. There's a risk she'll just conform their delusions that it's just a leftist conspiracy through her actions.
I agree with her on climate change. Our world's leaders can only talk, while she wants positive action.
Shame so many GAGers are not sufficently knowledgeable to understant what is happening.
I don't agree that she wants positive action. Her message is entirely negative. It's just blame, name, and shame tactics. There's no data behind her arguments and no science behind her solutions. Just, "RADICALLY CHANGE BECAUSE I SAID SO OR YOU'RE RUINING MY CHILDHOOD!" She's extremely unlikable.
So what is your response to global warming? What is your solution? Maybe you don't think it is happening. All she is trying to do is show that our leaders can talk a lot, but up to now, appear to be doing very little practically to resolve the issue.
@Kiran_Yagami I disagree, I think she was speaking from the heart and passionate about what she said. People in charge are not doing their jobs and she is mad about it. What is being done is not enough. She is Batman, not the hero you want but the hero we deserve. I for one am glad someone is telling people they suck at keeping the planet alive...
@JakeMist86 So what if she's speaking from the heart? If she was, then her heart is full of poison and bile. Anger seldom changes anything for the better, so if she is mad and she's speaking like she's mad THEN SHE'S DOING IT WRONG. The more excuses you make for her, the worse she looks.
You still have not come up with an anwer. How would you convince our leaders to take action? If you have an answer, why have you not done it? If you have done it, what is the result? Have you achieved more than this girl?
Greta Thunberg is completely disingenuous. I have a low tolerance for bullshit and my bullshit detector was off the charts during her speech. The cringe factor was unreal. There is no way she wrote that speech herself. Just the other day she was asked "what was her message for world leaders" in an interview and she couldn't even answer it because she didn't have a speech she could read off. Ridiculous.
She is being funded and supported by entities that are using her for their own political agendas. It's unfortunate that environmental scientists who have been going on about climate change for decades now have been ignored and suddenly some 16 year old who's reading off the script that mommy and daddy wrote for her whilst going around wearing antifa shirts is the one everyone's talking about.
I don't see #climatechange trending, no, I see Greta Thunberg trending. It's all about her.
Funny how Greta has never mentioned the gigantic amount of military spending and needless wars. How much carbon emissions does that cause let alone the mass killing and destruction. But no let's not mention foreign policy because that would not go down well. She made her demon face at Trump because he's evil apparently, but shook hands with Obama. Yep, the same Obama who dropped 20,000 bombs on Iraq and Syria and boosted pointless American military spending.
It's all fake and people like Greta are designed to suck the masses into a certain cause in order to take their attention away from the real nasty stuff.
@Tru-陳 Another one in denial. So predictable!
Well considering that she is wrong about climate change and cannot use data but instead just insults I think its safe to say she is being used by the left to push their agenda (as they often hide behind children (David Hogg comes to mind) so that if you destroy them in a debate you look like a bully or your forced to kowtow to their emotional argument because they are a "child").
I completely agree what she says. Those who don't are just plain ignorant. I even hear people saying they are annoyed by her... for that kind of people seems all help lost, selfish and no interest in our future at all
Huh? She IS annoying. She's a little girl who throws little girl tantrums, and that's annoying. Finding her unlikable doesn't make people ignorant. It just makes her ineffective. She's the messenger, and if people don't like her message then it's either her message or her delivery of the message that is flawed, not the people themselves.
I'm not talking of that side but of people who are annoyed of her fighting for the climate.
Always these haters... incredible
Her arguments are wildly incorrect and she suffers from a multitude of disorders including obsession. Her rich and influential parents have basically programmed her into an enormous political stunt and the NPCs are eating her bullshit 4 times a day. Kek what a fucking grift
What normies downvoted this when they short circuited
She is a political tool, young girl with difficulties. It looks good on the news, makes the UN look good and pushes an agenda.
Now I do believe that humans are having an affect on the climate, however I feel the over the top rhetoric is just driving people to assume that its all drivel.
She reflects the concerns of many regarding climate change and government/business failure to address this, but I can't help feeling it's form over content.
She says what is wrong but offers no detail or considered alternatives of her own - she recently stated the means of solution "is nothing to do with me". So what is she offering? She criticises older generations for not having acted sooner but seems to be exonerating her own generation of responsibility to act, happier to stand on the sidelines and come out with "blah blah blah" and "you can stick your climate crisis up your arse".
She has been great in putting the issue centre stage in the media but she needs to start offering solutions as well as slogans. Same goes for her supporters in the streets. Holding a banner saying "save the world" is not going to save the world.
Do you want my honest opinion of her? It's that she is a living example to illustrate my point that even a retarded person can see that climate change is real and accelerated by human activity.
But can a retarded person effectively deliver a message and instigate change to help cut down on climate change? That's the real question. Much of the reaction to her has been negative, so I would say the answer is a resounding "no", at least in Greta's case.
She obviously knows the subject matter, and I believe that she deserves better than being barraged and continually ridiculed. That's about enough I have my own issues with PTSD and have had my head caved in a few times so for 1 I don't mind getting my head caved in and 2 after a few time I learned how not to get my head caved it!
Does anybody seriously think that this whole multi-billion dollar PR campaign just sprouted up organically around a random Swedish girl?
Look up the previous owner of the yacht she used to sail to New York.
Then look up her mom and dad.
I agree with her that more needs to be done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote environmental sustainability.
That said, I get the feeling that she is doing this more for the attention than for the environment. After all, she talked about how before this she was a loner and an oddity with no friends and now she is popular.
she's a political pawn, used for the purpose of pushing a futile agenda that lacks any real value!
I don't think the underlying agenda lacks value, but the person, the way she is presented, and her arguments certainly do. Humanity has had an impact on climate change. I think that is obvious at this point, but how she expects us to alter our lifestyles in ways that only rich people can afford and how she shames people in an attempt to get them to do what she wants betrays an underlying malice towards us. Also how she neglects any real scientific data or ignores technology that already exists that could cut emissions tenfold. No, she just wants us to make radical changes to our lives without any evidence to back it up.
well I dont give a f*** about climate change frankly... but I understand your points and I agree that she neglects evidence and data to back up her claims!
thanks for the logical reply!
I think she is apolitical tool I agree with completely.
I actually want to correct myself. I agree with her and think she is a tool being used by climate change activists. Climate change is not a political issue, it is a global issue that will affect all political parties.
She’s completely right on climate change. I admire her efforts.
I have no way of understanding her home life. Somehow, at 16 , It has the feel of someone who has been heavily influenced by people with a point of view. Like she has been programmed rather than arriving at her position through research and analysis. That is a separate item from whether the point of view has merit.
she's being used by the left the same way they paraded certain school shooting victims around in front of the media, and not others. And they're defending her the same way. Attacking anyone who DARE insult this innocent little child. haha. It is interesting though, that her parents are both actors on tv, and that her "thoughts" parrot those of the left. You'd think she'd have some original thoughts but nope. 100% paid actress and I'm not interested in her shame game.
I agree completely. It's terrible how her parents are using her for fame and fortune.
I strongly suggest anyone here to read the relevant peer reviewed papers on climate change and ecology. We are in huge trouble already let alone if we continue business as usual.
In the sixties, they were shouting about the amazon forest being decimated for wood, it would affect our oxygen levels all over the world. Then in the nineties, some greenie decided that the ozone level over Australia and New Zealand was cause for great concern. Everyone wore hats and sunscreen. I was there in Jan to middle of march this year, has anything changed NO no one wears hats, sunscreen only used on the beaches. GREENPEACE did all this. What a joke!!!
The generation that fucked up some waterways so bad they caught fire is in no posotion to be thinking they know anything about the environment. Quite frankly, my generation is getting sick of your generation gleefully pissing in the global swimming pool we all live in.
Greta Thurnberg and climate change are not the same thing. The question was specifically about Greta.
Watching her berate those politicians was so cringe inducing
I wouldn't tolerate a misinformed child preaching to me like that. I would have walked out of the room.
I haven’t watched her speech yet, but from the clips and articles I’ve come across on her I more or less agree with her. It’s time to tackle this beast before it gets even more out of control.
she's far to young to understand the complications involved and is being used. by climate change extremists. time for greta to go home to momma. to young to be playing with the big guys in the UN. and as for destroying her life look at her back ground comes from very wealthy parents her life and future is well secured sadly for most of these protesters. there's will never be the equal of confused greta thunbergs.
Definitely a tool. She had to start playing the fear mongering "were going to face mass extinction soon" bit, which we have all heard 1000 times before. Not amused, hopefully she will fade out.
I think children, and she is one, can't fully grasp the current situation. The US for example is an empire bleeding out from debt, with several partially ruined major cities, and a nearly dead domestic production capacity. It's a situation of triage, and worrying about the future is pretty tough when the house is burning down around you.
I just explained why a collapsing nation can't manage green reform due to economics. Fuck man, use your head.
I don't think you fully understand how close to insolvency the US government is. Their power to do anything about anything is quickly fading. All efforts must be directed to the industrialization of space, so that resource production can be moved off world before environmental reclamation can be made a top international priority. The other option is the starvation deaths of billions, a century of war, and a new dark age.
The issue at hand goes way beyond whatever trivial efforts you need to make in your local area, though those are important matters for municipal and state governments.
Even if she's a tool it don't change the fact that it's her future that gets fucked up, and not these white 80 year olds controlling things.
Perhaps, but her solutions are both ineffective and often impossible and the way she goes about arguing is quite literally childish. That is not how to bring about change. That's how to be a publicity stunt that's forgotten next week.
Some of what she is saying is accurate, but I do not like a little girl who as Aspergers to be the front figure, nor do I like her emotional outburst in her UN address.
I find her a little irritating tbh and little on the dramatic side. The 'How dare you' video was cringey.
Aside from all that she's fighting for a good cause. She should seriously take all this to third world countries though.
She’s just a political tool. They’re using a child to tap into peoples compassion.
Yeah that whole not fucking up the Earth to the poont we can't fix it lobby must be stopped. /s
@xkforcesc2 I never said that.
I disagree with her. She really needs to lighten up. The only reason she ranted and raved the other night was because her flight home was with Thomas Cook, and she found out they'd collapsed and was worried she wouldn't get home.
Simples...
She was the worst actress. Poor kid is brain washed as fuck.
Whether she be political tool or not, her message is about a serious issue---one that needs to be addressed urgently.
I dunno.. its not realistic for her to shoot to such audiences in no time... many people have been voicing on the subject... we'll have to wait n find out
She is an abused child who doesn't know what she is doing. She is missing school, she should be getting an education instead of listening to the poison her handlers are pouring down her ears.
@tara987 What an outrageous statement. Doctors and engineers, surgeons and scientists dont learn to do what they do by speaking to a conference room filled with old people.
She's not an engineer or a surgeon or a scientist (although all three go to conferences to hear new ideas and discuss topics with colleagues and experts - and sometimes make speeches to old people). I believe we can learn a lot more, sometimes, when presented with new situations and ideas. I am certain she learned a great deal from the experience.
@tara987 Nothing substitutes and actual education.
I couldn’t care less what a little child says
How would you feel, then, if an adult said the same thing? Are you in denial that global warming exists?
Good luck when Armageddon happens! You seen to be very apathetic about it. Couldn't give a damn.
@juicyjessie Even if it did happen, it wouldn't be in our lifetime so alarmism isn't going to change anyone's mind. It just shreds your credibility and allows people to disregard any valid data you do have on principle. You have to do better than shame tactics or doom and gloom.
Sure! We'll all be dead and buried. But what a shit legacy to leave future generations. "Let THEM clear up OUR shit!" Such a selfish attitude, but then, Trump shows the way that is by pulling out of the Paris Accord.
Same with plastic pollution. Sod future generations. They can sort it out! What an attitude!
@juicyjessie legacy? what kind of crap is that! Who cares? Sound like the type of people who need to give birth to leave a legacy. Maybe your the selfish one for wanting the impossible. And who to say that the world won’t just explode for no reason. It’s already happen. There is so much plastic n trash that the last generation that people don’t know what to do with it.
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