Problem is we cant prevent the need and use of fossile fuels so what do we do? India and chinas economy is on the up and they want cars and affordable energy like the rest of us.
Greta Thunberg
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
It appears so. You look cooler. Well done
You really need to reconsider your idea of why I didn't like your post.
I worried about climate change
I tried as best as i could to do my part, realistically. I'm not saying I'm a no electricty hippies.
It's good that greta tries to help raises awareness
But greta shouldnt be held as champions of the cause, she's just the oops i didnt do it boy.
By all means. Recognize her, but stop deitifying her as some kind of climate patron, or people of the year. That's insulting to a more real everyday climate changes fighter. Scientist, organizations that goes beyond their profit margin to help climate changes. Those that actually does more. She's just the kids who says the right thing at the right time.
I tried as best as i could to do my part, realistically. I'm not saying I'm a no electricty hippies.
It's good that greta tries to help raises awareness
But greta shouldnt be held as champions of the cause, she's just the oops i didnt do it boy.
By all means. Recognize her, but stop deitifying her as some kind of climate patron, or people of the year. That's insulting to a more real everyday climate changes fighter. Scientist, organizations that goes beyond their profit margin to help climate changes. Those that actually does more. She's just the kids who says the right thing at the right time.
She isn't enjoying it. She thinks there's more important things to consider than enjoyment, given the crisis we're facing. The silly girl thinks we all have an obligation in that regard. Thankfully the more reasoned among us instead recognise we should spend our time thinking about her flaws and the mechanics of her speechwriting.
Once she broke down and lost it in that interview it made me feel very awkward listening to her any longer.
I feel she's just been used and brainwashed by her parents, she's by her own admission had a shite childhood and now feels stresses nobody at her age should be feeling.
Yes climate change is an issue and I think most sensible people know/acknowledge this, but it's way out of the average mans control or power to change it.
I do worry for her mental health in the future.
I feel she's just been used and brainwashed by her parents, she's by her own admission had a shite childhood and now feels stresses nobody at her age should be feeling.
Yes climate change is an issue and I think most sensible people know/acknowledge this, but it's way out of the average mans control or power to change it.
I do worry for her mental health in the future.
another well written sarcastic post. Well done.as far as I know her father gave an interview saying she was depressed for four years prior, stopped speaking, no friends but now with the activism its the happiest she’s ever been, plus she’s now also saving the world. So long may it continue
Ah I see, fair enough. I think you can make a strong case that she is raising awareness and a lot more people now take it seriously as a result. Hard to quantify, but I think we're already seeing significant change in how corporations take it seriously - because if they don't people won't buy their stuff.
That isn't all down the Greta of course, but every little helps.
I'd wager a lot of kids on the autism spectrum struggles through their childhood because their peers have no understanding of diagnoses like that.
If you're going to appoint yourself as someone with remarkable wisdom, the kind that prevents you form being susceptible to all of these errors in judgment that allow things like this to exist in society, expect people to point out the flaws in that assessment. It just isn't true.
as far as I know her father gave an interview saying she was depressed for four years prior, stopped speaking, no friends but now with the activism its the happiest she’s ever been, plus she’s now also saving the world. So long may it continue
I think it definitely will and already has increased awareness. Without a doubt. For that, she deserves a huge amount of credit and it can't be revered. On the other it may be a fair point that being confrontational may not be the ideal way to convince disbelievers, but at the same time, it may be a solid way to sway those who simply aren't aware.
Sorry, I read your post a few times, I can’t understand it, I don’t know whether I’m not intelligent enough to or it’s just written in a mess.
Her parents played a blinder. Getting rich with movies, books and series about a child who says "safe the planet" like literally every other child in the world. Well done.
The claim:
The implication:
The only reason Greta exists in this role is because the public are idiots. Not me, though, I see right through that. Look how wise I am by telling you all this.
The evidence:
The reality is that people like her for reasons other than being dense. They see the world differently to you, and yet still have valid opinions worthy of respect.
That's pretty much it.Ok I see how I may have written it was off, at no time did I want to appear wider than everyone/ anyone else, I certainly know im not.
I would still say that she gathered more attention, support and followers due to her age though, would you not?
You saying that, literally, every single kid in the planet, spend their free time sitting alone outside some fecking parliament complaining about global warming, instead of playing on the internet or jerking off?
"Laugh out loud"
Haters of Greta are the same people that loves the likes of Ben Shapiro.
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If she really wants to avoid being hypocritical, instead of jetting around in big fancy boats and trains, she should instead deliver her speeches from a cave via pre-recorded tapes and deliver them en masse to all the world's news broadcasters to drive home her message while also minimising her own carbon footprint. That certainly worked out fantastically for the last person who decided to take up this option.
Osama was a visionary!
Shame he had better vision than his camera did.
Yes and no. This fundamental truth is clear to everyone:
That clearly counts against her. Many, many, many people reject her on that basis alone. We can debate about the legitimacy of that but it's just the reality. So while it's an obvious truth that she has energised people her age and younger, and that could accelerate a societal revolution when they step into the workforce, find a place in politics, etc., it also comes at a significant cost.
I don't know how many people are "unaware" of climate change at this point, but I suspect it's very small. So I don't think raising awareness is very important. Keeping it in the conversation and converting thought to action is what is required, and the unknown for me is whether she has the opposite effect among people much older than her. They know all these problems exist, and they think the only solutions provided to them are completely unrealistic, so they're resigned to letting the world slowly destroy itself, waiting on technology to be a heroic saviour, or they don't think the effects will be that bad. She might make people in the latter camp think differently, but in the two other camps, it's entirely possible she just hardens those views. She is idealistic, and she just represent a perspective that many people can't relate to. You can see that in this thread.
Personally I think we still live in a world strongly influenced by the Baby Boomer phenomenon, when demographic and cultural shifts dictated that "young people" were the most influential portion of the population. The demographic shifts are going in completely the opposite direction now, but most of us are passively ignorant of that, and many people are actively fighting against that reality. "If only old people would just die already, the world would be so much better". I think that's one of the primary underlying causes of Brexit and many other significant political shifts in recent times, personally.
The reality is that young people are less important now than they were half a century ago. For the first time in human history, the "working population" (25-54 year olds) will not be the largest portion of the population - that's just a couple of a decades away. By 2065, the 55+ population will be twice as large as it was in 1965, and it will be much more important than the young generation. In 2065, 15-34 year olds represented 27% of the population while those aged 55+ represented 19%. In 2015, they represented 27% of the population each, and by 2065 15-34s will represent 23% of the population while 55+ will represent 36% of the population.
We're right in the middle of that demographic shift and we're watching the political divide between younger and older generations grow, and no-one's having a serious conversation about it. They're just demonising the other, patronising the other. So while on the one hand that means that young people now will be more important in their latter years than their parents were, and it's essential to drive change among those same people now so that they act upon it throughout the rest of their long lives, the focus of political, economic and social policies and discussions will need to shift at some point to respond to the needs of the population in the here and now, or things start to breakdown.
Young, idealistic, and yes ignorant people have been at the forefront of many, many important movements in society that have made the world a better place, and older generations fought harshly against that in the past, but ultimately were persuaded or overpowered. There's nothing new about that particular problem here. The difference is older generations have a larger say, that say will only continue to get larger, and ageism in society is influencing how people respond to some of the larger challenges of our time - at both ends of the spectrum.
So to me it's entirely possible that she does more harm than good, because the people she's connecting with have less power, and she's not connecting with the people who have the most power. And so someone else occupying her position may have gotten more attention, support and followers. But then I don't buy into this idea that someone put her in that place. Most people in her situation just fall into it, due to factors entirely outside of her or any individual's control. So it might well be that someone like her is the only person that could fall into that place.
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The hypocrisy arguments are weak and an indication of petty hatred. No one person can be perfect, especially not someone in her position. The travel is worth it. The point is making it a hot topic and hopefully inviting big change from those that can really do it. She's in a position to do it now and should take advantage of that.
Do you think this is true? My nephew is 15, fairly intelligent and had never heard of her. I asked him and some of his mates as I hear this argument made, and only one had heard of her.
I think she might be one of these phenomenons where the politically engaged care, most people don't. Young people famously aren't in general politically engaged. Older people who are already convinced will like her, and those who aren't won't listen to a 17 year old. Therefore I doubt she's having much impact, although documentary series may change this.
I doubt if a documentary will sway younger people. They won’t bother to watch in the first place
They will if it’s only 2 minutes long and full of memes ha
I think it's safe to say that a teenager that hasn't heard about the most popular teenager in the world is an unusual case. We asked 4,000 people in the UK how often they think about the health of the planet, and Gen Z do so more than anyone else. Easy to say, sure, but their actions support it. They're also turning away from meat at greater rates, more likely to make shopping choices with a smaller environmental footprint, making different transport decisions etc. That is filtering through to what businesses are offering across all kinds of sectors - it isn't the driver of it, but it clearly has accelerated it. At the same time, they're the generation least interested in and engaged with politics - inevitably influenced by the fact the laws dictate most of them can't participate in it in a meaningful way. So the link between politics and engagement with the issues that Greta symbolises doesn't really exist, at least for people her own age. Determining just how influential she was been is difficult but yes I'm sure she has played a positive role among people of her age. Whether that's down to right time, right place or whether it's to do with who she is doesn't matter much, from my perspective.
I don't know if you're joking but that isn't true
The data I've seen says the same thing but overall we're still talking about tiny raw numbers. Even if gen z are for example are 50% more likely to be vegan than any other generation you still only have 1.5% of their population.
Also I doubt Greta is the most popular teenager in the world. That will be some youtuber I've never heard of, especially amongst that generation.
Has to be Billie Eilish surely.
Oh yeah, it's very possible she's not the most popular teenager among teenagers. But across the entire population, I'd be surprised if there's a more popular teenager, and so among teenagers it'd be pretty unusual not to know her. But I don't spend a lot of time talking to teenagers either so who knows. I'd only heard of TikTok late last year but according to them it's the a central part of daily life.
The numbers I have are 6% of gen z are vegan (compared to 1% of baby boomers), 11% are vegetarian (compared to 4% of baby boomers) and if you include pescatarians, the difference is pretty significant. Only 77% of gen z identify as a meat eater, compared to 90% of baby boomers, and that trend steadily goes up as you go down the generations.
I haven't looked into the data on actual consumption numbers, but even if that is simply young people being more likely to misrepresent themselves as a non meat eater because it has some implicit social value, it would point to a significant difference in attitudes / priorities / social environments, which is a useful indicator of where things are moving. Anecdotally, I find vegetarianism and and veganism far more prevalent among our generation and the generation below us, than our parents, and it's only growing. So I don't think it's true that the differences are too small to mean much.
the hypocricy thing is just pathetic. feck me, there are actual grown adults on this forum coming up with such bullshit.
It's the same with the people who are oh so concerned about her asperger's. They just don't have any arguments whatsoever, so that bullshit is all they have.
Can believe this. I went to an old boys rugby dinner at my university a couple of months back and the lads either side of me were both vegan as well as others around the room. I don't think we had one in the squad when I was playing, and that was only 10 years ago!
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Raising awareness of how fast we are using up our 1.5C carbon budget is really important and is what she is focused on. Fact is, while people might be aware of climate change, I think many people still think we have maybe 50-80 years to sort it - they still aren't aware of how a lot of irreversible change will be locked in much, much sooner than people realise.
I've certainly got her to thank for making me aware of that.
That was only in terms of "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll". On a world wide stage, in terms of political aspirations student protest didn't achieve much, except perhaps destroy half of Paris (68). The 'World will End' scenarios were played out against the background of the Cold War, from the Cuba Missile Crisis through to the 'Star Wars' deployment by the US. Young peoples involvement in World wide events or expectations were severely limited by the 'grown ups' despite the numbers being on the side of the young.
In todays world young people all over the earth, although there maybe less of them in Europe, are much more politically aware, not just about climate change, but the demand for democracy, say e.g. in the Middle East, about Fair Trade issues, about the effects of (sometimes limited) warfare on refugees, ethnic cleansing etc.
Todays young people maybe less in numbers, but are more aware of the world around them. The fact that a 16/17 year old girl can draw the attention that Greta does on the world stage, is a phenomenon in its self. The need to 'do something', besides stamping your feet and howling at the moon, using the vote where in past generations 18 years olds couldn't be bothered, are all now very obvious to the young. Young people will have to lead the way, be prepared to sacrifice the lifestyles most still follow and above all organise on a World wide basis... but are they collectively willing, capable and energised enough?
Where are the next 1000 Greta's coming from, because it will be a numbers game in the end, it always is in the world of the homo sapiens?
Yes but that’s making people dislike her the way she delivers her opinions, let’s be honest we all know about climate change but I think you’ll find the majority of grown adults don’t want a rich privileged kid barking orders at them.
Plus At her age she knows nothing of the real world day to day for the average person, It’s alright when her millionaire parents are paying for all her accommodation and travelling etc to go to all these events around the world but the fact is most people can’t afford to go green like she wants, the majority of people own cars I spend about £60 a week on petrol but I need that car to earn a living by working (something she will never have to do). Yes there are electric cars but they’re very expensive still and barely anyone has one yet.
Anyway like I said earlier in thread she will fade away into obscurity as she gets older. Maybe she should Focus on going back and finishing high school, get her grades then go to uni become a scientist and come up with actual solutions instead of shouting.
You’re on fire today!
to be fair, the praise for the cartoon should go to the artist
She didn't just sit there, she sat there with professional PR people bringing it to media attention. Otherwise she wouldn't have sat there for long. On all her trips a professional camera team is present for the upcoming movie.
She is not the first protestor/activist nor the first underage protestor/activist. Literally in every local Greenpeace office you have dozens of Gretas, organizing protests, banners and dedicating their time for the "good cause", some risking their own lives with crazy actions. She and a couple others at the "top" just happened to be the lucky ones who will profit immensely from it. The German version of her recently got offered a top job by the Siemens CEO himself and she is merely a student with no degree. A hypocritical one at that who got exposed quickly with dozens of travel pictures of herself all across the world on Instagram (which she deleted after people started questioning why a girl from a rich family with her jetsetter lifestyle is suddenly the face of the German FFF movement).
This whole circus is good for many people. Media have a lot of hot air to write about, politicians and CEOs of top companies can surround themselves with the Gretas for nice PR and the Gretas and their families profit nicely from it as well. For everyone else life goes on as usual. The US did not stop with the fracking technology or their 1000 military bases across the world, the EU did not stop buying the US fracking gas and China and India don't have this topic on their radar at all, neither does the Middle East or Eastern Europe. It's the en vogue topic for central European vegan metropolitans who feel good about themselves if they use public transportation instead of a car. Good for them.
Also I don't really care about clowns like Shapiro. Maybe he is famous in the US for "debating" pink haired college students, in Europe no one cares about people like that.