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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA Lot of Grown-Ass Men Sure Do Seem to Feel Threatened by Teen Climate Activist Greta Thunberg
16-year-old Greta Thunberg is currently on a two-week transatlantic sailing voyage aboard a carbon-neutral, zero-emissions, 60-foot racing yacht. The Swedish teen is travelling from Plymouth, England to New York in order to attend the United Nations Climate Action Summit.
Earlier this summer, she announced her desire to attend both this summit and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Santiago, Chile this December, because these two summits will be, as she put it, pretty much where our future will be decided. At the same time, she noted the difficulty in attending, since shes so committed to her activism that she doesnt fly. So the invitation to sail was a big deal.
Good news!
Ill be joining the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, COP25 in Santiago and other events along the way.
Ive been offered a ride on the 60ft racing boat Malizia II. Well be sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from the UK to NYC in mid August.#UniteBehindTheScience pic.twitter.com/9OH6mOEDce
Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) July 29, 2019
Thunberg is doing something truly incredible in this voyage, though its not her only accomplishment. Shes spoken to foreign government officials on the issue of climate change. She also recently sparked a school walkout among students worldwide in protest of governmental inaction on the issue. And on top of all of that, shes been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year. So why do so many grown men seem to see her as a direct threat?
Heres a Fox News contributor and former member of Donald Trumps transition team calling her a teenage puppet and a bedwetter.
https://www.themarysue.com/greta-thunberg-harassment-online/
Fierce!
struggle4progress
(118,205 posts)spooky3
(34,401 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)It's so sad. Instead of being inspired by these young people who want to make the world a better place, they can only think about themselves and how inadequate it makes them feel.
I am so tired of weak, insecure men. Especially those in positions of power. They make life hell for the rest of us.
PandoraAwakened
(905 posts)of any female they have not yet raped or groped.
SMC22307
(8,090 posts)Guilded Lilly
(5,591 posts)bucolic_frolic
(43,024 posts)she is at the forefront of her generation and this issue. She doesn't know how tough it will be.
Richard D
(8,737 posts)very afraid.
NNadir
(33,455 posts)I tell him he's late, as he's 20.
I really admire these children who are taking responsibility for the world in which they will live.
This child is quite a woman; I'd love for her to get the Peace Prize.
sandensea
(21,593 posts)These thugs don't like feeling threatened - least of all by a 16 year-old girl.
Bring back all those teenage hangups most of them no doubt had.
Takket
(21,525 posts)These people are.... devoid of anything that could be called humanity. and the denial of climate change rages on.
i think someone history will look back upon the modern GOP that has done everything humanly possible to resist any effort to combat climate change, and recognize them as the greatest monsters in history.
SergeStorms
(19,131 posts)her trip aboard the yacht is probably being wasted. They have to fly two extra crew members to New York to sail the yacht back, wiping out any carbon emissions savings from her voyage.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7365909/Greta-Thunbergs-Atlantic-trip-zero-carbon-yacht-generate-emissions-saves.html
I know it's the Daily Mail, but if the reports are true it's a severe blow to her brave and selfless campaign.
Beaverhausen
(24,469 posts)If so, not really extra emissions, right?
SergeStorms
(19,131 posts)if they were flying commercially or privately. Any added weight to a commercial flight would add to the carbon footprint anyway. To top it off, the owner and skipper will be flying back to Europe after the crossing, and I'm guessing they aren't flying on a commercial flight, so maybe the crew is flying over to N.Y. on a private plane as well. That's a shame, it really is. She was trying to so something so good, and you know right-wing fanatics will make a big deal out of this.
NNadir
(33,455 posts)I don't think the "gotcha" stuff is particularly useful or helpful.
For the record, it is possible to make jet fuel if one has a source of clean energy, in fact, technology has been developed and is being piloted to make it from the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide extracted from the ocean, the primary dumping ground for it.
This is the Willauer technology being developed by the US Navy for its nuclear powered air craft carriers.
Development of an Electrochemical Acidification Cell for the Recovery of CO2 and H2 from Seawater (Willauer et al Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2011 50 17 9876-9882) This is very interesting technology.
This young woman has rocketed to international fame for activism that is important for her generation and, in fact, the generations after her.
There is no need to follow her around with carbon accountants. I would rather that her travel be efficient than otherwise, since she has something important to say and so.
Of course the climate denial community will try to define this crap as a "serious blow." Can she, however, conduct an international campaign for her generation on a bicycle and a canoe? The people complaining about her are the people who want to demean her so they continue their pig festival of destruction.
Why buy into that?
I note that any of us who are using computers to express our thoughts about climate change are by default, participants in the further development of climate change. All the websites devoted to electric cars, wind turbines, and solar cells do not run on wind turbines and solar cells, which are pathetically inadequate technologies in any case.
This young woman does not have a Ph.D. She is not a scientist. She is just something rare in our modern times; a human being who gives a shit.
I wish her Godspeed.