Climate Crisis: Are we doing enough?

[newfhouse]

How about white privileged Swedish feminist? If everyone else can be woke, then so can I ...

I'm afraid I have a certain antipathy to rich Westerners playing the victim card*, so the you stole my childhood didn't go down very well with me. If anyone stole her childhood it was those who instilled so much fear into her it made her ill. My initial reaction to the UN speech was she was being used and this was child abuse. I genuinely feared for her safety.

Some more recent footage of her imo showed the adulation has gone to her head and this is now an ego trip. Partly understandable, but I wasn't impressed.

* Think Harry and Meghan for a worse example of this.

The saying of my sister was authentic. She was no loss to the diplomatic corps so I asked her what she thought of Thunberg. She taught for 35 years in a school with excess numbers of special needs, so I was intrigued to see what effect Thunberg might have had. Not the desired outcome. The doomsday stuff was over the top. It was also not a very good tactic to insult those you are trying to win over to a change in course. How dare you!

That is always excellent advice ...

Well done Unkers, that’s the full set. House!

 

[mudsticks]

Well done Unkers, that’s the full set. House!

Yup quite the commendable effort.

If it wasn't Unkers, I'd have assumed satire..

"If everyone else can be woke, then so can I"

"Some more recent footage of her imo showed the adulation has gone to her head"

And

"It was also not a very good tactic to insult those you are trying to win over to a change in course"

Being just a few of the highlights.

 

[mudsticks]

Further evidence that the oil corps predicted global heating via their own research.

Then sat on the evidence, and rubbished environmentalists efforts to have the dangers taken seriously.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/12/exxon-climate-change-global-warming-research

 

[matticus]

How about white privileged Swedish feminist?
I'm afraid I have a certain antipathy to rich Westerners playing the victim card

Do you not think she is speaking for children globally?

White Swedish children are probably quite insulated from climate issues. It's the least privileged children on our planet who will suffer the most from this problem - what are you doing about it? (And what did you do about it when YOU were 16? Please show us the wonderful, diplomatic, persuasive words you wrote age 16, that didn't piss anyone off, or sound "precocious" )

Is that really your best shot at refuting Greta's message:
"she's a rich westerner, what does SHE know about how we've diddled the planet for her generation globally?"

 

[mudsticks]

Do you not think she is speaking for children globally?

White Swedish children are probably quite insulated from climate issues. It's the least privileged children on our planet who will suffer the most from this problem - what are you doing about it? (And what did you do about it when YOU were 16? Please show us the wonderful, diplomatic, persuasive words you wrote age 16, that didn't piss anyone off, or sound "precocious" )

Is that really your best shot at refuting Greta's message:
"she's a rich westerner, what does SHE know about how we've diddled the planet for her generation globally?"

Yup, there's been thousands if not millions of activists clamouring for change on this issue for decades, listening to the scientists, who don't make loads of money at this, as some claim.
.
Hence Greenpeace, FoTE and all the rest.
Greta didn't come up with this stuff, nor has she ever claimed to.
Her school protests just happened to catch the attention of the fickle media, and then catch a mood of the youth
A youth understandably fed up with the laissez faire attitude of their elders.

She'd be the first to point out her white privelege.
Thing is she's used that privelege to get heard, to get this issue taken more notice of.

A black woman activist in an African country where they're already suffering the effect of climate change - and there are plenty of those activists - I've been priveleged to meet quite a few
What chance she would get an audience at The UN.??

Basically it's old privelege wanting to hold onto it, not wanting to admit they've taken us down a disastrous path, not wanting to own their own shoot that's the problem.

Imo the oil corps et al should be up on criminal charges - some people are pursuing this avenue already


Fwiw I was a very precocious 'little madam' aged nine I won a not insubstantial book fund for my school by designing an energy saving house..

Back in the 1970s!!*
When all this stuff was already known about
Only now after going at it the long (and environmentally aware) way round at it.
Do I finally get a chance to build such a thing
The push back against doing things 'better' is immense.

Sometimes I wish I'd been (even more) vocal in my activism.
But the energy comes and goes - you have to measure it out.
Going up against the likes of oh so sure of themselves, smug belittling sorts such as Unkers is debilitating to say the least of it.

Many have fallen by the wayside in terms of mental health whilst battling this issue.

We have the vested interest, and their supporters to thank for delaying action on this .

I'll probably not see any reversal of the situation on this in my lifetime, but I might go to my grave (under a tree here) in the knowledge that I at least tried to be a 'good ancestor'

 

[Unkraut]

If it wasn't Unkers, I'd have assumed satire..

Small wonder that Satire squats hoof-in-mouth under every bush. The purpose of Satire, it has been rightly said, is to strip off the veneer of comforting illusion and cosy half-truth. And my job, as I see it ... is to put it back again!

Apologies to Michael Flanders.

 

[mudsticks]

Small wonder that Satire squats hoof-in-mouth under every bush. The purpose of Satire, it has been rightly said, is to strip off the veneer of comforting illusion and cosy half-truth. And my job, as I see it ... is to put it back again!

Apologies to Michael Flanders.

How droll 🙄

Lots of people have tried to obfuscate the realities of man made climate change over the years..
And tried to hang onto the comfortable illusion that it's a 'myth'


It's definitely more 'cosy' for the mind, than facing up to reality.

Unfortunately all that denying, delaying, deflection, and dissembling has lead us to a very dangerous situation.

Those choosing to ignore or deny the overwhelming scientific evidence that this is happening, are also complicit in that damage done.

But hey, gotta laugh eh ??

 

[newfhouse]

Admirable work.


View: https://twitter.com/brandalismuk/status/1614888011765846016?s=61&t=B_VDlrb9tovzBUnmsYgCTw

 

[bobzmyunkle]

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...-offsets-biggest-provider-worthless-verra-aoe

The only surprise seems to be the extent of the worthlessness.

 

[BoldonLad]

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...-offsets-biggest-provider-worthless-verra-aoe

The only surprise seems to be the extent of the worthlessness.

My thoughts exactly, for > 90%, read 100%

 

[albion]

Been bullshit since the day it was born. It has taken them 17+ years to say so.

 

[mudsticks]

Been bullshit since the day it was born. It has taken them 17+ years to say so.

Yup it's classic robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Greenwashing justification for carrying on 'business as usual'

What has always been needed all along is a massive reduction in the use of fossil fuels.

'Net' zero is still pursuing that same false equivalence too.
Those calculations are still saying it's OK to carry on exploring for, and using more fossil fuels - if at the same time we 'offset' with some trees, or mudflats, or peat restoration over here, when it really really isn't, ok to carry on with the bad shoot.

Does establishing this copse of oaks in this corner of the farm, now mean it's now somehow OK for me to jump on a plane and jet off for some winter sun on Gran Canaria??

No of course it doesn't, we need a reduction in FF usage combined with as many carbon sinking measures as we can manage.

So basically just stop oil (and coal and gas) as soon* and as much, as possible.

And help less well off countries mitigate for climate change that they didn't cause, but which is happening to them right now,


*Doing all that 30 years ago would have been vastly preferable when awareness of this issue was already there, and many of us were calling for action to be taken, but even now it could help reduce the worst possible global heating scenario, by a few tenths of degrees - potentially the difference between life and death for many humans, and many non human species. .

 

[newfhouse]

Been bullshit since the day it was born. It has taken them 17+ years to say so.

There was a comedian I heard a while ago on R4 - sorry, I can’t remember who - that likened the system to a burglar being paid by the mayor to commit his felony in a different town. He’s still a villain and the same number of homes have their valuables taken, but the mayor and his electorate can feel smug about reducing crime.

 

[Unkraut]

Well done Unkers, that’s the full set. House!

Thank you very much!

It's the least privileged children on our planet who will suffer the most from this problem - what are you doing about it?

I suspect my carbon footprint is less than many a climate activist. Particularly if they come from rich middle-class backgrounds. As I have said before the vast amount of fossil fuels used to keep the annual jamboree on the road doesn't help my scepticism. Computer link ups during Corona have shown this is unnecessary.

(And what did you do about it when YOU were 16?

When I was 16 I don't think I would have considered myself in any position to lecture adults on how they should behave. Incidentally back then global cooling was the looming problem.

I have no problem with Greta making her speeches that there is a potential problem. Free speech! What bothers me is if she starts trying to point to solutions to this problem. She has to be clueless on this.

She'd be the first to point out her white privelege.
Thing is she's used that privelege to get heard, to get this issue taken more notice of.

So being white and privileged can be morally neutral?

I actually agree with Greta on two things:

Her criticism of unending economic growth - if she means at whatever cost. A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions comes to mind. (That is something the modern Conservative Party very badly needs to learn.)

Her upbraiding of the Germans for abandonning nuclear power. It has been fun to watch the Greens getting all stewed up over this - Greta hath spoken, who can but believe it! If the climate is going to present the problems claimed, until new sources of energy are in place nuclear offers an interim solution. You have to trade its risks (which are real) against climate risks. The German obsession with getting rid of nuclear is irrational in the light of this.

The climate change lobby think the climate wolf is at the door. Deniers are those who don't believe wolves exist. I think in reality there are hardly any in this category. When the boy cried wolf when the wolf wasn't there can you blame his neighbours for being sceptical when a wolf really did appear? How many failed climate predictions have there been in recent years? The doom and gloom that would happen by the year 2000. Think Al Gore and his tipping points, the Arctic would be ice free by 2014. The intellectually challenged Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claiming the world will end by 2030. 7 years to go!

Greta might be right to follow the science, but to the extent it has become politicised this is easier said than done.

 

[albion]

It always was irrational. 'Utter stupidity' came to mind at the time.

The building of that pipeline told a lot too. However I never imagined the US would be right in their protestations on the matter.