... to find the whole Greta Thunberg thing a bit uncomfortable?

[NotMyRealName11]

She's obviously a passionate and highly intelligent young woman, she's expressing her views, and she seems happy.

But I feel that it's a lot of pressure for her, especially given her history. I hope it is not too much.

I absolutely accept that different situations can have a different effect for different people... and for her, this seems to be therapeutic. But I would be worried for my daughter if she were dealing with this pressure.

i worry about her a little as well - what's going to happen to her as she gets a little older? There's going to come a point where she will want to eg date, get a job, do something else - and the media will turn on her, hideously. There's some creepy shit around at the moment portraying her as some sort of virgin child saint - she is 16; a young woman rather than a child. As @Mishappening says, there may come a point when she no longer looks like a little girlie and then she will be either dismissed or ritually trashed.

Also, as to climate change, yes it's a problem, but I'd prefer to see people working towards solutions and adaptations rather than all this howling and breastbeating. If you've got disposable income, get solar panels. Work towards addressing inequality and overcoming bigotry. Plant more trees.

She is an inspiration! We have been so wasteful, and thoughtless.

Plus, have you not noticed how hateful people are towards her already?

Pierce Morgan has said some awful things on Twitter about her. It’s shameful to read. Yet he still has a voice on breakfast tv.

I dont believe in climate change.
But thats my opinion.

And that's based on??

I dont believe in climate change.
But thats my opinion

Wow, I didn’t know Donald Trump posts on mumsnet.

I agree op, I worry about the life she’s living, and I hope it brings her more joy than it looks.

How the hell can anyone be so blind to the science

i worry about her a little as well - what's going to happen to her as she gets a little older? There's going to come a point where she will want to eg date, get a job, do something else

Thats the point though. Our teenagers will not come of age in a world where they can live the way we do. Food shortages, lack of water, natural disasters and millions of climate refugees means her adult life will be completely different to ours.

I agree it's concern trolling. Apparently people are so worried about a 16 year old potentially feeling sad because of online comments, but they aren't bothered that the same 16 year old will probably have a shortened and terrible life due to climate change. They are also not bothered that other 16 year olds (and babies and adults) are dying right now because of starvation, floods and fires and millions/billions more will die in the near future.

Maybe we should focus on the environment then instead of putting more attention on her. Lol.

I think she should be in school. Like most people I worry about climate change but being asked by a 16year old - how dare you - I find ridiculous. She has a lot of growing up to do and doing it on the world stage can’t be good for her. If that was one of my kids I’d be telling them to calm down and get on with their education. I know this is an unpopular opinion but I find the whole publicity machine around her wrong. She’s still a child.

I know it's an unpopular opinion but I think she sounded like a petulant child.
How dare you.. You've stolen my childhood. Ask yourself this.. If your teen said this to you what would your response be

As for climate strikes. So she's basically disrupting kids education, possibly denying them a decent future.. The irony.
Again ask yourself what would you say yo your teen when they start encouraging others to skip school

What disappoints me is how negative and patronising other people in the headlines are. I don't mean celebrities more journalists.
Disparaging - as if she's talking nonsense when in fact we are going to be seriously in trouble in the lives of the present young people like her.
I feel sad for my DGCs and realise how unbelievably lucky I was not to have my childhood blighted by this.

Yes I know think it’s very unhealthy for such a young girl to have so much pressure on her shoulders. I think she is also pushed very much by the adults around her and should have the opportunity to become the version of herself that she chooses to be without the whole world watching her.

Anyone who shouts and makes ridiculous comment blaming strangers for her wrecked childhood I cannot take seriously.

As someone who is weeks off being 17 I think she does need to stop identifying herself as a child.

I don’t know if it is manipulation of her image but pigtails are what children wear in primary school. Everything is done to make her look young and that I find quite distasteful

I'm uncomfortably reminded of Joan of Arc. And, for Joan, that ended very badly. I don't think a teenager, whatever their message, should be the centre of a media circus - for their own good.

I think being part of a protest is fine, writing letters etc is fine, but when a teenager becomes the face or voice of a movement, that child has been let down by the adults in the movement.

I have no problem with Greta. I have a massive problem with the adults around her.

Try an look at it this way - is it possible that someone could be so mentally unwell, in some form or another, and their reality so off base, that the person may not even know that she is being manipulated? If so, then that is not OK. Even healthy functioning adults can be influenced and cajoled by authority figures, every single day, without even realising it. No, what is disgusting is Thunberg is being used in such a cynical exploitative way.

Can I respectfully suggest you grab a copy of "Influence" by eminent psychologist Bob Cialdini. It describes how we are all to some extent the victims of psychological techniques employed by crooks, salesmen, politicians, con-men, gold-diggers, etc etc. I would also add to that list fear-mongering climate change doomsayers. In fact you can even read it here:

samsmall.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Influence.pdf

how that doesn't keep people awake at night I just don't know.

Because most people are lying awake at night thinking about how to pay the mortgage, how to pay the bills, whether their job is safe - normal worries for normal adult human beings who don't have rich parents/trust funds/other sources of money to deal with all the annoying bits of life while we swan around the world telling people that they have to start living a life that is totally unrecognisable from the one they have.

I have no doubt she is totally sincere and driven by her cause. But I also see the petulant child...reminds me of the daughter in 'Bless This House' with her causes. But I admire her determination.

I have more for the kids on the bandwagon in schools etc...striking etc... How many will be telling their parents not to buy Xmas presents as it is wasteful consumerism, how many plead for a lift to school, How many will refuse to wear branded clothing, shunning 'fashion' for functional only when outgrown/worn out clothes, How many will tell their parents that they won't want driving lessons and a car after their 17th birthday, how many will give up their tech, how many will get in the garden and grow their own food, how many will give up takeaways/fast food...

Greta will need to work on her own generation..

Leighhalf how ridiculous your comment is, you can worry about more than one thing you know . Funnily enough I worry about my mortgage massively as I don't have a trust fund to support me (!) but it doesn't cancel out the enormous worry of climate change.

) but it doesn't cancel out the enormous worry of climate change

Well bully for you. Been around long enough to live through several hysterical campaigns about the climate. We're still here.

I don’t know if it is manipulation of her image but pigtails are what children wear in primary school. Everything is done to make her look young and that I find quite distasteful

I agree there is something distasteful about it and suspect some manipulation but she also both looks (physically rather than in terms of presentation) and comes across as very immature for her age. If I hadn't been told she was 16 I'd assume nearer 10. I never felt the same way about Malala Yousafzai for example so it isn't just about age per se, but about a lack of maturity which may or may not be related to her mental health issues.

It feels like using her as a distraction from having to respond sensibly to what is an impending disaster.
Ooo let's worry about poor little Greta, or let's belittle her as she is female and young, what can she know, when in fact we all know unless we are v young that the world climate IS changing rapidly. It's changed a huge amount in my life time.
Funny David Attenburgh get's ignored by the naysayers rather than criticised.

Both of her parents are well known activsts. She is nothing but their puppet. They are using her because she will get far more media coverage than they ever would. The whole thing is a scam.

Leighhalf I'm approaching 60 if it makes any difference, so I have lived through a lot of scares too. I've worried about climate change, amongst other things, for a good 45 of those years. We may still be here but I suspect we are on borrowed time as to how long we can continue living like this sadly.

I was looking for a book that was written in the early 90s that basically said we would be f**ked by 2002 or something like that and came across this article which does sum it all up.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/10/08/the-guardians-100-months-to-save-the-planet-was-always-just-a-fa/amp/

Whilst I agree about cleaning the planet up, (literally) a lot of which the population could do by throwing things away into proper bins so plastic carrier bags don’t end up wound round turtles necks etc

And companies should have a way of producing their product with as little impact on the environment and with a responsibility to how their packaging and eventually their product are recycled.

But I do believe that scientist and climate activists have cried wolf so often that by the time you get to a certain age you have heard it all before.

We have had dates set for when the planet has gone past the point of no return so many times that it has just become back ground noise.

People who are young now will feel the same in another 40 years.