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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU Greta Thunberg?

999 replies

onalongsabbatical · 22/09/2019 10:34

AIBU to ask everyone who can to get behind Greta Thunberg, even if only online, as she's now getting a lot a lot a lot of hate. She clearly threatens people - especially her polar opposites, men, rich old men, powerful men (did I mention men?). Let's all give her the lurve and support she needs.
So on FB I challenged one just now - Why are you attacking a young woman? - and he disappeared. Funny, that.

OP posts:
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midsomermurderess · 22/09/2019 13:15

cantstopgrazing in Scotland children are considered to have full legal capacity from the age of 16.

Woofbloodywoof · 22/09/2019 13:17

Wally
👏👏
Thank you.
Some cool headed sense.

Woofbloodywoof · 22/09/2019 13:18

I also wonder if we’d see quite the huge numbers of children out in force protesting if these were rallies on Sundays as opposed to mid week school day strikes.

RuffleCrow · 22/09/2019 13:20

I hate to think of such a young girl getting so much hate from men for simply trying to do the right thing. Especially as she has a disability that makes her more vulnerable than most. Sending her so much love and goodwill and hoping she has a good team of badass bodyguards around her.

nolongersurprised · 22/09/2019 13:22

I don't think it's healthy to give children such power (or fame). It often doesn't help them or isn't good for them in the long run.

I agree with this. It’s normal for adults to latch onto a “saviour” or suchlike but I don’t think that should be a 16 year old.

derxa · 22/09/2019 13:22

I think me and my family would be better equipped than most to go back to the 1920s. We've plenty of land to keep horses for our pony and trap. We can grow our own food. We're used to roughing it. It's the rest of you I worry about.

dogfishman · 22/09/2019 13:23

Actually Wally makes two bad points. One, that climate change is a "scientific theory that is still being denied in many places". Whatever it is, it's a lot more than that. And two, that in asking us to fight climate change Greta is asking poor people to settle for a low standard of living. She's actually asking everyone to make the climate emergency an urgent priority - failing which nobody is going to have a standard of living worth having in 30 years' time.
Middle aged WASP guy here btw.

wichitalinemanswoman · 22/09/2019 13:24

I just want to know if all these kids who took a day off school to protest will be doing everything they can to stop climate change rather than just going out to protest. When I see kids not buying fast fashion, not going on 3 holidays a year by plane, not using plastic then maybe I'll pay more attention. All looks to me like a 'do as we say, not as we do' act.

BloggersBlog · 22/09/2019 13:24

I find her a precocious attention seeker er duh!!
Yes just like that blooming Bob Geldof who stopped us thinking we could turn off the TV in the 80s and not give things anymore thought. Damn them for affecting our consciences and having the nerve to do something!

MilkTrayLimeBarrel · 22/09/2019 13:26

Bob Geldof is an idiot. Not our fault if other Governments don't spend their money wisely - after all, we give them enough foreign aid.

Justaboy · 22/09/2019 13:27

MilkTrayLimeBarrel Can you name any times when the population has been wiped out by any means as I can't.

Yes there have ben factors that can alter the climate a bit the Maunder minimum and the Dalton minimum's sunspot activity on that source of it all the Sun!.

Yes ther is a lot of Bollix spouted by some half arsed politicos one here wants all the bloody council bin lorries to run on batteries the stupid wally dosnt ever say quite where the electical power comes from somthing usually has to react or combust still to provide that power.

Yes we have windy mills fine for when the wind is blowing and of course Solar but these sources are piddly ones in the wanter or when there equal pressure over the UK ot the blocking high in the wrong place!

I'd have a lot more respect for a politioco who says that we ought to get a few more modern Nuclear stations on the go, yes their bloody expensive but far more dependable than much else lo carbon and then deal with the waste, glassify it and bury it deep very deep from when a lot of it came.

Question: how many MNetters would give up flying to save the poor old planet??

dogfishman · 22/09/2019 13:28

derxa I suspect that when there are millions of climate refugees streaming in from North Africa, Asia and Southern Europe because their countries are under water or too hot to live in or at war, your land and animals won't be worth that much unless you're also pretty handy with a rifle. Social breakdown wouldn't be like roughing it for a weekend.

Clutterbugsmum · 22/09/2019 13:30

When she actually stands along side her speeches, then I might take her seriously.

But I find it very hard to listen to some privilege kid who has spent her life jetting around the world with her parents, dictating to people about their use of vehicles.

And lets face it that stunt going to America on that carbon neutral boat was that a stunt. The only way for her to get home is to fly and there it was a stunt and nothing more.

ArnoldWhatshisknickers · 22/09/2019 13:30

I'm very uncomfortable with the whole Thunberg circus. She is a vulnerable young woman with mental health issues.

I dislike people on both sides projecting onto her.

Climate is complex, sound bites will solve nothing, so I prefer to concentrate my energies on practicalities, such as arguing for investment in tidal energy, planting trees for flood prevention with the added bonus of soaking up CO2, supporting eating locally produced food (which means lots of yummy lamb and beef for me), explaining why culling deer is necessary but grouse shoots are environmentally damaging etc.

I leave the Greta love/hate fest to others.

tillytrotter1 · 22/09/2019 13:33

Sexism. I have never seen a young male referred to as precocious

Really? You need to read more! A 'precocious talent' has often been used to refer to both male and female.

QualCheckBot · 22/09/2019 13:34

MilkTrayLimeBarrel Why does nobody ever say that this planet has always been so - periods of cold and periods of heat during which the population of the planet has been wiped out! This is a scientific fact

Because for some reason, you're not allowed to point that out, along with the fact that detailed records have not been kept since very recent human history. Or that humans wouldn't have even been able to colonise parts of the world if it wasn't a bit warmer than it is now. Or that records show that arable crops were grown in places that are now too marginal, despite lacking modern farming methods. Or that there were European farmers living on Greenland for 400 years in the middle ages until the cooling climate wiped them out/forced them to move. And that you can visit their ruined stone churches and farmsteadings.

etc..

I will give it to Greta Thunberg that she is a great, really talented public speaker. Her speeches don't contain that much detail sometimes, but that's irrelevant because she's not a university lecturer. They have a lovely, soothing rhythm to them.

Anyway, just wait 5 years or so and the trend will have moved onto something else, such as embracing traditional hunting methods currently vilified, e.g. the Faeroes whale hunt, or Inuit seal hunting, and condemning modern farming methods. And the focus will have changed to well raised meat products which are additive free. Or similar. When people get fed up with the harsh reality of being vegan long term.

derxa · 22/09/2019 13:34

unless you're also pretty handy with a rifle. Oh don't worry about that Wink It's covered.

AlphaBravoCharlieDelta · 22/09/2019 13:39

This reply has been withdrawn

Message from MNHQ: This post has been withdrawn

WallyWallyWally · 22/09/2019 13:42

How do you come to that conclusion?

Because a "sustainable" way of life is one that every single person on the planet is able to live (in theory at least) without affecting the ability of future generations to also achieve that same life.

What we in the West have done so far is that we have created a lifestyle / standard of living based on a stunningly huge amount of fossil fuel extraction and use - and by ignoring (externalising) the environmental impact of what we are doing - by exporting it elsewhere or just turning a blind eye to pollution, resource depletion, species extinction, loss of biodiversity. And we haven't just done it do we can have indulgent "fun" stuff. That's what it takes to provide the things that we consider to be basics - roads and motorways, transport infrastructure, schools and hospitals and houses and apartments and universities and factories and offices etc etc. It's also what we do to power the things we use everyday: cars, buses, trains, boats, planes, factories, lights, gadgets, IT and telecommunications infrastructures. We've developed a lifestyle and associated expectations based on the old idea that resources are infinite, that we would never run out of them, and that the environment (air, water, earth) could endlessly absorb whatever shit we put into them - as long as it didn't cost anything.

And that's before we even get into the fun stuff - travel, holidays, toys, gadgets, media, etc.

So... if providing the "basics" to the small fraction of the world's population that lives in the West has created the environmental catastrophe that has been revealed to us in the form of climate heating... how do you think we can provide these basics to the rest of the world - to the populations of India, China etc who want what we've already had? Who want suburban houses rather than slums / wooden shacks / 15 family members in a 2-bed apartment? Who want running water rather than a shared village tap? Who want electric lights rather than paraffin lamps? Who want roads and trains and a bus service rather than potholed tracks and a diesel rickshaw? Who want a car of their own parked in their garage rather than a smelly minibus that they share with a dozen other people?

And how on earth do we then ensure that not just people alive on the planet have access to a "basic" standard of living... but also ensure that future generations are able to achieve at least this standard? Clue: we can't.

That's why no one is telling the truth about "radical" change.

Rachelover60 · 22/09/2019 13:44

She is a great girl. I wish more youngsters were like her.

WonderWomansSpin · 22/09/2019 13:44

I disagree with all the 'she's so precious' and 'let's show her some lurve' Hmm
She's an intelligent young activist. Stop belittling her. Stop infantilising her. You're feeding the narrative that she needs protected and that she's vulnerable. That allows the other side to say she's being exploited because you can't have it both ways.
By all means, support her position. Join in her campaigns. Amplify her message. But stop treating her like a small child. There are lots of 16-yr-old campaigners. Their age is the least interesting thing about them.

WallyWallyWally · 22/09/2019 13:45

I will give it to Greta Thunberg that she is a great, really talented public speaker. Her speeches don't contain that much detail sometimes, but that's irrelevant because she's not a university lecturer. They have a lovely, soothing rhythm to them.

have to agree, I think it's something to do with her being Swedish speaking English. I've listened to a fair few Scandinavian academics at conferences and they do have a lovely way of speaking in English, it's very calming.

Sorry O/T

Italiangreyhound · 22/09/2019 13:50

YADNBU. She is amazing.

She is wise beyond her years.

SmiledWithTheRisingSun · 22/09/2019 13:57

This.

AIBU Greta Thunberg?
Fresta · 22/09/2019 13:57

Her parents must be facilitating her- who would do this? Who would want such fame and notoriety for their child, especially one with autism who is more vulnerable. I have to wonder if they are enjoying all the attention and glory that is coming alongside her prominence.

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