I think the real worry is why the normally reactionary mainstream media have built her up in the way they have. As we all know they build people up to later knock them down.
And she herself has said that one of the great things for her on a personal level is from having felt quite isolated now feels she is part of something. If this is dismantled and she finds herself back on her own what will the impact be.
For instance although it is well documented that this is not true the main stream media report that sort of out of nowhere this young girl turned up on her own initiative to do lone vigils on fridays.
Not only is there record of this not being true she has acknowledged its not true. ie there was a campaign to raise issues around climate change linked to work her parents were doing. The pr was to have groups of young people spreading the message but for various reasons this didn't happen. But it was agreed that Greta would do it on her own.
This doesn't under mine the message, but in the hands of the media it isn't ever really about the message it is about her.
Why is this important. Because it allows the media, on behalf of those with a vested interest, to turn the story into her lonely struggle. The ridiculous photo op of sailing across the atlantic which could only happen by flying out a return crew to sail the boat back.
And the worse still is turning the issue into an intergenerational conflict and that she is put forward as a symbol of the sacrificed youth. Whereas young people in white western Europe have not lost their childhood. Young people in developing countries who cant get to schools, have to walk miles to get water, child brides, are the ones who have lost their childhood.
And more than likely young people in white western europe have consumed and produced more damage to the atmosphere than many baby boomers who dont use the internet / computers*, aren't jetting round the world on gap year holidays. The idea that people living in the still devasted communities of pit villages etc., are somehow to blame for the rampant consumer capitalism that cost them their jobs is just insulting.
I dont know who is advising her, but I know many people who have been campaiging and living a life to reduce their carbon foot print, and all she can do is stamp her foot about how horrid old people are.
And I do wonder what safeguarding of her future her parents are doing.
And now we have the phenomenon of competitive parents pushing their little darlings to be oh so daring and go on a demo - no doubt using social media to capture their wonderfulness. I even heard on woman talking about how she and her daughter now bonded over how upset they were about the future and doctors are talking about how they are having to treat young people with anxiety.
Its a bit like the munchausen by proxy of trans parents enabling their children to be the next trans star.
As someone who was educated by Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and the active strand in Women's Liberation that knew back in the 70s about the destruction of the environment of beef farming etc., I am baffled as to why so many people are buying into the its all the baby boomers fault. ie an apoltical analysis that allows global capitalism and personal consumer to not be questioned.
The only fault that baby boomer have is that somehow their children turned into the yuppies and loads of money generation, who over consumed to spite their parents. Now that they are faced with the destruction of their life style they are persuading their children, the grandchildren of babyboomers, to not blame them but to blame the babyboomers.
My real question is why is the western media being so supportive of her? It can only be misdirection. When she falls they can then spin stories about lonely heroines and selfish oldies but never talk about our own consumerism in the west, and let the business and banking interests off the hook.
- For anyone who is not aware computing is a major cause of carbon emmissions. So called cloud computing that allows sharing online etc., is actually rows and rows of stacks of actual hardware that all needs to be run on electricity and also kept cool. ie Microsoft, or it may have been facebook, looked into building a huge storage facility in the ice of the polar regions to save on the cost of cooling. All those diminishing ice regions may be being melted by vast storage areas of computer hardware. When you think of all the information, twitter and facebook tittle tattle, on line news, swapping selfies etc., we can now access, that is all somewhere in a vast warehouse of servers. www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/apr/30/cloud-computing-carbon-emissions