Five years ago (20.08.2018) Greta Thunberg demonstrated the first time for more climate protection. What has she achieved so far?
Five years ago (20.08.2018) Greta Thunberg demonstrated the first time for more climate protection. What has she achieved so far?
Awareness
conservatives made a whole smear campaign against her to try and silence her and demoralize her, and she's only stood up even more for it. Can't say she's done nothing if they're trying so hard to discredit her
Is "awareness" the environmental version of "thoughts and prayers"? Has the situation we were made aware of by her (although she's just one of a long list of voices from the past 100 years, most of which have been long forgotten) activism made a measurable impact on the actual climate crisis? I'm personally curious what the qualitative power of awareness is.
At bare minimum its to show that there are still groups willing to oppose mass polluters in the hopes that at some point someone with power will make the right call and save the planet.
Is it naive? Quite a bit, but sad complacency isn’t helping much either. As many of these groups are quite young many including Greta may also go into actual politics later in life, then these past incidents serve as proof of authenticity, similar to the pic of Bernie Sanders getting carried away.
Awareness is oversimplifying it but it's a necessary first step for any major movement/revolution. What can one hope to achieve if people won't acknowledge the problem? Greta highlighted the importance of climate change to many people around the world, and I'm sure she's a role model to many as well. Many more people are plant based/vegan now compared to 5 years ago. Companies are profit driven so every little change from people makes a difference. It's the power of awareness that can push people to change for their new found beliefs.
For a kid? Yes
I think I see your point, awareness alone might be just as you asked, but for some she also gave the courage to act on that awareness, to commit themselves to take steps towards progress and away from practices that harm an entire planet while benefiting very few, by supporting public policies focusing on such and raising more awareness. I’ve certainly benefited from having a personal vehicle and modern industry but those that profit immensely from them should be held responsible with proper regulation and responsibility to cleaning up messes and compensating the lives and environments ruined as a result. Too many weak and corrupt individuals have again and again taken the attractive “deal with the devil” to look the other way in order to secure something they desire. We are all capable of corruption and we are all capable of integrity. I have hope for the future because of people inspiring me like, civil rights leaders; MLK and Bernie Sanders, abolitionists; Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, and finally who I see as everyday people like; Greta Thunberg and Daryl Davis.
It’s probably her affectiveness. If she wasn’t getting attention, they wouldn’t bother to oppose her.
She's gotten the issue of climate change to be a major issue with young voters
It's really not her fault that the people in power have a vested interest in ignoring climate change.
Also she got Andrew Tate arrested so there's that.
How to you figure the people in power have a vested interest in ignoring climate change? Seems like everyone has a vested interest in acknowledging any risk to our civilization.
Because they get a lot of money from fossil fuel companies.
And the others are just ignoring climate change to "own the libs".
Not if they believe it won't affect them, and if they can turn their power into connections with rich people willing to part with their wealth in exchange for the promise their civilisational-risk-increasing industries can press on unabated.
They haven't shown much interest in practice.
Actions, not words.
Speaking from a German perspective I feel like the Fridays for future movement has significantly affected (parts of) her generation. I have many colleagues whose kids are focusing on a diet with less environmental impact and also asking their parents to change.
It is impressive that it has been such a long running and wide spreading movement and I am sure that there will be many politicians, activists and entrepreneurs coming out of this movement in the future.
It is hard to expect anything more from a child who has been belittled constantly. I wish I would be standing up for my believes as strongly as she does.
Thunberg’s style is her best asset. She keeps making a simple point, without trying to complexify it. When people try to complexify it, she brings them back to the simple point:
- this is a major problem
- it will lead to death and destruction if not addressed
- we have a tendency to ignore it that needs to be counteracted
She uses the simplest possible language and stays on point. Which for some odd reason nobody else seems to be capable of.
Some will say she’s just a “cheerleader” but that’s kind of what we need if we’re going to address this. Political will is the constraining factor in our climate change response.
If your parents were multimillionaires and hired publicists and boat crews and built a brand around those beliefs, I'm sure you would have too.
I think if my parents were multimillionaires I would be even more busy enjoying my life than fighting a fight with uneven odds.
Of course coming from a stable background makes it easier to be an activist, but it is still far from easy to devote your life to one cause.
She's caused every conservative to despise a teenager so much that they send her death threats. Seeing tiny brains be threatened by a young girl is pretty impressive IMO.
What she (and other climate activists) have done and do is spread awareness about this issue. As you can imagine, it's important to keep important topics (arguably even the most important topic humanity faces, yes even more important than soccer (lol)) present in media and in people's heads for them to not be forgotten soon after again. People need to be constantly reminded that our current way of life currently destroys our planet, especially considering that not much happened to steer against this problem within the last couple of years after the Paris agreement. And we don't even know many of the tipping points that could accelerate disaster even further. When some ecosystems stop existing and food chains become disrupted, for example.
In a way, she's like a PR person for the most important topic in science currently. And she (and other climate actrivists) is successful at it, considering it's so often in the news and so many of the polluters hate her and try to discredit her and others.
Always remember though: it's about the problem, not specific people. Of course we like talking about people, and the media does it as well, but as the saying goes, "small minds discuss people, great minds discuss ideas". It's about the problem at hand, irrelevant of Greta or other activists. She's just trying to bring the point across to a mass audience, that's all. We (as in: the whole humanity, no exceptions) need to take action against the problem, not talk about Greta. This "ad hominem" strategy is sometimes deliberately used as a distraction away from the issue at hand. When articles talk about Greta or try to discredit her or whatever, then the debate is shifted away from the actual problem at hand. Even articles about her in a positive light are, in the end, irrelevant. It's not about her, or other climate activists. She even says that herself. If the activists didn't exist, we'd still face the exact same problem.
OK now ask what word leaders and companies that hold power have actually achieved so far in the same period.
It's been five whole years and this teenager hasn't defeated all of global capitalism, what's she even doing?
Five years later this is a relevant question. So her awareness campaign is at least as effective as Susan G. Komen.
You need to think more long term, next generation level. Because of her and others, kids will be born and raised with the mindset that the planet needs saving.
Hopefully Greta's legacy is more then just a non-profit that steals from desperate cancer patients but given the genesis of her brand, I doubt it.
Main things is that Gen Z is ashamed of travelling by plane
They do it anyway though.
A full plane is still greener than a car with 1-2 passengers.
I was thinking about doing the math awhile ago, because a full A320 Neon only uses 1,5l per passenger for 100 km. They just don't burn the same fuel and at different altitudes.
A full plane is still greener than a car with 1-2 passengers.
That may be true if you're going the same distance, but planes go a lot farther. A lot of plane trips are unnecessary, and wouldn't be made at all if the plane wasn't an option. Many car trips are also unnecessary, but given modern infrastructure, they tend to be more necessary than plane trips.
What have you achieved in try e past 5 years?
She opened my eyes to something that should have been obvious.
Eternal economic growth is a fairy tale that's killing us.
What did you achieve since 2018?
There's been a bunch of decent memes.
She has achieved nothing because we're so far past words on these issues.
Most humans must die.
I think its true that we must reduce the population before earth does it for us. But theres no way anyone (in a significant amount) would agree to do it by willingly die (or having people they know die) for it.
So we're left with birth control. Which we never gonna be able to do globally because so many think of birth rate as a way to win a culture war.
