Just Say No To the Child Histrionics

Sorry Greta, but it is high time we ignore the histrionics:

It would be nice if Greta Thunberg just went away quietly. But it is clear that the mass media, her parents, and leftist activists everywhere simply will not allow this to happen. She is being used and exploited for all she is worth, and they will run with her until she drops, and then they will find another child human shield to continue their propaganda wars.

So as long as she continues to make headlines around the world, I will continue seeking to offer some inconvenient truths about her and her message. Thus this is my third piece on young Greta, and likely not my last. She is the gift that keeps on giving it seems.

Let me begin by saying what I have previously said: Greta needs help and care. She is being treated appallingly by adult ideologues, and we are rightly concerned about her health and well-being. At the very least, keep her in your prayers. And ignore all the lefties who claim we are being mean and harsh to Greta.

That honour goes to her parents and all the militants who are so happy to use her for their own political purposes. They are the green meanies who do not seem to give a rip about exploiting children for their own activist ends. Shame on them.

As with my other two articles, I will avail myself of other important thinkers and commentators as we seek to make sense of the Greta hysteria. Thankfully many observers can see the child abuse that is going on here. Melanie Phillips said this about her exploitation by adult activists:

What came out of Greta Thunberg’s mouth was utter rubbish. Her zero-carbon agenda would take us back to a pre-industrial age, if not earlier. It would certainly destroy modern life. This is what she was begging us, through her tears and her rage, to bring about. It was grotesque to watch such a child, who reportedly suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, being manipulated into spouting such demonstrably ludicrous propositions dressed up as demands. “How dare you!” she cried; what that called to mind was nothing other than a childish tantrum.

What is now becoming clear, however, is that “climate change” is ancillary to the real issue – and that is nothing less than the destruction of capitalism and western society and culture. It’s an agenda which also requires the destruction of the western nation, which is why mass unchecked immigration is another enormous issue; and of course the destruction also of President Donald Trump, who embodies the fight by the west to retain its cultural distinctiveness characterised by capitalism, the nation state and modernity. And now children are being used to bring about this revolutionary agenda. What we are witnessing is the weaponisation of children. https://www.melaniephillips.com/weaponisation-western-children/

And Monica Showalter explains just who is behind all this: corporate green interests. She argues that all that this activism does is “make the green elites even richer.” Forget the baloney that Greta is doing this all on her own. Showalter explains:

No wonder they’re the shadowy forces bankrolling her peregrinations.  According to a report that ran in the Times (subscription only), titled “Greta Thunberg and the plot to forge a climate warrior,” green corporate energy companies looking to turn a profit from green contracts were behind the young Greta’s much ballyhooed rise from the beginning.  Far from being some persuasive and charismatic kid out to save the Earth, as the press is reporting, the Times found that:

“[T]he Greta phenomenon has also involved green lobbyists, PR hustlers, eco-academics and a think tank founded by a wealthy former minister in Sweden’s Social Democratic government with links to the country’s energy companies. These companies are preparing for the biggest bonanza of government contracts in history: the greening of the western economies. Greta, whether she and her parents know it or not, is the face of their political strategy.”

Someone’s looking for a payday, and sure enough, that someone found exactly the useful fool he wanted for a get-rich-quick scheme to line his own pockets. Young Greta, as the narrative in the press goes, was “discovered” by social media entrepreneur Ingmar Rentzhog of a social media site called “We Don’t Have Time.” He got her name from another activist who had been auditioning for “fresh green faces.”

Rentzhog, it turns, was trained by Al Gore’s green energy groups and wanted to make money the way Gore did on green energy contracts. And just coincidentally, Greta’s mom wanted to sell a book about how green activism “saved her family.” Rentzog put it all together, and bango: Greta just spontaneously appeared out of nowhere to sell the world on global warming. https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/08/swedish_child_climate_activist_reportedly_a_tool_of_big_green_corporate_energy_interests.html

See more eye-opening facts about all this here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6946815/Whos-REALLY-16-year-old-Greta-Thunberg.html

And here in Australia, writing in the Herald Sun, Kevin Donnelly reminds us of a few facts about the actual science:

The American-based conservative CO2 Coalition has a membership of just over 46 environmental scientists and academics who argue that the present carbon dioxide levels are so low that we are, historically, in a carbon dioxide drought. They point out that carbon dioxide levels have been much higher many times in the past 500 million years and that plant and animal life flourished in those high levels. Consequently, we have nothing to fear from increasing higher carbon dioxide levels that will benefit world food production.

Since the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago there have been successive periods of warming and cooling. The warmest was 6000-8000 years ago (when the Greenland ice cap was even smaller than today, and West Antarctic glaciers receded) and the coldest was the Little Ice Age in the 17th century.

Sea levels rose after the last ice age and stabilised about 2000 years ago. During the modern warming sea level has been rising about 8 inches every 100 years, but that rise is not accelerating. Contrary to popular statements in the media even the IPCC acknowledges that there has not been an increase in the frequency or severity of cyclones, droughts and hurricanes.

Much like Prime Minister Scott Morrison who once held up a lump of coal in parliament saying to the opposition “don’t be afraid, don’t be scared” the CO2 Coalition also argues coal is not the problem as carbon dioxide produced by coal is essential for plant life and the world’s health.

A scientist uniquely qualified to comment about climate change is the Australian Dr Howard Brady who spent many years in the Antarctic analyzing the rock cores in Victoria Land and the Ross Sea. In his book Mirrors and Mazes: A guide through the climate change debate Brady argues fears about man-made global warming are based on highly emotional, misleading and spurious evidence.

Brady warns the “climate debate itself has been dominated by charismatic prophets who warn of catastrophic climate change” and that not only is the computer modelling flawed but its predictions about the destructive effect of increased carbon emissions have never eventuated.

So if all this is really not about the climate, what then is it all about? As many commentators have said for years now, when the socialist left could no longer get any traction out of their cause, they latched onto the environmentalist movement to reenergise their agenda items and realise their goals. For example, Dr Patrick Moore, a founder of Greenpeace, said this:

The collapse of world communism and the fall of the Berlin Wall during the 1980s added to the trend toward extremism. The Cold War was over and the peace movement was largely disbanded. The peace movement had been mainly Western-based and anti-American in its leanings. Many of its members moved into the environmental movement, bringing with them their neo-Marxist, far-left agendas. To a considerable extent the environmental movement was hijacked by political and social activists who learned to use green language to cloak agendas that had more to do with anti-capitalism and anti-globalization than with science or ecology. https://web.archive.org/web/20110209062045/http:/www.vancouversun.com/technology/Confessions+Greenpeace+founder/4073767/story.html

Image of Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout: The Making of a Sensible Environmentalist Rev Upd edition by Moore, Patrick Albert (2010) Paperback
Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout: The Making of a Sensible Environmentalist Rev Upd edition by Moore, Patrick Albert (2010) Paperback by unknown author (Author) Amazon logo

See my review of his important 2010 book here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2011/02/19/a-review-of-confessions-of-a-greenpeace-dropout-by-patrick-moore/

But since it seems that most people no longer trust adults, and think that only children can teach us truths about science, politics and other big ticket items, let me close with the words of another teenager. Emma Roberts is a 17-year-old from Texas who has just written an interesting article entitled, “Socialism, Not Climate Change, Is the Real Threat.” If Greta can get such a good run, then let me quote parts of Emma’s piece:

Washington has many, many things that it needs to fix, and many responsibilities and duties to uphold. Global warming, however, is not one of them. Studies show that if the U.S. fully implemented the Green New Deal, the temperature of Earth would decrease by no more than 0.097 degrees Fahrenheit over a span of 30 years.  

But the price of electricity would increase by almost 10 times its current amount. The price of gasoline would increase astronomically, so that drivers would have no choice but to drive Priuses and Teslas. Further, it is estimated that in the state of Texas alone, such regulations would cause the loss of over a million jobs. And that’s just in Texas; across the United States, the numbers would be devastating and the effects on our economy and society possibly irreversible. 

None of this sounds like freedom to me, and that is because it is not freedom; it is government control. It is government control over the single black mother who now won’t be able to afford her electricity. It is government control over the Hispanic immigrant who, because the construction machines he operates are not “eco-friendly,” will lose his job and not be able to put food on the table for his family. This is not the American way. It doesn’t make sense to implement regulations that do not solve the problem and yet adversely affect the American people so greatly. 

The government wants control. And its excuse is the thin veil of only wanting the best for people and the Earth. But the result of ceding so much control to government that we will have no choice in what job we have, no choice in what car we drive, and no choice in the price we pay for our electricity. 

That’s not freedom. And frankly, the possibility of such government overreach scares me a lot more than global warming, which seems to be just another ridiculous scientific prediction. Yes, we need to be good stewards of the Earth. We need to take care of our natural resources, because they are the only ones we have. But the government cannot do it for us, and if it tries, it will only wreak havoc. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/09/24/socialism_not_climate_change_is_the_real_threat_141323.html

In sum, it may be time for us to forgeta Greta. Rationality, evidence and real science are needed here, not hysteria, fear-mongering and the exploitation of children.

[1810 words]

14 Replies to “Just Say No To the Child Histrionics”

  1. Hi Bill, I agree with everything your saying. As soon as I saw a 30 seconds clip of this young woman I thought to myself ‘how frightening’. There’s a raging anger inside of her and like many others hope she will get the help she needs. Un-forgiveness can cause a lot of illnesses. I can’t put it into words like you do but in my heart I sensed the evil behind this situation trying to bring down democracy and western nations and our freedom.

    Always, thank you for your commentaries and voice of reason and good over our countries.

  2. Hi Bill, I just read on line that the Church of Sweden has announced Greta as the ‘successor of Christ’. Have you heard about this? And some leftie in America said to the effect that if you have been looking for the Second Coming, you have seen it, as Greta IS Jesus!
    Thanks for addressing these issues and I agree, I would happily see Greta go away quietly. I also wonder just how long she can ‘anger’ up.

  3. I’m starting to think we should be grateful for young Greta; the more we hear about her the more they are kicking their own windows in. But seriously, shame on those people who are exploiting her.

  4. Before now they used to talk about “Reds under the beds”. They were worried about communism. People were afraid of communism. But now that has all changed. The environmental movement is represented by green. The greenies are mostly communists. So Green is the new Red. Communism was supposed to help poor people. If the climate change policies are enacted most people will live in terrible poverty. The greenies want us to use less electricity, not have a car or ride on aeroplanes, give up eating meat and buy less consumer items. They want us to live in a very bad state of poverty. Electricity is very expensive now. You will be forced to live like this. They will make it difficult to buy or run a car. They will increase the price of petrol and other things. They will force you to live in poverty even if you work very hard. The government will control everything that you do. Communism was supposed to help the poor. The poor will be worse off than ever. There are a lot of power cuts these days. How can a factory operate when there is no power? They might have a generator. The climate policies will destroy manufacturing industry. How will this help the poor?

  5. I knew it!! Behind every left-wing crusade, there is a hidden agenda. If you add Bill’s writing to that of The Australian who is not afraid of the truth and a few other sources, it doesn’t take long to see the writing on the wall.

    Our best hope is that it will all fall into a heap as the voices of reason get heard and truth will out. I can see a pattern here which is that the left-wing elite is leaving no stone unturned to take back control which they lost when Trump, Johnson, and Morrison were elected to govern.

    By the sound of it quite a few more countries are going to change direction and elect people who talk common sense and take power away from the born to rule people.

    And of course, behind all this is the risen Christ who will ALWAYS have the last word.

  6. A comment i got on your other post where you showed the comparison between the elder stateswoman and Greta was “why cant they both be heroes?” My reply “because one put her actions where her words were and the other used anger.” And i got back a ? and a red exclamation mark – someone was not happy with me.

  7. I hope I am wrong. Greta will probably be overcome by her fears of climate catastrophe that she can no longer face tomorrow. If that happens the leftists who are using her will never stop using her.

    Greta needs to be given her childhood back before it is too late.

    Greta needs to know the one who bore her griefs and carried her infirmities, the one who loves her and always will.

  8. Unfortunately, Greta is here to stay and the lunacy will continue. I always asked myself, what is next? We have global warming, then climate change and now climate emergency. Soon, it will be climate Armageddon. Yes, that must means the “second coming of christ, Greta’s style as announced by “The Church of Sweden” recently. I didn’t expect that to come so soon. I thought it will be 12 years time.

  9. Thanks Bill, It’s all very crazy.

    Bruce Bennie has mentioned the “successor of Christ” proclamation and I have done some digging.

    One of the links about the church is this;
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/09/29/greta-thunberg-proclaimed-successor-of-christ-by-church-of-sweden/
    I’m not sure that the report has grasped the difference between “the successor of Christ” and “successor of Christ”.
    There are some similarities here, I am sure, with the idea of the “vicar of Christ”.
    But we will have to ask them about any details.

    There are some Gaia worshippers, “interspiritual pilgrims”, who preach “process theology”, who on the Patheos site explain about Greta’s “Holy adventure”.
    There was little surprise for me as I read this piece, but it certainly put meat on the bones of my sketchy thoughts.
    https://www.patheos.com/blogs/livingaholyadventure/2019/08/greta-thunbergs-holy-adventure/

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