Greta Thunberg

[okeydokey]

I think that if you're going to cut class one day a week and stay home in order to do your own environmental protest at home, then you should not use anything that requires electricity, coal, natural gas, etc. So this would mean:

• no heating your home with a heater in winter. Fireplace only.
• no cooking or baking anything using your stove unless it's a wood stove
• no traveling anywhere by car, bus, or train. Only on foot, bicycle, or horse.
• no using your cell phone, computer, or any electronic devices at home whatsoever
• no turning on the lights. Candles or oil lamps only. Extra 20 points if you harvested the oil yourself. Oh wait, if you're in Scandinavia, that would require you to hunt whales because, well, before global warming that's what they used for oil, right? But whale hunting is usually outlawed. What about olive oil? That's a no go, too, because olive trees won't grow in Sweden. Must only use olive oil that gets delivered to Sweden by sailing ship.

Etc., etc.

I mean, if you're going to go all purist like Greta says she wants to, you'd really have to go to extremes. It's really foolish and impractical.

This isn’t what she is advocating and you know it.

How anyone would denigrate a young person who is wanting to assure that our world is a better place to live in is beyond me.

 

[Drasticq]

I think that if you're going to cut class one day a week and stay home in order to do your own environmental protest at home, then you should not use anything that requires electricity, coal, natural gas, etc. So this would mean:

• no heating your home with a heater in winter. Fireplace only.
• no cooking or baking anything using your stove unless it's a wood stove
• no traveling anywhere by car, bus, or train. Only on foot, bicycle, or horse.
• no using your cell phone, computer, or any electronic devices at home whatsoever
• no turning on the lights. Candles or oil lamps only. Extra 20 points if you harvested the oil yourself. Oh wait, if you're in Scandinavia, that would require you to hunt whales because, well, before global warming that's what they used for oil, right? But whale hunting is usually outlawed. What about olive oil? That's a no go, too, because olive trees won't grow in Sweden. Must only use olive oil that gets delivered to Sweden by sailing ship.

Etc., etc.

I mean, if you're going to go all purist like Greta says she wants to, you'd really have to go to extremes. It's really foolish and impractical.

Just playing devil's advocate, but if you had a reasonable expectation that your power for heating, lighting, cooking and driving all came from renewables, that'd be ok right?

It wouldn't be so unbelievable that I am being at least powered by renewables, in my case, wind - I have a huge offshore wind farm where I live. Then again, I have no way of guaranteeing that. Maybe if I had solar panels built onto my house like many do, then I could brag!

 

[kimblebee]

I think that if you're going to cut class one day a week and stay home in order to do your own environmental protest at home, then you should not use anything that requires electricity, coal, natural gas, etc. So this would mean:

• no heating your home with a heater in winter. Fireplace only.
• no cooking or baking anything using your stove unless it's a wood stove
• no traveling anywhere by car, bus, or train. Only on foot, bicycle, or horse.
• no using your cell phone, computer, or any electronic devices at home whatsoever
• no turning on the lights. Candles or oil lamps only. Extra 20 points if you harvested the oil yourself. Oh wait, if you're in Scandinavia, that would require you to hunt whales because, well, before global warming that's what they used for oil, right? But whale hunting is usually outlawed. What about olive oil? That's a no go, too, because olive trees won't grow in Sweden. Must only use olive oil that gets delivered to Sweden by sailing ship.

Etc., etc.

I mean, if you're going to go all purist like Greta says she wants to, you'd really have to go to extremes. It's really foolish and impractical.

 

[DisneyKoyote]

This is the crazy nonsense that Fox News spews.

What she is asking for is regulations to make countries and industries accountable for their carbon foot print. The media obviously has to spin this to make it more dramatic.

By me businesses are trying to discourage straw usage and encourage reusable grocery bags. This is really because no one knows the impact of long term consumption of plastic. It’s definitely in sea salt.

Oh I never watch Fox News lol. I only watched her speech clip on YouTube and that was my impression.
But again she’s still addressing the wrong audience imo..she needs to be in China as well advocating stuff like the specific regulations she wants passed, why her regulations will help, what are the economic and financial impacts, how long to implement, etc. I think she’s still in the “creating awareness” phase but right now we need to be in the solutions phase

 

[Drasticq]

Oh I never watch Fox News lol. I only watched her speech clip on YouTube and that was my impression.

News sources as a rule are all biased one way or the other, the exception being the Financial Times and that's drier than a desert. Fox just happens to be an extreme form of this aforesaid bias.

 

[DisneyKoyote]

News sources as a rule are all biased one way or the other, the exception being the Financial Times and that's drier than a desert. Fox just happens to be an extreme form of this aforesaid bias.

Agree. You gotta take every news source w a grain of salt these days.

 

[Drasticq]

Agree. You gotta take every news source w a grain of salt these days.

This.

 

[LSUmiss]

It’s not that it discredits them. It’s that it’s hypocritical not to make the sacrifices that you’re preaching others should make. The collective you.

 

[Colleen27]

How will a hot summer or cold winter impact your life?

We're certainly seeing it here, where we're dealing with mosquito-borne diseases that aren't typical for our area and are serious enough that counties are issuing warnings to avoid outdoor activities during peak mosquito times of day (fall without bonfires? ) and weighing whether the risk of disease is serious enough to justify mass, county-wide insecticide treatments to reduce the mosquito population.

I see far more questionable behavior from parents who try to prep their kids for sports.

Sure, but the lesser evil still isn't good. Thunberg strikes me as a child who is prone to extremes of anxiety and obsessive behavior, and her parents are encouraging/enabling that rather than helping her develop healthy coping mechanisms.

Scientists have been warning about the dangers of climate change for a very long time. The same people that hate Greta for speaking out aren't listening to them either.

Fair enough. But I think there are a lot of people in the middle between willful denial and total acceptance who are either confused and conflicted because of the wealth of misinformation on the subject or who aren't willing to engage in problem-solving because of the perception that it will demand radical changes in personal behavior and standard of living. Throwing a child who does things like eschews flying to make a high-profile point into the center of the discussion does nothing to reach those people.

 

[DLgal]

Sure, but the lesser evil still isn't good. Thunberg strikes me as a child who is prone to extremes of anxiety and obsessive behavior, and her parents are encouraging/enabling that rather than helping her develop healthy coping mechanisms.

I just wanted to address this. I hate it when autistic people have their interests/passions pathologized into "obsessions." Yes, autistic people have a tendency to become overly focused and fixated on things that interest them, but why is that necessarily bad? "Typical" people become passionate and "obsessed" about all kinds of things: sports, video games, movies, music, cars, coins, etc. Greta, on her own, became interested in climate science. Good on her! I have read several interviews with her and she seems extremely well spoken, insightful, and yes, very passionate about this topic. She doesn't strike me as a mental case. She seems to have a good understanding of the reality of the situation and her role in this whole thing. I think a lot of the drama is being created by the media. She doesn't seem to be a very dramatic person in her interviews. She is concerned, sure, and wants things to change. But she isn't running around like a chicken with it's head cut off.

Her parents probably can't do much to stop the train, so to speak. I have 2 autistic teens, each with their own unique interests and "obsessions." Who am I to steer them away from those things? Even if I wanted to, it wouldn't work. An autistic brain is different from a neurotypical brain, but just like "normal" people, telling Greta to stop caring so much about the climate would be like telling someone "just stop being a (insert your favorite sports team here) fan" or "just stop liking dance so much." It's part of who she is, and it is unfair to say she shouldn't feel however she feels about it.

 

[VandVsmama]

Just playing devil's advocate, but if you had a reasonable expectation that your power for heating, lighting, cooking and driving all came from renewables, that'd be ok right?

It wouldn't be so unbelievable that I am being at least powered by renewables, in my case, wind - I have a huge offshore wind farm where I live. Then again, I have no way of guaranteeing that. Maybe if I had solar panels built onto my house like many do, then I could brag!

Well, sure, of course! But stuff like electric cars end up actually being powered by coal and natural gas-powered electric/power plants. And in Europe, a fair amount of power generation is through nuclear power plants.

 

[VandVsmama]

This isn’t what she is advocating and you know it.

How anyone would denigrate a young person who is wanting to assure that our world is a better place to live in is beyond me.

I'm not denigrating her. I'm saying that she's naive and that some of the drastic things she does are unrealistic. I mean...really....traveling by sailboat?

The point I was trying to make above is that someone who is a super turbo environmentalist, someone who is preaching a gospel of our world will come to an end unless drastic measures are made to reduce carbon emissions, etc.,...someone who is on that end of the environmental issues spectrum should walk their talk in every aspect of his or her life. My point was also how unrealistic doing that is for the average person out there.

Greta definitely appears to be an emotionally and politically charged topic for a lot of people. It's too bad that we can't have an open discussion about it without people making accusations of others attacking a child.

I'm not attacking her. I'm disagreeing with her ideas. I'm disagreeing with her methods. What I also disagree with is that people aren't allowed to disagree with her because she's a child.

And why has she been thrust into the international spotlight? Because of her parents. I disagree with their parenting decision.

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

I just wanted to address this. I hate it when autistic people have their interests/passions pathologized into "obsessions." Yes, autistic people have a tendency to become overly focused and fixated on things that interest them, but why is that necessarily bad? "Typical" people become passionate and "obsessed" about all kinds of things: sports, video games, movies, music, cars, coins, etc. Greta, on her own, became interested in climate science. Good on her! I have read several interviews with her and she seems extremely well spoken, insightful, and yes, very passionate about this topic. She doesn't strike me as a mental case. She seems to have a good understanding of the reality of the situation and her role in this whole thing. I think a lot of the drama is being created by the media. She doesn't seem to be a very dramatic person in her interviews. She is concerned, sure, and wants things to change. But she isn't running around like a chicken with it's head cut off.

Her parents probably can't do much to stop the train, so to speak. I have 2 autistic teens, each with their own unique interests and "obsessions." Who am I to steer them away from those things? Even if I wanted to, it wouldn't work. An autistic brain is different from a neurotypical brain, but just like "normal" people, telling Greta to stop caring so much about the climate would be like telling someone "just stop being a (insert your favorite sports team here) fan" or "just stop liking dance so much." It's part of who she is, and it is unfair to say she shouldn't feel however she feels about it.

Greta was diagnosed as having obsessive compulsive disorder, which is characterized by unreasonable thoughts and fears (obsessions) that lead to compulsive behavior. I don't know the details that led to that diagnosis, but I would hazard a guess that it's a bit different than many of the harmless fixations that often accompany autism.

She was also diagnosed with selective mutism. Again, I don't know a lot about that, but she has displayed this mutism when being questioned in some interviews. Selective mutism is said to occur during situations that one feels expected to speak in, but is uncomfortable doing so. It's concerning that this has happened to Greta in interviews, her parents are quite aware of the diagnosis, and are still allowing it to happen.

In addition to the above, she's been diagnosed with Asperger's and depression. Altogether, she seems to have a lot of issues that I hope she is getting help with. There are definitely different approaches that work for different individuals and perhaps being in the limelight is somehow a positive in her treatment. Frankly, it's impossible for any of us to really know. It is still concerning that she has so many conditions that very well could be exacerbated by all of this, especially in someone so young and impressionable.

 

[DLgal]

Greta was diagnosed as having obsessive compulsive disorder, which is characterized by unreasonable thoughts and fears (obsessions) that lead to compulsive behavior. I don't know the details that led to that diagnosis, but I would hazard a guess that it's a bit different than many of the harmless fixations that often accompany autism.

She was also diagnosed with selective mutism. Again, I don't know a lot about that, but she has displayed this mutism when being questioned in some interviews. Selective mutism is said to occur during situations that one feels expected to speak in, but is uncomfortable doing so. It's concerning that this has happened to Greta in interviews, her parents are quite aware of the diagnosis, and are still allowing it to happen.

In addition to the above, she's been diagnosed with Asperger's and depression. Altogether, she seems to have a lot of issues that I hope she is getting help with. There are definitely different approaches that work for different individuals and perhaps being in the limelight is somehow a positive in her treatment. Frankly, it's impossible for any of us to really know. It is still concerning that she has so many conditions that very well could be exacerbated by all of this, especially in someone so young and impressionable.

I get that she has all these diagnoses, but really, all of them can be explained by simply being parts of autism. Other countries don't diagnose things the same way we do here, but my oldest son has anxiety along with selective mutism and OCD tendencies too. He just has an autism and anxiety diagnosis, although his psychiatrist attributes the anxiety to part of his autism, because his anxiety stems from not feeling like he is ever good enough or doing the right thing (because people are always trying to "fix" him). Selective mutism, here in the US, cannot be diagnosed in someone whose speech issue can be attributed to autism, so someone diagnosed with autism cannot also be diagnosed with selective mutism. It's tricky because lots of disorders "look like" autism, and autism "looks like" lots of other disorders. However, in my opinion, she is likely simply JUST autistic and these other diagnoses are parts of that.

She also can write very well and has expressed how this passion helps her feel grounded, so you have to respect the fact that, although this is hard to understand as an outsider, she is doing something she wants to be doing. It is VERY hard to manipulate an autistic person to do something that is somehow difficult or harmful to them. They fight back HARD against things that cause discomfort, so just accept that it is hard for YOU to watch someone so young be this passionate, but she is okay with it.