Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Student climate change strikers advised to refuse sweets, makeup, computer games and sparkly unicorn poop over Easter.
A lot of officious adults have been saying that there’s little point in school pupils striking in protest at the lack of action on climate change, as it will have no economic effect. They have a point, and so I would like to put forward a suggestion that may work better.
Schoolchildren have no voice at the ballot box or wealth-creating labour to withdraw, but the pounds in their pockets weigh as heavily in the till as anybody else’s. We are at the beginning of Lent, when Christians traditionally deny themselves the good things in life in order to achieve a higher goal: why don’t our children hold a consumer-spending strike for this period? Buy – or have others buy for you – only life’s essentials: no sweets, makeup, computer games, sparkly unicorn poo slime, cinema tickets; buy clothes and books only if compulsory for school; if you usually buy a pasty or a sandwich at lunchtime, sign up for school dinners instead (I know, I know, but it will be a conspicuous sacrifice…).
Combine the financial strike with a conventional one, with lots of banners letting us supposedly responsible grownups know what you are doing and why, and see if the dent you can put in the economy will wipe the smiles off our faces.Rachel Savage (age 51)
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/08/school-pupils-can-make-their-climate-change-strike-hurt
Sturton by Stow, Lincolnshire
I think the kids have got us folks; We shall have no choice other than to cave in and accept the Green New Deal, to prevent the economic fallout of a sparkly unicorn slime consumer strike.
Rachel Savage is old enough to know better.
But the kids aren’t told that “doing nothing” means we have already damaged the world’s economies by over a trillion dollars, largely collapsed the economy of Spain and Portugal.
They have no clue that a little hunger now could damage world food production so badly as to cause immense food riots, and perhaps end civilization as we know it.
Trump’-s science committee may help IF it is publicized enough and accurately enough by a 96% democrat press.
We have got to get across to these alarmists what photosynthesis is, and how severe the consequences of the relentless nonsense really are.
Care to elaborate?
commieBob March 9, 2019 at 7:07 pm
I think ladylifegrows is referring to “the doing nothing” which meant renewable energy projects which wrecked the mentioned countries electrical grids and economies. She poorly communicated the point.
By the way I am byzantine catholic, for lent I give up being “nice”.
It works very well for.
michael
mike the morlock
In that case my kids now have a new description for me. Instead of calling me a grumpy old man they can call me an ‘ongoing Lent practitioner’.
🙂
Mike:
Take their Smart Phones away for Lent. Tell them that’s what will happen if we don’t continue to rely on Fossil Fuels to provide the Base Load Energy for the Infrastructure.
And limit their PC or Pad usage to only homework research.
By earplugs you’ll need them.
Okay then. link It looks like renewable energy really has been detrimental to Spain’s economy.
I sense Moore than a modicum of sarcasm in this post. I think the author knows well that her audience will not do any of those things, especially sparkly unicorn poo slime!
Yes, of course she’s being facetious. People, stop taking yourselves so seriously. Rachel is making fun of the climate strikers. She knows they’ll never do the half of what she’s suggesting.
I had to give the letter a double look – I thought it said Rachel Savage (age 5). That would make sense. Coming from a 51 year old adult shows exactly whats wrong. This would be an adults campaign then, with brain washed children being abused, as usual, to make an impassioned rather than a reasoned plea
The kiddies strike against BIG OIL … is laughable, sad, pathetic … and reminds me of the “Day without Immigrants” anti-Trump, anti Border wall strike.
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/02/day-without-immigrants-2/517380/
Nobody noticed. Nobody cared. And according to the left wing Atlantic writer …
One thing is for sure: The fallout of strikes will likely hit low-wage workers hardest, since their workplaces typically lack protections and benefits that make other workers less vulnerable. “The disproportionate impact is on low-wage and hourly workers who don’t have much protection in their workplaces, especially workers who don’t have paid leave, or sick leave, or any type of benefit where they can take a day off to exercise their constitutional rights to protest,” said Yoon. “If you’re in a white-collar [job] where you have vacation or personal days, you could just take a vacation day and not be impacted. It’s really workers who don’t have that type of security, or those benefits, and protections who are the ones who are bearing the brunt of standing with immigrants.”
It’s street theater, nothing more. And most of us normies are getting rather bored with street theater. Soros’ little acting troupe . . . yawn.
That whole letter is tongue in cheek and needed a [sarc] tag around it.
I doubt it the Grauniad doesnt do sense of humour
IMO the author is definitely being facetious, any wittiness on the topic would pass way over the Guardian’s head.
Yeah, I think the unicorn poo slime is the giveaway.
….. but you never know. UK folk get their knowledge base on “climate” from the BBC.
philincalifornia
Ahem!
I too thought that this was a sarc piece, written to stir people up, and also thought that the “sparkly unicorn poo slime” was the giveaway.
Until I googled “sparkly unicorn poo slime” and found that this is apparently a commercial product available from K Mart and Target Australia.
Perhaps Rachel is sincere – if so, it is still the best piece on how to deal with the truancy promoted by deranged alarmists.
Should the little dears get lonely for the unicorn poop, I’ve got a couple of stalls want mucking in my outlying sheds . . . 😉
They should coordinate their strikes with teacher strikes..
2 times nothing yields nothing.
no chance – even kids get that.
Take away their iPhone, their XBox/Playstation, and any hope of ever owning a car, then tell them that’s necessary to save the planet from plastics and CO2. Since none of those things are possible without fossil fuels.
See how long they last on strike.
And they also have to walk to school – and switch off the jeating/AC lights too.
Sort of like Venezuela eh?
Lurk
Aww…..we would let the poor darlings eat – solidified, cold porridge. A Common source of sustenance for Scottish farmers a hundred years ago or so when they were out in the fields all day.
Well that would work but I think I would induce a good case of gluteus warming for the child allowing themselves to manipulated and following the crowd in the first place. Course of action is age dependent of course.
They basically shouldn’t buy anything from a store, since those items are delivered by truck (fossil fuels, not just for fuel, but to manufacture). Nothing that comes in a box, or is wrapped in plastic, no matter how “green” it’s supposed to be.
They should be required to make their own stone tools, without using any modern tools, then they can start their new green lifestyles.
For the next 40 days of Lent, British schoolchildren will become more frugal in their spending habits.
Such a terrible onslaught upon the Great Empire. It will take courage. It will take sacrifice. It will take great perseverance.
I know, in the end, the British people will weather the storm with classic British Bulldog determination and they will survive.
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say: ‘This was their finest hour.”
Nobody learns from history. It’s a rare thing when an argument is settled for the good because despite the fact we think, we can’t define good. You’d think that given all we’ve been through we’d have a decent idea of how to be better. This 51 year old makes me despair. By the way we all need to pay serious attention to Marxist fest that is taking over western education. We’re not good at collective action because we’re individualists. Maybe we need to rethink that. Let’s start a CO2 support group because this critical molecule is under fierce attack by morons.
Haven’t you noticed? The Marxists conquest of Western “education” is already a fait accompli — A done deal. So, can we ever take it back — Reverse the damage, so to speak? Just about as likely as the long-term survival of a snowflake in the Okefenokee. I fear that the education systems are destined to lead the rest of civil society to oblivion.
Do you believe in re-incarnation or is that a bit much to contemplate on Sunday.
ThomasJK
From what I can gather, the only way to, momentarily, suppress socialism is when they start global conflicts, persecute and murder people and invade continents, only to have decent people sacrifice their lives to protect freedom of speech, choice, and trade.
It seems to act as a wake up call to most right thinking people, until the next time.
It’s called privatization
“Haven’t you noticed? The Marxists conquest of Western “education” is already a fait accompli — A done deal. So, can we ever take it back — Reverse the damage, so to speak?”
Well, when it finally becomes obvious that the nightmare CAGW scenario is nothing more than science fiction, there are going to be a lot of people questioning their basic beliefs and where those beliefs originated.
I suppose that breaking point could come in about 12 years when the disasters being predicted in this latest round of disaster predictions, don’t appear. Of course, the alarmists can make excuses for why things aren’t going their way (Hansen), but then as another 12 year period comes and goes, then what?
Eventually, the millions of people the alarmists have duped about CAGW will have their eyes opened like Paul the Apostle on the road to Damascus.
Everything that happens is now being blamed on “climate change” — cold, heat, wet, dry, gang wars in Honduras, and on and on. Through this prism, nothing can ever be proved or disproved.
Don’t expect people this brainwashed to come to their senses when a real fact intervened.
“I suppose that breaking point could come in about 12 years when the disasters being predicted in this latest round of disaster predictions, don’t appear. Of course, the alarmists can make excuses for why things aren’t going their way (Hansen), but then as another 12 year period comes and goes, then what?”
They’ll say their strike staved off the catastrophe, without proof, of course.
If you cannot teach math or English, teach activism. That works.
If it hadn’t been for Trump the US would have descended much deeper into the CC rabbit hole. Those Western nations that bought the narrative hook line and sinker are suffering the consequences and are trying to figure out how to save themselves without disturbing their virtue signaling efforts. The economists know what damage has occurred and are silent just like the politicians and media. All of them either bought or deluded. China, India, and Russia are riding the wave and laughing all the way to the bank. One wonders how much longer the charade can go on before the jig is up.
markl
Laughably, the Russians and Chinese have done precisely what the west was asking them to do for generations, embrace Capitalism. Strangely, when they do, however, they are still the bad guys.
I mean, we have been spying on them for centuries but all of a sudden, when they do it to us, that fact is never mentioned.
I have an acquaintance who moved to Russia from the UK in 1991, three years after the wall fell. He lives in a modern multicultural city which hasn’t known religious unrest in 400 years. It is an Oil and Gas producing region and the city has credible Universities uncontaminated with leftist reactionaries.
Their income tax is 13%, their health provision is largely free (they pay for medication), they value their freedom and democracy, and without being rabidly feminist about it, they have a national ladies day. He’s a journalist who travels extensively and tells me the picture of Russia delivered to the west by our media is simply not true.
It makes one consider H. L. Mencken quote: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.“
“Laughably, the Russians and Chinese have done precisely what the west was asking them to do for generations, embrace Capitalism. Strangely, when they do, however, they are still the bad guys.”
It’s not because Russia and China embraced capitalism, it’s because they are beligerent, aggresive, and armed with nuclear weapons. That’s why they are still the bad guys from the U.S. point of view.
I’m an American and I don’t appreciate Putin threatening the United States with his new nuclear cruise missils. What I do know is if he were ever stupid enough to do such a thing than he and his dream of a new Soviet Union would not survive. That goes for China, too. It just depends on how far these people want to push it.
If they play nice, we’ll play nice. If not, then the U.S. will rise to the occasion, whatever occasion that may be. An attack on the United States will be an act of suicide for the attacker.
“If it hadn’t been for Trump the US would have descended much deeper into the CC rabbit hole.”
It won’t matter. A democrat will be elected, if not this election, then the next one, and will undo everything Trump has done. They might even double down and throw us down a deeper rabbit hole.
Roman Catholics and maybe some others may do that, but not all Christians follow that calendar or the thinking that we could do or not do anything to deserve God’s love and grace. But those that do, don’t deny themselves in an attempt to please “Ma’Gaia” or impact the marketplace.
Rachel Savage seems to no better than the adults that marched those poor kids into Feinstein’s office (an abuse in itself) to have the kids demand she vote for The Green New Deal.
I’m pretty sure it’s Lent for all Christians using the Gregorian calendar.
“or the thinking that we could do or not do anything to deserve God’s love and grace.”
Lent isn’t meant for that, it’s meant to strengthen your force of will. Practice resisting the meat makes it easier to resist actual sin. God’s love and grace are always available, we just have to copy the prodigal son and return to the Father asking forgiveness and He will shower us with the graces to overcome sin.
I think that what Rachel Savage is doing is showing that what is important in a childs life is not climate change. These children have little comprehension of what climate change is and are only being used by unsavory adults to push a failed theory. Thank you Rachel
I suspect Lent won’t cut it and be prepared to dig in for a long campaign kiddies as Planet Children needs your utmost sacrifice for their carbon credits.
I wonder if “Rachel Savage” is a pseudonym for “Titania McGrath”. The whole Guardian editorial/leadership/BBC/Green complex is the embodiment of Poe’s Law.
– Squishy Shop! Borax free!
OMG!
It has long seemed evident that the youth of the recent generation would have been better employed not in street protests and school strikes, but in picking up farm tools to clear away rubbish in fire prone areas.
The shovel handle does not have the same light touch as the x-box, now is that not a shame?
I learned that tough lesson with my first paid job, on a farm in hot, sultry tropics in school Christmas holidays in Australia, when aged 11. Geoff
we cant even get em to pick fruit in fairly decent conditions compared to decades past
clearing scrub should have ALL the wanna be greentinted kiddies chomping to do their bit
dont anyone holf their breath!
“we cant even get em to pick fruit in fairly decent conditions compared to decades past”
One of my first jobs, when I was about 10-years-old, was picking peaches in the 100F heat. The worst part was I had to carry the crated peaches to the people’s cars and the wire handles on the crates wore blisters on my hands.
That was a hot job. Not only was it hot, but most of the processing of the peaces took place in an open-sided building with a tin roof, which made it even hotter underneath.
Those were the days! 🙂
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Lent
“when the newly born lasses spring.”
See, you can do a proper specific link when you want to. Hopefully this is the beginning of a new trend with you and not just an anomaly.
Sadly, Johann, I see you are back to your old tricks in a more recent thread. so just an anomaly then. too bad, I thought you might have actually learned something.
“Roman Catholics and maybe some others may do that,”
___________________________________________________
Muslims too have their 2 months Ramadan – wandering through the Julian calendar cause Ramadan still is calculated on the old levantinian moon calendar.
Why not confess-We are to blame of recent global warming!
We have to react and explain why we did this to the growing children.
We want You to live in Clean air and we have no excuse to let the pollution grow.
But why are everybody talking about CO2?
It is SO2 .
Aerosols (as SO2) cooled the globe until we started to reduce them. Now the do not as much cool any more.
In German official register of births are provided 13 months.
If anatolian farmers sons are to be registered, they declare
born ~20 years ago, some before / after Ramadan.
And so their ID’s base on random* day month 13 random* year.
* the next free in the vicinity.
Wonder why the kids don’t quit school altogether, after all what is the point of getting educated, if we’re all going to die in 12 years anyway?
The Synod of the Church of England’s Lenten feast is to continue to disinvest in fossil fuels until companies conform with the Paris Agreement. How they are to do this is not spelt out – it’ s you and me that produce the CO2 not they. Madness. The pensioners have not been consulted. Meanwhile millions die of cooking inhalation but the CofE couldn’t care less.
Let’s all agree with the kids and begin implementing the Save the Planet for Us programs.
Start with confiscating their mobile phones, tablets, game console/controllers and remove the TVs. Buy and distribute new shoes since they’ll be walking everywhere. Have mandatory spinning wheel classes for them since they’ll be making all their own clothes. Require they be licensed to even enter a store. Teach them how to make fire if they live in a colder client. Then there’s all that agriculture they have to learn — maybe fit them for harnesses so they can to the plowing and tilling since they’ll have to raise their own food.
It’s gonna be great! Just think about it. The nuclear family tribe will be re-instituted and they’ll live in a true tribal commune just to survive. Then, again, Darwin might intervene.
“Schoolchildren have no voice at the ballot box”
And that’s how it should be.
“Children” should be reclassified to include all individuals up to the age of 25.
How do students who often cannot even keep their own room clean and tidy ever hope to change the climate of the world? Until these students complete their studies are permanently employed, productive and supporting themselves – and paying tax – they will keep spouting fanciful and unrealistic ideas.
Simon says hop on one foot.
Now hop on no feet.
So once again it comes down to causing economic damage so the left can get a political gain, climate and environment have nothing to do with any of it.
Another suggestion for the kids: http://climate4kids.blogspot.com/2019/03/so-you-want-to-save-planet.html
Clearly, the children can learn nothing substantive from adults, given how the latter have squandered a stupendous amount of money on a non-existent problem.
Everyday is Earthday in Venezuela, and North Korea.