Greta Thunberg: Britain has a “Mind-Blowing Historical Carbon Debt”

Greta Thunberg Michael Gove
Greta Thunberg Left, Michael Gove, Right

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Speaking in London, climate action crusader Greta Thunberg explained that Britain is especially guilty for wrecking the world, because Britain was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.

British MP Michael Gove praised Thunberg’s trashing of Britain’s historical contribution to global prosperity.

The Greta Thunberg effect: at last, MPs focus on climate change

Michael Gove admits to feeling guilt as young activist says: your fossil fuels policy is beyond absurd

This ongoing irresponsible behaviour will no doubt be remembered in history as one of the greatest failures of humankind,” she told the packed audience of MPs, officials and fellow school strikers. “You lied to us. You gave us false hope. You told us that the future was something to look forward to.”

There was no let-up for the audience. The UK, she said, was very special due to its “mind-blowing historical carbon debt”, a reference to the country’s record as the birthplace of industrialisation. But this was also, she said, because its claims of world-leading progress on cutting emissions are partly the result of “creative accounting” and are belied by the government’s plans for more high-emissions projects.

“The UK’s active current support of new exploitation of fossil fuels, like for example the UK shale gas fracking industry, the expansion of its North Sea oil and gas fields, the expansion of airports, as well as the planning permission for a brand new coalmine, is beyond absurd,” she said.

She finished to a standing ovation and cheers, then sat quietly as the panel of senior politicians gave their responses. Several appeared chastened.

Your voice – still, calm and clear – is like the voice of our conscience,” said the environment secretary, Michael Gove. “When I listened to you, I felt great admiration, but also responsibility and guilt. I am of your parents’ generation, and I recognise that we haven’t done nearly enough to address climate change and the broader environmental crisis that we helped to create.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/23/greta-thunberg

What were our selfish ancestors thinking, when they started the process of industrial fossil fuel extraction which gave us automobiles and telephones and computers and comfortable indoor jobs which don’t involve back breaking labor and early death? When they set the stage for medicines and anaesthetics and dentistry and aged care and reliable food supplies?

How dare Britain help raise the living standards of the entire human race.

Clearly a proper apology is required. I look forward to Michael Gove delivering a proper apology for Britain’s role in helping to create the modern world in Britain’s Parliament, when his party chooses him as the next British Conservative Prime Minister.

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Latitude
April 24, 2019 11:11 am

No normal 16 yo…in this day and age….dresses up and acts like a 8 yo
…conveniently at the exact same time her mother writes and tries to promote her book on global warming

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6946815/Whos-REALLY-16-year-old-Greta-Thunberg.html

Pop Piasa
Reply to  Latitude
April 24, 2019 12:12 pm

Sure would be interesting to follow the money here… 👓💲💸👧👩👨

Latitude
Reply to  Pop Piasa
April 24, 2019 1:05 pm

“historical carbon debt”….sounds like reparations don’t it?

amazing that all these people that want reparations….have no clue what shape they would be in today it things hadn’t gone that way

Patrick Hrushowy
Reply to  Latitude
April 24, 2019 4:29 pm

Offset by the benefits they received from development of an economy that provided goods, services, health care advances, communications, television, education, etc.

Henning Nielsen
Reply to  Latitude
April 24, 2019 5:32 pm

I doubt she understands even half of the words that are put into her mouth.

Alan the Brit
Reply to  Latitude
April 25, 2019 3:49 am

Right, I want reparations from the Italiansfor their Roman Empire, The Swedes, The Norwegians, The Danes, for their invasions of Britain!!!

D Cage
Reply to  Alan the Brit
April 25, 2019 11:21 am

Don’t forget the Normans who now are our aristocracy and the biggest blight of all.

Phil R
Reply to  Alan the Brit
April 25, 2019 6:51 pm

I want reparations from the Brits, who starved us and kicked us out of Ireland. And reparations from places like Boston and New York , who treated us like unwelcome outcasts.

Mark
Reply to  Latitude
April 25, 2019 7:41 am

Without U.K. bestowing modernity and democracy along with free thinking and free will, we might all live in totalitarian squalor.

keith
Reply to  Mark
April 25, 2019 12:07 pm

That of course is what the warmists want to return us to, and quickly.

Betapug
Reply to  Pop Piasa
April 24, 2019 3:04 pm

Following the money will lead you to the big time PR professionals who run the show. https://www.thelocal.se/20190209/start-up-used-child-climate-activist-to-raise-millions

LdB
Reply to  Pop Piasa
April 24, 2019 10:39 pm

Isn’t Griff in the UK ?

So he owes us all reparations 🙂

mike the morlock
Reply to  Pop Piasa
April 25, 2019 1:45 am

Maybe she should be looking closer to home for people to blame.
The iron making industrial occurred throughout Europe at about the same time.

England was about to become more influential because of location and trade practices.
Then again you could point the finger at the Romans who spread iron making everywhere in the empire.

The young Lady was ill served in her history education.

https://www.jernkontoret.se/en/the-steel-industry/the-history-of-swedish-steel-industry/

michael

Bloke down the pub
Reply to  mike the morlock
April 25, 2019 3:04 am

People see paintings of Britain’s ‘Dark Satanic Mills’ and the ironworks at Coalbrookdale and think that the whole of the UK was like that. In fact the UK was still very much an agrarian country until well into the C20th and as such was probably net negative with regards to CO₂ emissions.

Phil R
Reply to  mike the morlock
April 25, 2019 6:55 pm

With respect, you’re wrong. She wasn’t “ill served in her history education,” she apparently didn’t have a proper “history education.”

tty
Reply to  Pop Piasa
April 25, 2019 9:43 am

It points to this PR agency:

https://www.wedonthavetime.org/

And it’s not “a social network”, there is BIG money there:

https://borsvarlden.com/artiklar/we-dont-have-time-har-fatt-globalt-momentum/

(“Börsvärlden” is Sweden’s WSJ)

Bryan A
Reply to  Latitude
April 24, 2019 12:13 pm

I look forward to Michael Gove delivering a proper apology for Britain’s role in helping to create the modern world in Britain’s Parliament, when his party chooses him as the next British Conservative Prime Minister.

I look foreward to the Brexit and perhaps Brittain severing the Grid Tie with Europe. 2 good Nuclear Generators is all they would need to replace what they receive from the EU

Derg
Reply to  Bryan A
April 24, 2019 3:46 pm

Brexit will never happen and GT’s parents and media should be charged with child abuse

rapscallion
Reply to  Derg
April 25, 2019 4:51 am

Brexit WILL happen. You can count on it,

Sara
Reply to  Bryan A
April 24, 2019 5:26 pm

I look at that child’s photo and all I can think of is ‘Children of the Damned’ (or the story “Midwich Cuckoos’, whichever you prefer).

Urederra
Reply to  Latitude
April 24, 2019 2:52 pm

She looks like the female version of Sheldon Cooper

Bill Capron
Reply to  Latitude
April 24, 2019 4:19 pm

… and a child will lead them, over the cliff!

Henning Nielsen
Reply to  Bill Capron
April 24, 2019 5:36 pm

As someone recently wrote here: “Never try to catch a falling walrus!” This applies to falling Gretas as well (not that she has any resemblance to a walrus).

Henning Nielsen
Reply to  Latitude
April 24, 2019 4:51 pm

Little Greta should learn to fully embrace the glories of a pre-industrial society, and be put to work as a farm labourer, like so many of her 18th century Swedish ancestors. Not much time for school strikes, but plenty of opportunity to worry about the weather.

Rami
Reply to  Henning Nielsen
April 25, 2019 3:57 am

’…plenty of opportunity to worry about the weather.’ Brilliant! HA!

London247
Reply to  Henning Nielsen
April 25, 2019 11:46 am

+1

Julian
April 24, 2019 11:12 am

Gove as leader, I hope not.

John Law
Reply to  Julian
April 24, 2019 11:39 am

I mhabe a concealed cyanide tablet, in case of such a possibility but

Curious George
Reply to  Julian
April 24, 2019 11:45 am

A sick 16 year old has more brains. She is the leader.

Greg
Reply to  Curious George
April 24, 2019 2:13 pm

Hang on, I knew I’d seen that hair do somewhere before:

WP:

The story is set in medieval Germany. Hansel and Gretel are the children of a poor woodcutter. When a famine settles over the land, the woodcutter’s wife (stepmother to Hansel and Gretel) decides to take the children into the woods and leave them there to fend for themselves so she and her husband will not starve to death.

The archetypal story of adults who selfishly abandon the future of the children for their own well-being.

After days of wandering, they follow a beautiful white bird bird of colour to a clearing in the woods, and discover a large cottage built of gingerbread, cakes, and candy, with window panes of clear carbon-free sugar, with a small wind turbine and solar panels on the roof. Hungry and tired, the children begin to eat the roof, when the door opens and a hideous old hag emerges and lures the children inside, with the promise of a soft BREXIT, delicious VEGAN food, a hot bath from the solar water heater and the chance to meet leading politicians the next day. They do this unaware that their hostess is a bloodthirsty witch who built the gingerbread house to waylay children in order to cook and eat them, leading to extinction of the species.

Like all fairy tales, I’m sure this will have a happy ending.

Harry Passfield
Reply to  Julian
April 24, 2019 11:50 am

Gove is capable of more turns in the (political) wind than a wind turbine. And all for his own advancement, not the country’s.

Greg
Reply to  Harry Passfield
April 24, 2019 12:56 pm

Yeah, the guy is such a two-faced slimeball. Fortunately he has a face like Golum, so no one is going to be fooled.

Greg
Reply to  Harry Passfield
April 24, 2019 12:58 pm

“Your voice – still, calm and clear – is like the voice of our conscience,” said the environment secretary, Michael Gove.

Gove has no conscience. I’m surprised he even knows the word exists.

Vlad the Inhaler
Reply to  Greg
May 1, 2019 6:21 am

Perhaps he just found one – he can smell the £££ and the opportunity for self advancement and screwing everyone else in the process…

Henning Nielsen
Reply to  Harry Passfield
April 24, 2019 4:55 pm

Well, a weathercock is a wind turbine of sorts, after all.

David Chappell
Reply to  Julian
April 24, 2019 3:12 pm

It would be out of the frying pan into the fire.

April 24, 2019 11:13 am

Beyond belief that an ostensibly serious politician should uncritically accept such nonsense.
Yet our Parliament is full of them.

Vlad the Inhaler
Reply to  Stephen Wilde
May 1, 2019 6:25 am

Look at his photo. You can that a ‘serious policitian’? More like a grinning gargoyle/freak. Apologies if I just offended any gargoyles/freaks. The stupid inane grin of a career politician who stabbed Boris Johnson in the back to get where he is, has zero principles other than self advancement, and thinks he’s getting away with it.

Klaus
April 24, 2019 11:15 am

This is so sick! Who’s writing those statements for her? Do they really beliefe you can improve life without making errors like pollutions, clear cutting etc. Important is to learn out of errors and to make it better the next time and to clean up the mess afterwards?
Can we have progress without risk? Life is dangerous and we all have to die even if we do nothing!

Henning Nielsen
Reply to  Klaus
April 24, 2019 4:58 pm

@Klaus “Life is dangerous and we all have to die even if we do nothing!”

But I intend to live forever -or die in the attempt!

Robert Long
Reply to  Henning Nielsen
April 24, 2019 7:23 pm

Don’t do anything drastic,I’ll be in your shadow.

Hugh Mannity
Reply to  Henning Nielsen
April 25, 2019 9:56 am

That’s my plan too. So far it’s working great!

David Guy-Johnson
April 24, 2019 11:17 am

It’s nauseating the way politicians are sucking up to this naive and idiotic child

Filbert Cobb
April 24, 2019 11:18 am

She won’t be accepting any Nobel prize, then

Otteryd
Reply to  Filbert Cobb
April 24, 2019 1:17 pm

Nice one!😏😏😏😏

Henning Nielsen
Reply to  Filbert Cobb
April 24, 2019 5:05 pm

She’s already won one Norwegian prize, for “free speech”, which is absurd, as if she had been denied voicing her concern for the climate. It’s a substantial amount of money, and she intends to spend it in support of the appeal case against the Norwegian State, the plaintiffs (the “ususal suspects”) lost the first round.

Poor Greta, she should invest the money in oil company shares instead.

Dudley Horscroft
April 24, 2019 11:19 am

PHs are quite good at delivering apologies for things that they had no control over. Think Rudd on the Stolen Generation – which did not happen. Apologies for past treatments of homosexuals, institutionalized barriers for Roman Catholics, treatment of Jews … No doubt readers can think of many more.

This only confirms that Mr Gove should never be considered as a possible PM.

Quaesoveritas
April 24, 2019 11:20 am

It is the “Emperors New Clothes” all over again, except in reverse.
This time it is the child who needs to be told she is talking nonsense.
The trouble is, nobody dare tell her.

mark from the midwest
Reply to  Quaesoveritas
April 24, 2019 11:46 am

I’ll volunteer to tell her, I’ll just say “you have a big sloppy bag of water where your brain should be,” and “your mother is a crazy opportunistic lunatic, who is crazy, not to mention insane, and a lunatic”

I’ll I ask in return is a heart-felt “attaboy!”

Philo
Reply to  mark from the midwest
April 24, 2019 3:00 pm

Attaboy!

Henning Nielsen
Reply to  mark from the midwest
April 24, 2019 5:08 pm

Don’t say that about her brain, persons with Asperger tend to take all statements very literally.

GeeJam
Reply to  mark from the midwest
April 24, 2019 9:32 pm

Reporter: “So Greta, tell us how much CO2 is in the atmosphere”
Greta: “A lot”

Kenji
Reply to  Quaesoveritas
April 24, 2019 11:54 am

Chicken Little could only spread the message of her irrational alarmism to the other animals within earshot. Today’s Chicken Little’s have social media platforms, government bureaucracies, sycophants, captive School children, and countless NGO’s and Foundations pouring HUGE $$$ into their alarmist messaging.

Chicken Little was soon corrected by the rational-thinking animals in her community. She was shown the error of her cataclysmic conclusion. This is much harder to do because of the massive support given to today’s Chicken Little’s. The fable might just have a horrific conclusion in this environment.

Reply to  Quaesoveritas
April 24, 2019 2:45 pm

Oh, I will tell her.
Very directly, plainly, and right to her face, I will explain how she has absolutely no idea of what she is talking about, is beyond deluded and misinformed, and she should do herself and everyone else a favor by dropping her psychotic fascination with doomsday prophets and their end of the world fantasies.
I will also tell her what sort of things a normal 16 year old ought to be concerning themselves with.

April 24, 2019 11:27 am

Green angel Greta arrived by sailing vessel?
Everytime I think: “more absurd it cannot get” .
And then this article.
The Dutch parliament is eager to welcome Greta.
The world has become a psychiatric yard were patients have taken control.

Goldrider
Reply to  David Dirkse
April 24, 2019 12:27 pm

This “crusade” has not only jumped the shark, it’s now performed several backflips and triple axles. Game over after next year’s 50th Earth Day and Trump wins 2020.

Then they’ll acknowledge the Great Cooling–and take full credit on their way to fomenting equally contagious hysteria over 6th Great Extinction, or plastic bags, or something . . .

Dudley Horscroft
April 24, 2019 11:34 am

Apologies – should be “PMs” not “PHs”.

Coeur de Lion
April 24, 2019 11:40 am

BP says that UK’s contribution to global CO2 emissions is one point one per cent. So we can ruin our economy and devastate the lives of the poor and make no difference whatever.
Why the 1972.IceAge Scare?

Greg61
Reply to  Coeur de Lion
April 24, 2019 11:43 am

Yes, but if we hadn’t developed modern technology the Chinese would still be all poor starving subsistence farmers with no carbon footprint. It’s still all our fault.

leowaj
Reply to  Greg61
April 24, 2019 2:52 pm

Conclusion: it’s Britain’s fault they didn’t think of the prosperity they’d wreak on the world hundreds of years ago. Shame on you!

(sarcasm = obvious)

Loydo
Reply to  Coeur de Lion
April 24, 2019 7:35 pm

Hey thats the same as Australia’s. Lets all pass the buck equally. Anyway I’d say there are quite a few Indian and Chinese peasants who have a lot to answer for.

John the Econ
April 24, 2019 11:44 am

I wonder what Greta’s life today would be like had the industrial revolution never happened. My guess is that it would make the life depicted in “The Handmaids Tale” look downright wonderful.

Harry Passfield
Reply to  John the Econ
April 24, 2019 11:55 am

She’d probably go on TV – oops, not invented – and then jump on a train – oops, not invented – and call her mum on her phone – oops……..

Henning Nielsen
Reply to  Harry Passfield
April 24, 2019 5:11 pm

She would ride all ove the world on an amphibious, non-methane emitting horse.

Reply to  John the Econ
April 24, 2019 2:54 pm

If not for the industrial revolution and/or fossil fuels, the huge advances in medical care, human longevity, the Green Revolution, and all the other advances that would never had occurred but for access to cheap and abundant energy, it is very unlikely that any particular person alive today would have lived to be their current age, or more probably never even have been born.
Why would anyone think otherwise?
Obviously the capacity to grow enough food to feed the world would not exist, and this one factor alone means that most of us would not even exist.

Alan Robertson
Reply to  John the Econ
April 24, 2019 3:24 pm

Let young Greta listen to Led Zeppelin’s “No Quarter”, while she reads the words to the lyrics.
Let her understand that everything today is a product of the past and that past includes the Swedish and other Viking ancestors of modern Britain.
If everyone is to be blamed, then no one is blameless. Let her see this as the end of blame.

TIm Groves
Reply to  Alan Robertson
April 24, 2019 6:55 pm

Then she could go on to ponder the lyrics of “The Immigrant Song” while stamping her feet to the rhythm. That might be enlightening as well as cathartic.

jtom
Reply to  John the Econ
April 24, 2019 3:58 pm

Hanged as a witch or dumped in an asylum for the insane would be my guess. I’m sure the resultant smaller personal carbon footprint would have pleased her.

John Sutherland
April 24, 2019 11:48 am

But for the industrial revolution, people like this would not be here. There would be few schools, few universities, few hospitals, and most people would still be ignorant, working the land, eating poorly and dying early. Poor Gretha. She is a privileged brat with neither wisdom, common sense, nor knowledge of what enables her to bite the hands that feed her. Ignore these luddites. They know nothing.

Greg
Reply to  John Sutherland
April 24, 2019 1:03 pm

Of course she knows nothing, she’s 16. What did you know at 16 ?

The question is, why is the press pumping her up and why are world leaders queuing up for photo ops? Who is REALLY behind this.?

Reply to  Greg
April 24, 2019 1:17 pm

Greg
If this doesn’t work they will get someone younger perhaps a 10 year old. If that doesn’t work then on down the ages until they get to a 1 year old and we will know what they might say because someone can feel it. But of course it will be exactly the same message about how it’s all the UK’s fault for not only the sin of eating from the tree of knowledge but planting new ones and finding out how to grow better ones.

Henning Nielsen
Reply to  Stephen Skinner
April 24, 2019 5:25 pm

Next up; an unborn baby. What could be more innocent than an unborn baby? Greta may already have been severely contaminated by industrial society. Just imagine how much co2 she has already breathed out in her young life! Can she really be the saviour of our climate? How can we know that she did not indulge in climate-killing food habits and plastic toys at the age of five? Maybe she even liked cows! At sixteen she may well already be too old. Let us hear the truly innocent speak, straight from the womb!

dodgy geezer
Reply to  Greg
April 24, 2019 2:31 pm

the people behind this want to shift the Overton window massively in favour of a bureaucratic world government.

Yirgach
Reply to  Greg
April 24, 2019 3:07 pm

Greg
It’s all about Optics, gad what a marketing buzzword. Here is a Trillion $$ business opportunity just waiting for those types, you know the ones I mean, to take advantage.
Now that they know this shtick works, there will be many more Greta Thunbergs trotted out on stage, each with their own poignant story line. This is being scripted by the best for the worst.

As for “who” they are – as George Carlin said – It’s a big club and you ain’t in it

Tim.
April 24, 2019 11:52 am

I see what’s going wrong now. It should be the children who should be teaching in the schools, not the teachers. /sarc

Spetzer86
Reply to  Tim.
April 24, 2019 12:35 pm

You really need to pay attention to modern educational theory before putting things down in text.

https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/how-put-self-directed-learning-work-your-classroom

It’s a strange new world out there in Western education

Hugs
Reply to  Tim.
April 25, 2019 12:16 pm

Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Greta is surely in the Nobel Peace Award queue at the top. This all will spoil her life. Not the 450 ppm in 2040.

Gary Pearse
April 24, 2019 11:55 am

It is simply not politically correct to show any resistance to the silly points she raises. Also, arent we white guys “toxic”. Did we ask the world of diversity if it was okay to create the Age of Enlightenment/Renaissance, Industrial Revolution, Space Age, Technological Revolution …No we didn’t! I tried to weasel out of it with the disclaimer that I didn’t create any of these things. I didn’t even invent the wheel. I just took full advantage of it like everybody else. I’m the victim here! They told me I was male, straight and definitely the wrong color.

Andrew Dickens
April 24, 2019 11:58 am

Reminds me of the Children’s Crusade. And that didn’t end well.

I used to like Gove.

Greg
Reply to  Andrew Dickens
April 24, 2019 1:09 pm

… and your hero in Lord of the Rings was Golum?

alexei
Reply to  Andrew Dickens
April 24, 2019 8:17 pm

What about the fish? And Gove’s promises to restore British fishing rights? That was until he must have words with Treezer and she persuaded him to lay off….

David Bestwick
April 24, 2019 11:59 am

Thankfully, Greta travelled to the UK to chastise us by train. Where was the train invented????

Bryan A
Reply to  David Bestwick
April 24, 2019 12:18 pm

What powered that train?

griff
Reply to  Bryan A
April 25, 2019 1:31 am

Of course the UK will be rolling out 100 hydrogen powered trains in 2020 to replace diesel… and many of the others are electric, driven by electricity which is 33% renewable (and nuclear comes in on top)

A C Osborn
Reply to  griff
April 25, 2019 3:25 am

ROFL.
Which day was it 33% Griff, certainly not last Saturday and Sunday when it peaked at about 30% for 2 hours when the Sun was at it’s maximum and below 20% for the rest of the day and below 10% once the sun set. It is a good job that Demand was down below 30GW.

Joel Snider
Reply to  griff
April 25, 2019 12:38 pm

Grift speaks as if this is a good thing.

Adrian
Reply to  David Bestwick
April 24, 2019 1:36 pm

Presume she did the wet bit by (diesel or gas) boat?

Quaesoveritas
Reply to  Adrian
April 24, 2019 2:10 pm

There is a Channel Tunnel you know!

David Chappell
Reply to  Quaesoveritas
April 24, 2019 3:19 pm

But not from Norway…

David Chappell
Reply to  David Chappell
April 24, 2019 4:02 pm

or, rather, Sweden.

Quaesoveritas
Reply to  David Chappell
April 24, 2019 10:10 pm

In the item by Nick Robinson, on BBC TV it was stated that she had travelled everywhere by rail.
I had imagined that if that were true, she had travelled to France by rail and then used the channel tunnel to get to the uk.
If it turns out she travelled part of the way by air, it could be embarrassing for her and Nick Robinson,

Quaesoveritas
Reply to  David Chappell
April 24, 2019 11:45 pm

This article in “The Metro”, states that she travelled all the way by train.
The Channel Tunnel is the only option for the last bit of the journey.
https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/20/greta-thunberg-two-day-train-journey-join-extinction-rebellion-london-9276389/

Henning Nielsen
Reply to  David Bestwick
April 24, 2019 5:30 pm

In the deep Swedish forests, by pixies. And made out of recycled plastic…eh, wood. Then evil Brits introduced that nasty metal.

mwhite
April 24, 2019 12:00 pm

She’s banging in those air miles.

n.n
April 24, 2019 12:00 pm

Some people, typically following an age gradient, are, ironically, more than a little green.

Richard Briscoe
April 24, 2019 12:06 pm

Our fossil fuels policy is truly beyond absurd when our politicians take instruction from a schoolgirl.

Jordan
April 24, 2019 12:09 pm

I just heard Chris Packham (nature and popular culture TV presenter) on the radio, echoing this child. Criticising over-50’s for damaging the planet by their use of fossil fuels. The same Chris Packham who routinely jets around the globe, for the very serious task of filming TV programmes.

Quaesoveritas
Reply to  Jordan
April 24, 2019 12:57 pm

And who, at the last count, had two pet dogs (poodles) and we all know that they contribute to climate change.

Harry Passfield
April 24, 2019 12:09 pm

The BBC effectively bans the likes of intelligent, erudite and informed citizen scientists like Nigel Lawson and his ilk yet fawns over a 16 year-old who can seemingly be diagnosed as having a few press-releases short of a book-plug.
And MPs make fools of themselves believing everything she says – mainly because it gives their ideas for ‘CC-related’ taxation a justification.

Aidan Donnelly
Reply to  Harry Passfield
April 24, 2019 8:09 pm

Of course Gove & fellow travellers are supporting this, which has been carefully planned for some time.

It is the Globalists latest attempt to reboot the climate scam, which has become a non-issue for all but the young and foolish , and those who intend to benefit with money and power.

Bryan A
April 24, 2019 12:10 pm

Greta,
I hope you realize that your traveling to the UK has place an enormous carbon burdon on your 3 times great grandchildren to pay for your selfishness. They will undoubtedly face Meters of Seal Level Rise during their lifetime due to your selfishness in the Carbon Footprint you have traveling to the UK

Ancient Scouse
April 24, 2019 12:10 pm

The UN IPCC claim of just 12 years remaining until the prophesied catastrophic climate change is probably true because in 12 years time everyone will know it was all BS. Polar bears will still be ripping apart seals to feast on them, sea levels will not have risen nor will there be 1 billion climate refugees plus ski resorts will still be booming. Since 1970 every disaster prediction that has ever been made by these charlatans has not come close to fruition. Yet now they focus on the most vulnerable and susceptible, the children, indoctrinating them and filling their minds with fearful doubts of any possible future they may have and this they have the audacity to call science.

Tonyb
Editor
April 24, 2019 12:11 pm

Britain has also helped to create the healthiest world, the longest lived world, the wealthiest world the happiest world, given it the rule of law, democracy, fantastic culture from art, literature to music.

I think we can be proud of the industrial revolution we fostered as it has made the world a far better place. Who wants to go back to diseases that kill you at 30 , serfdom and being ruled by despots?

This young lady needs to look at the bigger picture and ask herself what sort of life she would have had without industrialisation.

Tony

J Mac
April 24, 2019 12:16 pm

Part of her scripted speech to the MPs:
https://youtu.be/FwY06xE24Es

mikewaite
April 24, 2019 12:18 pm

In 1926 the Conservative Prime Minister signed the Electricity supply Act that , for the first time established a national electrical supply system for the UK , replacing a ramshackle system of over a hundred separate private companies . It was achieved through the design , engineering and draughting skills of a team of highly qualfied men and women and a well organised work force. A similarly highly qualified team built the world’s first nuclear power station for domestic use , in 1956.
Now our engineering policies are dictated not by our own skilled scientists and engineers but by a foreign teenager, classified as being “in special needs” and totally without any maths or scientific qualifications.
And the man prepared to put the future of 60+ million people and the world’s 6th or 7th largest economy entirely in the hands of this unqualified , poorly educated teenager is a former Minister of Education and aspires to be a PM.
This is a dreadful time to be British, and it can only get worse.

April 24, 2019 12:18 pm

I would like to ask her how zhe intends to get back to Sweden after foregoing all of the benefits of the Industrial Revolution, and I mean every single one.

DHR
April 24, 2019 12:20 pm

So how did she get to London? Walk? Swim? How about an airplane? And what powered the airplane?

BC
Reply to  DHR
April 24, 2019 3:25 pm

Viking longboat?

April 24, 2019 12:24 pm

How far back does Greta wish to go when looking for blame?

As the Swedish Vikings (the Rus) were great travellers, Greta’s ancestors (and probably mine as I have a British ancestry) could be taken into account. Was Stevenson of ‘Rocket’ fame of Viking descent?

Have to go now – my 10 year old is explaining to me how the Mars mission should be financed and organised with non-fossil fuels /sarc

Davis
April 24, 2019 12:29 pm

I’ll take the longer lifespan due to technology, thank you, she can live and die as a pre industrialist.

http://www.legacy.com/life-and-death/home.html

Paul Penrose
April 24, 2019 12:31 pm

According to her logic, mankind would have been much better off remaining unindustrialized, were all but a very few live brutish, short lives filled with misery, work, and little joy. I hope she understands that in such a world, an Aspie like her would not have had a place in society. If she had even been allowed to live, it would have been a very sad and painful life. Only wealthy societies can afford to even attempt to treat everybody with compassion and dignity.

TIm Groves
Reply to  Paul Penrose
April 24, 2019 7:11 pm

The pre-industrial world may have been tougher physically than today’s Mecca of Convenience, but it was probably no more miserable. Miserable is a state of mind, and miserable people such as grumpy Greta would not have fared very well in such a world, while those with a good sense of humor would have done much better.

The person who first put together “brutish” and “short” was the philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who wrote a century before the start of the Industrial Revolution (although not before the start of industry, obviously) describing the natural state of mankind.

“Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of Warre, where every man is Enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the time, wherein men live without other security, than what their own strength, and their own invention shall furnish them withall. In such condition, there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving, and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continuall feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.

YouBrexitYouPay4It.
Reply to  TIm Groves
April 24, 2019 10:13 pm

I’ve been looking into hunter-gatherer societies recently – they live longer, healthier, happier lives, with significantly more leasure time than agricultural or modern lifestyles. Or so it is alleged by “scientists”, anyway.

It would appear that the benefit of an agricultural society is that it allowed for the dominance by a king, who lives off the labour of others. Perhaps the mad child is right, but for all the wrong reasons.

Paul Penrose
Reply to  YouBrexitYouPay4It.
April 25, 2019 10:03 am

Try it some time. You won’t live longer, nor will you have more leisure time. The struggle to find food and keep from being killed by other predators will take up most of your time.

Paul Penrose
Reply to  TIm Groves
April 25, 2019 10:00 am

Infant mortality was much higher before the industrial age. People died of simple infections (especially oral) and diseases which are easily controlled by vaccines today would regularly run rampant killing large percentages of pre-industrial populations. Few people lived to ages over 50 or 60, and most of those were pretty feeble. People with even minor disabilities, physical or mental, didn’t usually survive long unless they were born to a very wealthy family. Yeah, I’m sure people were much happier then – not!

John Holmes
Reply to  Paul Penrose
April 25, 2019 4:17 am

A female aspie would be in a nunnery shut away and not allowed out.

ResourceGuy
April 24, 2019 12:43 pm

This could work in the grand money musical chairs of Green New Deal redistribution of global wealth. The Brits pay reparations to the world (because Greta says) and other countries pay reparations in turn for any other claims that come up (Booker says).

Vuk
April 24, 2019 12:45 pm

Athe other day I asked:
“Has the world gone mad?”
Today it appears that the answer is self-evident.

Martin Cropp
Reply to  Vuk
April 24, 2019 3:01 pm

Vuk
There is a difference between lacking intelligence and going mad. There is a large global social vacuum and these followers of “preserving our future” are filling it.

How is climate change fear used. From the child of a close friend.
During the recent Christchurch mosque attack schools were in lock-down and huddled into a small group in a darkened classroom with all the curtains drawn. The teenage children asked the teacher – what is happening? The teacher replied “Its climate change”. Fear ran through the teens as they thought that the world outside was uninhabitable, as it is constantly in the media, what of their parents? They then used their cell phones and found what was really happening, with a sense of relief.

A 16 year old speaking in the tone and style like Greta on a foreboding subject has a profound effect on a lot of people.
Regards

Pat bols
April 24, 2019 12:46 pm

Every culture comes to an end because of internal problems. Our great western one is about to be destroyed by people who have no clue what it took to build it.
Maybe the Notre Dame fire was an imminent symbol of this.
That Swedish school kid is an example of how cultures self destruct. We do not need an external enemy anymore.

alexei
Reply to  Pat bols
April 24, 2019 8:39 pm

“We do not need an external enemy anymore.”
But we have that as well, although the enemy of our civilisation is both external and internal since the West has chosen to import its enemy into its societies, with the full knowledge of its unconcealed aims.

TruthMatters
Reply to  Pat bols
April 24, 2019 11:54 pm

As you say, when understanding of the virtues and values that were required to achieve it are forgotten, then the same virtues and values which must maintain and preserve it no longer prevail. That’s how a renaissance dies out.
But it can be rebooted in a single generation.
The Crown of Creation project will instantiate an irrevocable renaissance.
There is no cure for stupid but there is 100% immunization if treated before infection of psychological pathogens.
In 3 pages can be delivered what’s been promised for 2000 years.
Watch it happen.

ResourceGuy
April 24, 2019 12:47 pm

A new global game has just been created–Greta Says. The Brits are going wild over it.

Greta says jump….and they all jumped.
Greta says ________ …. and all the ad sponsors jumped.

LdB
Reply to  ResourceGuy
April 25, 2019 12:18 am

She is just a younger and stupidier version of occasional cortex.

Hugs
Reply to  LdB
April 25, 2019 12:20 pm

Don’t be cruel. Her parents made her what she is. Stupid does not go along with a cult.

Joey
April 24, 2019 12:48 pm

We are now taking our marching orders from clowns like that? Good God.

fretslider
April 24, 2019 12:49 pm

Interesting stuff

The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg – for Consent: The Political Economy of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex [ACT I]
http://www.theartofannihilation.com/the-manufacturing-of-greta-thunberg-for-consent-the-political-economy-of-the-non-profit-industrial-complex/

The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg – for Consent: The Inconvenient Truth Behind Youth Co-optation [ACT II]
http://www.theartofannihilation.com/category/articles-2019/the-manufacturing-of-greta-thunberg-for-consent-the-inconvenient-truth-behind-youth-cooptation/

The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg – for Consent: The Most Inconvenient Truth: “Capitalism is in Danger of Falling Apart” [ACT III]
http://www.theartofannihilation.com/category/articles-2019/the-manufacturing-of-greta-thunberg-for-consent-the-most-inconvenient-truth-capitalism-is-in-danger-of-falling-apart/

The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg – for Consent: The House is On Fire! & the 100 Trillion Dollar Rescue [ACT IV]
http://www.theartofannihilation.com/the-manufacturing-of-greta-thunberg-for-consent-the-house-is-on-fire-the-90-trillion-dollar-rescue-part-iv/

The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg – for Consent: The New Green Deal is the Trojan Horse for the Financialization of Nature [ACT V]
http://www.theartofannihilation.com/the-manufacturing-of-greta-thunberg-for-consent-the-new-green-deal-is-the-trojan-horse-for-the-financialization-of-nature/

Brooks Hurd
April 24, 2019 12:49 pm

I wonder, did Greta walk (and swim) from her home to London?

I expect that she flew in one of the large carbon emitters against which she ranting.

quaesoveritas
Reply to  Brooks Hurd
April 24, 2019 12:53 pm

She could have come via the Channel Tunnel

Greg
Reply to  Brooks Hurd
April 24, 2019 1:11 pm

Best to check your facts before sounding off on the basis of assumption. It can go wrong and make you look stupid.

Paul Penrose
Reply to  Greg
April 24, 2019 2:27 pm

It doesn’t even matter, because you can be sure she used fossil fuels one way or the other, whether it was plane, boat, or automobile.

Hugs
Reply to  Paul Penrose
April 25, 2019 12:27 pm

The French electric trains run by uranium. Danish trains run by Norwegian rainwater paid in cinnamon buns. But her life in general depends on fossils including nuclear power in Sweden. And she has no real clue what would happen without fossils.

April 24, 2019 12:51 pm

I would like to put up s defence of the United Kingdom. Over half of all “Carbon Emissions” since the Industrial Revolution have been during the last 30 thirty years. Of those only a few percent willbhave been by the UK. Many nations followed the UK down the industrialisation road, France, Germany and USA amongst others. So I’d say that the UK is unlikely to be streets ahesd in the emissions league table. Nor can the the UK be blamed if every nation on earth thought the Industrial Revolution was a good idea.

ResourceGuy
April 24, 2019 12:53 pm

Put the knife down from your throat Britain and let’s talk. I’m a trained crisis intervention professional and we can work this out. You have others that care about you……

max
April 24, 2019 12:53 pm

before I turned 18, I had heard that –
We were going to run out of oil before 2000.
Ronald Reagan was going to get us into a nuclear war with the USSR.
Nuclear winter would kill any of us who survived.
Swine flu was going to be an epidemic of biblical proportions.
AIDS was going to be an epidemic of biblical proportions.
The world was about to enter an ice age (caused by pollution)
The world population (human) was growing too quickly, and the world would not be able to supply all of us with food.
The hole in the ozone was going to allow in too much radiation, and turn the world into a wasteland.
The rainforests were being destroyed at an alarming rate, and would soon be gone, destroying all humanity, and leaving the world short of oxygen, due to lack of photosynthesis.

It was only a few years later, we were told that the earth was going to heat up catastrophically, and wipe us all out.

There is always somebody foretelling the end of the world, but it just never seems to happen. Many of the predictions listed above were made by scientists, sure in their data, and caring only about our continued existence. Or not. Experience is the cruelest teacher, but sadly, for some, she is the only teacher.

Mike Smith
April 24, 2019 12:53 pm

Practically every item, product and service in this brat’s life was available to her because of the industrial revolution. Her travel, her microphone, her clothing, food, shelter, healthcare and more.

She should spend a little time reflecting on what her life would be like without ANY of those things.

She’ be living in rags in a primitive hut spending most of her waking hours hunting or gathering her food, carrying her (quite dirty) water and chopping trees for heating.

Reply to  Mike Smith
April 24, 2019 5:12 pm

She has spent way too much time reflecting about this reality, but she is too selfish to admit she is part of the real world.

Her parents are entertainers. They contribute nothing substantive to their society & yet they are better off than her school mates.

When she became aware of this reality, at a very young age, she could not reconcile her guilt/selfishness, and she became the emotionally stunted adolescent drone that she is.

April 24, 2019 12:54 pm

I’m sure Greta walked, rode a bike, and took a sailing ship to Britain, right? Like when she was just at the EU in Bonn? And met the Pope in Italy?

CD in Wisconsin
April 24, 2019 12:55 pm

“…She finished to a standing ovation and cheers, then sat quietly as the panel of senior politicians gave their responses. Several appeared chastened…”

To me, there is something very perverse and odd about making a 16-year old into some kind of female deity or high priestess as we are seeing now. As Greta Thunberg becomes the subject of cult-like worship by both children and adults alike, the fact that we are supposed to be dealing in a scientific issue here (CAGW) becomes totally lost in the mire.

One can only imagine skeptic climate scientists trying to explain to Ms. Thunberg the scientific issues with the alarmist narrative in the hopes that she will understand them. Perhaps it won’t matter if she understands the issues or not, because the cult around her is already well-established and likely does not tolerate dissent. Cults, as I understand them, rarely do.

I am mystified by the mindset of adults who willingly become part of a cult with a child at its center. There is little doubt that Ms. Thunberg has the image of innocence and the speaking skills to draw in a lot of people. And the mainstream media, as cheer leaders in all of this, have the means to spread the faith and reach out to all of those who are ready to join in. It is disturbing however to see that there are many people in this world who lack a level of intelligence to step back, rationally look at all of this from a distance and question what is really going on.

Those who do look at all of this with a sigh and a sense of despair can take comfort in knowing that the climate scare still ranks quite low on the public’s list of priorities despite the media’s best efforts to move it up. Still, cults are much easier to form these days thanks to the Internet, along with the co-operation of the MSM, science and academia and govts around the world. The environmental NGO’s and the IPCC have no doubt discovered this. They can take comfort in knowing there is still insufficient effort to totally discredit them and undo everything they’ve done. Sensationalizing a 16-year old Swedish girl who steps up to help maintain the faith is certainly a BIG help in that regard.

PhilUK
Reply to  CD in Wisconsin
April 25, 2019 2:55 am

We are well used to Skeptics being denied a voice in the MSM. Lately it has become apparent that only the most extreme [ Extinction Rebellion, Climate Strikes, AOC, Greta ] voices are now allowed on the MSM – with never any questioning of anything they say. Even those in-tune with the global warming narrative – but have not fallen for the false 12 year to doom narrative – now do not even get any airtime!

Old Woman of the North
Reply to  CD in Wisconsin
April 25, 2019 2:52 pm

Joan of Arc comes to mind.

Joel Snider
April 24, 2019 1:00 pm

Did anyone else see ‘Children of the Corn?’

James Clarke
Reply to  Joel Snider
April 25, 2019 7:35 am

Scary stuff! Not the movie. That was stupid and fiction. The above article is reality, and it literally terrifies me! If the story of Greta and the MP’s was fiction, I would find it ridiculous and unbelievable. The fact that it actually happened makes me quake for the future of humanity.

Are we witnessing the death of rational thought? Who, in their right mind, would demonize the Renaissance and long for the Dark Ages?

Joel Snider
Reply to  James Clarke
April 26, 2019 12:41 pm

Someone who has been taught not to appreciate it.

Bruce Cobb
April 24, 2019 1:00 pm

The world has turned upside down. A brainwashed idiot child is lecturing supposed adults, and they are actually listening to her. Beam me up, Scotty.

fretslider
April 24, 2019 1:01 pm

Piers Corbyn got it right when he tweeted…

Listening to an ignorant brainwashed child is deranged.
I am an actual scientist of physics, meteorology, astrophysics and climate and say @GretaThunberg is wrong and suffers mental abuse by manipulative adults.

Pushy eco-parents.

Quaesoveritas
Reply to  fretslider
April 24, 2019 1:22 pm

I would like to see a debate between Greta Thunberg and Piers Corbyn but it isn’t going to happen on British tv

fretslider
Reply to  Quaesoveritas
April 24, 2019 1:33 pm

Piers Corbyn or any other sceptical scientist on the BBC?

That’s termed false-balance, because sceptics usually have a winning argument.

April 24, 2019 1:08 pm

The madness just gets worse and worse.

icisil
April 24, 2019 1:25 pm

These foolish people don’t realize that trying to undo the benefits of the industrial revolution isn’t stepping off a curb, it’s a stepping off a cliff.

Lars P.
April 24, 2019 1:34 pm

Children crusade redux …

If humans are guilty of increasing CO2 from 280 ppm to 400 ppm as of now, then those humans did increase the efficiency of photosynthesis for most plants.
Looking at the C3 plants efficiency I would estimate some +15%.

Britain did some contribution to that, wonder if they would be entitled to some percentage of the production, is this what our Greta has in mind?

We need somebody to do a picture with 280 ppm 🙂 to the left:
comment image

Mohatdebos
April 24, 2019 1:34 pm

Those who don’t know history are bound to repeat historical mistakes. Greta reminds me of the young girl whose “vision” convinced her tribe to destroy their livestock so they could fend of the British who were slowly taking over their territory. Unfortunately for the tribe, starvation made them even more vulnerable to their the British colonialists.

ResourceGuy
Reply to  Mohatdebos
April 24, 2019 2:33 pm

+2

Coeur de Lion
April 24, 2019 1:59 pm

OOOOOHH! Dental care!!!

charles nelson
April 24, 2019 2:04 pm

She is a godsend. Joe Public will simply not buy this, because no sane person
could look at or listen to Greta and feel anything other than pity. (and maybe a little creeped out)
The Warmists have ‘jumped the shark’.

Hadyn
April 24, 2019 2:06 pm

Like most 16 year olds, Greta knows everything. However, for some reason, foolish adults not only believe her but give her a platform for her nonsense.

April 24, 2019 2:09 pm

So, now we add fossil-fuel guilt to white guilt and male guilt.

I’m white, male, and I appreciate the advances and comforts bestowed by fossil fuel, yet I feel zero guilt. Should I feel guilty about THAT ?

Joel Snider
Reply to  Robert Kernodle
April 24, 2019 4:30 pm

Well, if you’re like me, you feel pissed-off that elites who are singling you out as a target for acceptable persecution feel it’s their prerogative to take it all away.

That seems to me, the more appropriate reaction.

April 24, 2019 2:13 pm

This girl has larger problems than Asperger’s Syndrome. They are her parents.

April 24, 2019 2:16 pm

An absolute classic on BBC radio 2’s Jeremy Vine show today (an early afternoon events discussion show) where the BBC Countryfile and Extinction Rebellion campaigner Chris Packham was confronted by a climate alarmist. By any normal measure, you and I would have condemned the alarmist as the usual climate nutter wheeled on by the BBC to trot out the party line on the subject.

But no, he was roundly attacked by a vindictive, entirely obsessed Packham who cited his, and Greta’s alleged condition of Asberger syndrome, as a virtuous example of why she was correct because, of course, people who suffer from asberger syndrome are uniquely placed to ‘see’ the truth and express it in simple, abrupt terms.

No mention that “Asperger’s, is a developmental disorder characterised by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. As a milder autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it differs from other ASDs by relatively normal language and intelligence.” (Sorry, wikipedia…..I hate using it but in this case it seems appropriate.)

In my day, and I think by current normal standards, those with significant behavioural conditions are not usually held up to be champions of cutting edged scientific debate. They may, rightly, have an input, but usually carefully monitored in case their condition clouds their judgement, which in this case, Packham’s clearly has.

Greta seems to have her condition used as justification for her beliefs, despite its inherent suggestible, and obsessive qualities science desperately attempts to avoid.

Packham naturally seizes on this to promote his own frailties, given licence by the BBC, who recognise this as a ‘victim opportunity’ to divert criticism from their institutionalised bias to catastrophic climate change.

I mean, in our SJW obsessed UK, who could possibly get away with criticising what would hitherto be referred to as two clinically insane individuals with restricted comprehension, commenting on a subject they are clearly obsessed with?

We are now being instructed on how to conduct our social, scientific, financial and political lives by people who are diagnosed as intellectually, socially and developmentally restricted.

Politicians notwithstanding!

Is it just me?

Rod Evans
Reply to  HotScot
April 25, 2019 12:52 am

No, I imagine most sane individuals feel just as you do.
I am now wondering if Gove is also a member of the club that Packham and Greta are in, and are now being used, to advance it as a positive. Say what you will about the BBC, it certainly doesn’t lack stupidity.

ResourceGuy
April 24, 2019 2:34 pm

“Mr. Rogers meets the Children of the Corn”……. in theaters and Parliament now.

R.S. Brown
April 24, 2019 2:36 pm

The lunatic have taken over the asylum (Fun Boy Three):

Michael Hammer
April 24, 2019 2:49 pm

So Britain is responsible for global warming because they created the industrial revolution at least in Greta’s eyes. Why not set up a town in Sweden where people live the way they had to before the industrial revolution. Subsistence farming, no radio, television, tractors, cars, airplanes, modern medicine, modern dentistry, weave your own cloth, make your own clothes, feudal political structure, no contraception, open wood the only heat source etc.

Then get Greta and her ilk to agree to live in this town for 1 year. If at the end of 1 year they still argue the way they do now (assuming they are still alive) maybe we will listen to them.

Don Schwartz
April 24, 2019 2:56 pm

Before the Industrial Revolution the people used trees to keep warm and cut down the forests.

u.k.(us)
April 24, 2019 3:02 pm

Young Greta looks way too serious for a child, and Michael Gove looks way too surprised to be an adult.
Then again, I’m terrible at reading social cues.

ray boorman
April 24, 2019 3:44 pm

Greta Thunberg, if you read this, feel free to do your bit in making reparations for the climate crimes of the British, by returning yourself to the dust that you would never have emerged from if it wasn’t for those very same crimes.

Judk
April 24, 2019 3:49 pm

The Environmentalist Religion finally have their Children of Fatima moment…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_L%C3%BAcia

comment image

My how they laughed at those crazy Catholics!

Serge Wright
April 24, 2019 3:52 pm

The alarmist movement has finally turned into a sick cult, where the followers worship the child messiah.
This is a real modern day Branch Davidian, complete with zombie followers.

April 24, 2019 4:00 pm

“This ongoing irresponsible behaviour will no doubt be remembered in history as one of the greatest failures of humankind.” This sounds like as good and accurate a description of the Alarmist CAGW Global Warming/Climate Change movement as I have ever heard.

Cephus0
April 24, 2019 4:49 pm

Why is Wednesday Addams lecturing governments around the World?

Fin
April 24, 2019 4:57 pm

Michael Gove is very unreliable politician who blows with the wind. His words about this silly girl are disgraceful. Instead of dressing up as an 8 year old half her age, she should be given a rainbow lorikeet’s outfit to wear as she blindly parrots the clichés of the Warmist CO2 Brigade. That there are adults like Gove who swallow her childish silliness, her ignorance of science, statistics and probability should cause real alarm.

Robert B
April 24, 2019 5:10 pm

She is like those kids who get taken to a farm, are told that milk comes from those cows and become confused.

April 24, 2019 5:11 pm

Is there one video which shows her whole speech to Parliament ??? if so I can’t find it, only 1+ min clips…?
Don’t see the link in the article.

JPP

Bob Cherba (@rbcherba)
April 24, 2019 5:16 pm

Instead of trying to save the world from a trivial non-problem like climate change, Greta should start closer to home with a Swedish problem, like integration of its migrant Muslim population. Sort of like following Dr. Peterson’s first rule — clean up your room!

tomo
April 24, 2019 5:38 pm

Michael Gove and Mr Bean – are they related?

Reply to  tomo
April 24, 2019 6:04 pm

I don’t think it’s fair to compare the comedic character of a gormless, babbling, clumsy buffoon with Mr. Bean.

tomo
Reply to  Jerry Palmer
April 25, 2019 7:35 am

I have to agree

April 24, 2019 5:57 pm

Unfair to target us Brits. I blame the Romans.

April 24, 2019 6:33 pm

For those with long memories, Michael Gove was a partner with Boris
Johnson. In a fight as to who would become PM and thus conduct the
Bruit negations Boris was expected to win, but Michael double crossed
him and they ended up with that useless lady instead

The facts now denied that the Industrial revolution was good for the whole
world reminds me of the Monty Python skit where the character is saying
“”Well what did the Romans ever do for us”, to then face the facts that they
did a great deal of good for the UK back then.

MJE VK5ELL

April 24, 2019 7:04 pm

The comment by a reader that Climate Change is very low on peoples list
of things of importance, but what about the Politicians. To them its a
number one issue , and remember that they pull the levers.

MJE VK5ELL

Johann Wundersamer
April 24, 2019 7:05 pm

the Environment Secretary said that “thanks to the leadership of Greta and others.”

the Environment Secretary says nothing about finances.
__________________________________________________

Responding to Thunberg’s speech yesterday, the Environment Secretary said that “thanks to the leadership of Greta and others, it has become inescapable that we have to act.

“Greta, your voice has been heard and we are all responsible for making sure that we listen and we respond and that we change.”

https://deframedia.blog.gov.uk/2019/04/24/greta-thunberg-meets-uk-politicians/

The UK is a global leader in tackling climate change, going further than any other G7 nation by cutting our emissions by 40% since 1990 whilst growing our economy by two-thirds. But we recognise we need to go further – and faster.

That’s why we’ve asked our independent climate experts for advice on a net zero emissions target and set out plans to transition to low emission vehicles and significantly reduce pollution through our Clean Air Strategy.

April 24, 2019 7:17 pm

Yes, let’s all take moral instruction from a sixteen year-old child with no appreciable life experience, and who gets triggered by paper labels on her lunchbox.

April 24, 2019 8:04 pm

To Greta:
“…and nothing has changed..” that’s good, as she doesn’t know, but climate change is a non problem. . . if she could look at the data – and understand it…she would know as many of us here do…it’s an overblown non problem !!!

Fanakapan
April 24, 2019 8:20 pm

No doubt most of the populace are thinking what most respondents here are saying. Gove of course is hardly going to counter little Greta as HMG make a considerable tax take from climate alarmism, and no doubt would not pass up the opportunity to gather in more spoils. And then there’s the aspect of her age, it would do him no good at all to be seen to be denigrating her in any way, remember the days when politicians on the hustings used to kiss babies.

It is to be hoped that little Gretas star will fade as she inevitably grows older. And given that shes at an age where her outlook can be expected to radically change, it should be entertaining to see how those profiting from the Greta phenomenon seek to prolong it.

John Robertson
April 24, 2019 8:42 pm

While I am offended by the remorseless power hungry creatures who are using/abusing this child to further their propaganda,I am also amused.
Own Goal Time again.
Greta is the perfect face for these humourless scolds.
We have a winner,she shall be the face of The Cult of Calamitous Climate.
This child is almost as effective as those absurdly thought out 10-10 videos.

I hope this child/young lady falls in with some sane caring people soon.

I wonder how long we before we see the parents/activists forbidding critics from the “unauthorized use of Greta’s likeness”

Craig from Oz
April 24, 2019 9:02 pm

From the picture caption:

“Greta Thunberg Left, Michael Gove, Right”

Glad we got that cleared up 😀

Non Nomen
Reply to  Craig from Oz
April 25, 2019 12:02 am

Greta Thunberg left? I hope she’ll never come back.

Rod Evans
Reply to  Craig from Oz
April 25, 2019 1:02 am

Left, Right, it is all far too confusing for me. Are you sure Gove is the one on the Right….?

G.B
April 24, 2019 9:06 pm

I just wonder how she’s allowed to relax.

KO
April 24, 2019 11:55 pm

Stupid child and it’s equally stupid parents are only able to conduct this charade precisely because Britain “invented” the industrial revolution; with all the technologies, scientific, medical, social and other advances which flowed from it.

Were it not for the above, this child would be wearing skins, scrabbling for fish, shellfish, seaweed and reindeer or whale for a delicacy, all the while living in a freezing wood and earth hut somewhere on an icy and godforsaken Norwegian shore or mountain pasture.

Instead she is flown to London to prate at people who really should know better than to pander to retarded Lefties.

Quaesoveritas
Reply to  KO
April 25, 2019 12:04 am

“Instead she is flown to London to prate at people who really should know better than to pander to retarded Lefties.”
Do you have any evidence to support the statement that she was flown to London?
All of the evidence is that she travelled by rail.

tomo
Reply to  Quaesoveritas
April 25, 2019 7:48 am

Does that matter? (over 700 miles – some say air travel is lower carbon…)

What about her entourage ? – and who exactly pays her tickets and hotel bills ? – pocket money / allowance yeah?

She has no business interfering in the UK and stupidity of politicians involved promoting her will hopefully reap their just reward at the ballot box – excepting the berk Bercow who rather irritatingly isn’t democratically elected either….

KO
Reply to  Quaesoveritas
April 26, 2019 6:21 am

So she came by rail, not air.

Wiki:

Air travel – 0.24 kg CO2 per passenger mile (0.15 kg/km per passenger) for short flights down to 0.18 kg CO2 per passenger mile (0.11 kg/km per passenger) for long flights;

Rail travel – commuter rail and subway trains emit 0.17 kg of CO2 per passenger mile (0.11 kg/km per passenger), and long distance (>20 mi, >32 km) trains emit 0.19 kg of CO2 per passenger mile (0.12 kg/km per passenger). Some carbon calculations add 10% to the total trip distance to account for detours, stop-overs, and other issues that may arise.

I’m prepared to bet on the basis of the above that coming rather more than a thousand kilometres by train over two days (in order for her handlers to virtue-signal), this silly little girl emitted far more CO2 than had she flown.

Do you want to take issue with anything else?

Quaesoveritas
Reply to  KO
April 26, 2019 6:57 am

My issue was never with how much CO2 was emitted, but with which method of travel was used.

Non Nomen
April 25, 2019 12:07 am

That brat ought to be arrested for hate speech crimes.

Charlie
April 25, 2019 1:03 am

The UK, she said, was very special due to its “mind-blowing historical carbon debt”

UK is at around 5% of total C02 emissions since 1850 if the figures that are out there are to be believed. Consider my mind not blown.

Rod Evans
April 25, 2019 1:04 am

As children we were advised to be wary of adult strangers.
As adults, we are advised to be wary of strange children….

griff
April 25, 2019 1:33 am

The UK has of course reduced its CO2 output by 44% on 1990 levels, to a level last seen in the late 19th century… and now has 33% of its electricity demand met by renewable energy.

The economy has not collapsed, no power failures and the countryside is far from covered in turbines and solar panels.

D Cage
Reply to  griff
April 25, 2019 11:19 am

You are joking or plain bl00dy blind and a stupid moron. Of fifty houses I looked at that were not in urban areas not one now has freedom from a view of these hideous useless monsters any more than the one your lot have now made a misery to live in. Based on the lack of action for any crimes to do with environmentalism I am seriously considering direct action.
There are no power failures as we have huge added costs of backup for these cretinous monstrosities which are both unreliable and expensive and output when it chooses. My only joy is at my age I hope not to see them for much longer and your lot have left me looking forward to that time eagerly.
There are fifteen fields near us blighted by solar generating stations which with wind turbines to my mind are the ugliest form of industrialisation ever for little or non gain.

A C Osborn
Reply to  D Cage
April 25, 2019 1:03 pm

Last year total Renewables including Wind, Solar, Pumped Hydro & Hydro, Biomass includes Wood powered Drax which in no way emits less CO2 than Coal was 26.16%.
As of the end of March this year it was 25.77%.
And the affect of this is
https://www.thegwpf.com/rising-electricity-prices-are-forcing-britains-poorest-to-underheat-their-homes/

Joel Snider
Reply to  griff
April 25, 2019 12:40 pm

So what perversion of reality do they report that 44% reduction, Grift?

Barry Sheridan
April 25, 2019 1:40 am

Frankly I give no credence to this 16 year old robot or Michael Gove! The pathetic guilt tripping of some westerners does little other than irritate, if these fools want to return to the toils of hardships of the past they can, I rejoice in all that modern life has delivered.

Adrian Mann
April 25, 2019 1:57 am

A Tory minister with a conscience? Precisely how stupid does he think we are? Oh… wait a second… he’s a Tory. A pathological liar with the brain of a Sea Cucumber. Dunning-Kruger made flesh.

And the Eco-Taleban has a new leader. She’s only been around for 5 minutes and I’m already sick to the back teeth of her.

Happy days.

Vanessa
April 25, 2019 3:05 am

It must be the first time in Britain’s history that our government has taken “advice” from a sixteen-year old Swedish girl with no scientific qualifications in climate science. No wonder Brexit is such a mess and these idiots in Parliament are completely incapable of governing this country. A flock of geese would do a better job!

Gerald the Mole
April 25, 2019 3:19 am

I did not think that Gove could drop further in my view. How wrong I was.

George Lawson
April 25, 2019 4:16 am

I wonder whether Michael Gove listened to a 16 year old for advice on the appointment of environmental cheats like Lord Deben, or on his unbelievably stupid announcements on converting all British vehicles to electric by 2040 and his ridiculous announcements on diesel fumes which we have all lived with for the past 80 years without any problems; announcements which nevertheless have brought the British car industry to its knees? why oh why do today’s MPs from Prime Minister down consider they have to listen to a 16 year old, blessed with publicity seeking parents, on which to form important political policies? I get more bemused by our political elite as the years go by.

April 25, 2019 5:31 am

I didn’t know Great Britain had Howdy-Doody…..

Eamon Butler
April 25, 2019 5:53 am

It all started with Stone age man. He should have left those rocks alone.Leave them in the ground. (sarc.)
In all seriousness, the abuse of this child should be raised with the relevant authorities. If ever there was a clear case of manipulation, Greta is a very obvious victim. I urge caution when criticising her. Personal attacks will benefit her cause. That will result in exactly the kind of sympathy her manipulators have in mind. She is deliberately held out in the open public arena, and subjected to the same treatment as a well seasoned hard nosed politician. Everyone is watching. In my opinion, any anger should be directed at her parents and anyone else pushing this obscenity, like it is something acceptable. She is Bait for the careless critic, the cheese on the trap. By all means, argue what she has to say. that couldn’t be any easier.

Reply to  Eamon Butler
April 25, 2019 6:06 am

it would be unfair to critisize this child directly because
it may cause a mental breakdown.
The poor child (angel) is already sacrificed by the green church.
Again we notice the religieus nature of the climate alarmists.

April 25, 2019 8:38 am

Does Greta deliberately dress up like a 10 year old so that people won’t adress her extreme political position?

Quaesoveritas
Reply to  Hans Erren
April 25, 2019 8:56 am

I am sure that is all part of the plan.

John Endicott
Reply to  Quaesoveritas
April 25, 2019 10:43 am

Indeed. Reminds me of the faux little girl voice that Ms. Ford put on during the Kavanaugh hearings.

Rod Evans
April 25, 2019 9:05 am

Well it looks like Gove has defied all our expectations. We collectively believed his political standing was on the floor. Not satisfied with being at rock bottom, he manages to show what a worm he is as he burrows down to new depths of stupidity.
It is time for a political change folks. When “senior” (sic) politicians come out with the kind of sycophantic drivel Gove just did, you just know the world has got to implement change.

goldminor
April 25, 2019 9:16 am

What a little cunnie as they say in the movies.

John Endicott
Reply to  goldminor
April 25, 2019 10:40 am

Yes but enough about Michael Gove.

Mickey Reno
April 25, 2019 9:40 am

Ms. Thunberg, which results of the industrial revolution is your highness you prepared to give up? You can ask your mom.

Al Miller
April 25, 2019 9:44 am

This fear mongering is pathetic and sad and clearly, unequivocally aimed at controlling the masses. I will have no part of the child abuse noted, nor of the fear attempt.
Good god, are we so stupid that when faced with a fear, legitimate or not, we would turn to government to solve it!? No thanks.

tty
April 25, 2019 10:01 am

People seem to be remarkably unaware that large-scale coal mining has been going on in China ever since the Han dynasty. How else to keep warm, make iron etc in a deforested landscape?

“It is a fact that all over the country of Cathay there is a kind of black stones existing in beds in the mountains, which they dig out and burn like firewood. If you supply the fire with them at night, and see that they are well kindled, you will find them still alight in the morning; and they make such capital fuel that no other is used throughout the country.”

(Marco Polo 13th century)

Toto
April 25, 2019 10:37 am

It’s all in the face. So serious. And she is not acting. Hollywood could not do better. Dr. Evil? Definitely not Pippi Longstocking despite the braids.

April 25, 2019 11:41 am

Gretas greatgrandcousin Svante Arrhenius was a lukewarner who was convinced that more co2 in the atmosphere would save humankind for the perils of the next ice age.

Jamspid
April 25, 2019 11:46 am

She reminds me of Wednesday from the Addams Family.

Toto
Reply to  Jamspid
April 25, 2019 6:11 pm

That’s it! Striking similarity. “Wednesday’s child is full of woe”
Is that an amazing coincidence, or is there a cosmic parody happening?

This music video uses a clip from the Addams Family, featuring Wednesday.
It’s out of character for the Greta character, but it’s fun anyway:

The Hillbilly Moon Explosion
The Long Way Down
https://youtu.be/j5uNnzdOIJE

Jamspid
April 25, 2019 12:03 pm

Well Im sorry to this but apathy drug ,alcohol,famesocal ,media ,holiganism, porn ,sex,addictions and self harm will save all our young people from the sinister trance like spell of latest cult leader Greta.The 1980s And 90s the young generation to stoned out their heads on Ecstasy and Cocaine to join the nearest communist ,nazi ,religious extremist cult nonsense.

When Micheal Gove realises how much Oil Gas And Coal production they will have to embargo they will sooon dump Climate Change.

Joe E
April 25, 2019 12:30 pm

My goodness, now we have to deal with children who actually think they know anything?

SAMURAI
April 26, 2019 2:22 am

The Industrial Revolution lifted billions of people out of abject poverty and brought a quick end to the despicable and immoral institution of slavery, which had previously existed for 10’s of thousands of years.

When man learned to enslaved the hydrocarbon molecule (where 5kg of coal was equivalent to 500 man-hours of work) slavery soon became uneconomical.

Greta suffers from Asperger syndrome and unethical Leftists cruelly exploit her psychological issues to achieve their tyrannical political agendas—it’s utterly disgusting.

KO
April 26, 2019 6:29 am

So she came by rail, not air.

Wiki:

Air travel – 0.24 kg CO2 per passenger mile (0.15 kg/km per passenger) for short flights down to 0.18 kg CO2 per passenger mile (0.11 kg/km per passenger) for long flights;

Rail travel – commuter rail and subway trains emit 0.17 kg of CO2 per passenger mile (0.11 kg/km per passenger), and long distance (>20 mi, >32 km) trains emit 0.19 kg of CO2 per passenger mile (0.12 kg/km per passenger). Some carbon calculations add 10% to the total trip distance to account for detours, stop-overs, and other issues that may arise.

I’m prepared to bet on the basis of the above that coming rather more than a thousand kilometres by train over two days (in order for her handlers to virtue-signal), this silly little girl emitted far more CO2 than had she flown.

Do you want to take issue with anything else?

Davis
April 27, 2019 5:22 pm

Maybe she should go all pre industrial and live her life as such, her career choices are:
Join a no tech collective farm-as a child bride.
Join a no tech religious cult-as a child bride.
Join a no tech monadic group of hunter gatherers-as a child bride.
The politician agrees with her, I think I know what he is looking for.