Climate Racism? Black Climate Activist Cropped from Greta Photo

Black climate activist Vanessa Nakate was cropped from an AP image. Source Buzzfeed

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

h/t Dr. Willie Soon; Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate is outraged that her image was cropped out of a photo of child climate change activists who attended Davos. There is no suggestion Greta Thunberg was aware of or endorsed the modification of the image.

A Ugandan Climate Activist Was Cropped Out Of A News Agency Photo Of Greta Thunberg At Davos

Vanessa Nakate told BuzzFeed News she was heartbroken to see websites use a photo featuring four white activists but not her.

Ikran Dahir BuzzFeed News Reporter

LONDON — Vanessa Nakate is a 23-year-old climate activist from Uganda who this week attended the World Economic Forum in Davos.

On Friday, she took part in a news conference with Greta Thunberg and other activists ahead of a Fridays for Future protest in the Swiss town.

However, she was dismayed to find that in news coverage of the event, she had been cropped out of a photo issued by the Associated Press news agency featuring Thunberg and fellow activists Luisa Neubauer, Isabelle Axelsson, and Loukina Tille. AP later changed the photo that appeared as the thumbnail on Twitter for the story Nakate tweeted.

Read more: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ikrd/vanessa-nakate-greta-thunberg-davos

As a climate skeptic I obviously don’t agree with the goals of Vanessa and the other climate activists. But she doesn’t deserve to be excluded in this way. Cropping the African girl out of the image, for who knows what reason, is simply unacceptable.

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Mike Bryant
January 25, 2020 6:18 am

Don’t worry, the main stream media will bury this. If this happened in a group of liberty-loving individuals, we’d never hear the end of it. I’ve heard it said that the warming hoax is a continuation of eugenics. Of course it is… and much worse.

Greg
Reply to  Mike Bryant
January 25, 2020 7:06 am

The message is white guilt. White privilege. Can’t give the impression brown people in Africa are part of the problem too. Not on message.

How many young women in Uganda can afford a flight to Switzerland anyway? Who’s daughter is she?

Ron
Reply to  Greg
January 25, 2020 7:58 am

Rumour has it she sailed there.

Bryan A
Reply to  Ron
January 25, 2020 9:16 am

Well she is the only one who is wearing an insulated Nylon Jacket

Patrick MJD
Reply to  Bryan A
January 25, 2020 7:13 pm

That’s what I first noticed. She is wearing a thick warm coat, the others are not. Trying to make it look warmer than it is.

Bryan A
Reply to  Bryan A
January 25, 2020 10:34 pm

She is from a naturally warmer climate though…Uganda average temps of 21.5c or 71f. And lows of 12c or 54f at night
Davos probably still felt like the coldest place on earth to her

Greg
Reply to  Greg
January 25, 2020 8:32 am

Here’s another one where voluptuous Vanessa does not quite fit in the frame:
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/wef-meeting_climate-activists-brush-off-us-criticism-in-davos/45515398

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  Greg
January 25, 2020 10:01 am

Voluptuous?? Why use a sexual reference?

Robert B
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
January 25, 2020 11:44 am

Doesn’t look like a kid.

John Endicott
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
January 25, 2020 12:07 pm

For someone that complains about word usage, you don’t seem to understand that words have more than just one definition.
Voluptuous is not necessarily a sexual reference.

vo·lup·tu·ous (və-lŭp′cho͞o-əs)
adj.
2. Having a curvaceous figure. Used of a woman or a woman’s body.

Greg
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
January 25, 2020 1:09 pm

why voluptuous ? Mainly because I liked the alliteration and mockingly because she’s not. Secondly because she is older ( grown up ) and did not fit in the frame and thirdly because I don’t give a damn about being politically correct and the more idiots like you I come across, the more vociferously non PC I will get.

You are of course free to be as offended as you like that everyone does not accept your political and moral choices. At some stage you will have to grow up and deal with that.

Fanakapan
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
January 25, 2020 9:45 pm

Hmmmm, its odd but the pictures of St Greta there made me think she seems to be suffering from negative voluptuousness.

Greta has a problem inasmuch as she will like everybody else, be subject to ageing. And one assumes that at age 17 now its becoming harder to maintain the childlike image. Next step anorexia ?

Reply to  Jeff Alberts
January 26, 2020 1:19 am

In contrast to her vituperous colleague perhaps?
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/vituperate

Greg
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
January 26, 2020 8:44 am

vituperate, very clever. 😉

Johann Wundersamer
Reply to  Greg
February 6, 2020 2:15 am

Vituperate. Another multi-syllabilism. What a difference a game makes.

https://www.google.com/search?q=scrabble&oq=scrabble+&aqs=chrome.

Robertvd
Reply to  Greg
January 25, 2020 8:55 am

For several months she was the lone protester outside of the gates of the Ugandan Parliament.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanessa_Nakate

Only the very privileged can do that in Uganda without starving to death or being removed. Do I see something organized here?

Robertvd
Reply to  Greg
January 25, 2020 9:17 am

And she is too old (1996). She is no longer a girl .

Greg
Reply to  Robertvd
January 25, 2020 11:53 am

Having too many full size people there distracts from the saint-like child prodigy image and was drowning her out.

Maybe ageism more than racism.

Obviously AP staff were trying to spin the coverage instead of just reporting that a bunch of juvenile finger waggers were walking around in the snow saying the planet was burning to death.

Reply to  Greg
January 25, 2020 9:22 am

Give it 10 years and Vanessa may ask to have a face removed from the photo.

Johann Wundersamer
Reply to  Greg
February 6, 2020 1:49 am

Who’s daughter is she; good question:

“Nakate, a 23-year-old graduate in business administration,

was the only black person and only African in the photo shoot and accused the Associated Press news agency of racism in cropping her out.”

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/01/29/world/dangerous-crop-african-voices-climate-uganda-activist-vanessa-nakate-says/

Johann Wundersamer
Reply to  Greg
February 6, 2020 2:02 am

“Nakate, a 23-year-old graduate in business administration,”

and

ecotourism luxury resorts:

https://www.google.com/search?q=ecotourism+luxury+resorts&oq=luxury+tourism+resort&aqs=chrome.

A high volatile combination anyway.

Sara
Reply to  Mike Bryant
January 25, 2020 9:07 am

Whatever the reason was, doing that is a tacky as you can get. And since when is that short and cranky person in the middle more important than someone from Africa?????

GeologyJim
Reply to  Sara
January 25, 2020 9:17 am

Ms Nakate needs to get an authentic, certified “Reverend Al Sharpton Signature-Model Bull-Horn” if she doesn’t want to get continually photoshopped/airbrushed out of the action.

That’ll put little Saint Greta in her place, “How dare she?”

Ron
Reply to  Sara
January 25, 2020 9:41 am

climate activists want the entire world to be like Africa!

Bill Powers
Reply to  Mike Bryant
January 25, 2020 9:28 am

The leftist media continually get away with manipulating black people as props. Here is wasn’t convenient to have this black girl in the picture with their Champion of Climate Change, the Female Global Warrior come to slay the CO2 Hobgoblin. There are subtle signs the black community is beginning to realize they are being used.

A variation on this theme helps to illustrate your point. Nick Sandmann was defamed in the U.S. as a racist for wearing a MAGA hat while his school was visiting the Lincoln Memorial in DC. The school kids, were accosted by two different minority groups. Yet the media branded the school kids racists.

In order to illustrate their narrative the media needed to edit their video to make it seem like Nick was the racist trouble maker To your point the only way the Propaganda Press wants to portray “People of Color” is when they appear to be victims of the evil right. Snubs by Leftist elites are of no interest to the Propaganda Ministry.

Sandmann just settled with CNN out of court with more lawsuits pending. This young African teen should get a good lawyer. Sandmann’s is a great outcome for the truth over propaganda. Now that is a hobgoblin that needs slaying.

Dan Sudlik
January 25, 2020 6:18 am

Simply unacceptable says it perfectly. What in the world is the matter with the press today.

fretslider
Reply to  Dan Sudlik
January 25, 2020 6:23 am

What in the world is the matter with the press today.

Now you’re asking. How long have you got?

Robertvd
Reply to  Dan Sudlik
January 25, 2020 9:14 am

I see that of the 5 people on the original picture 1 person is missing. Those who see a black girl are racist.

Robertvd
Reply to  Dan Sudlik
January 25, 2020 9:22 am

Anybody has a problem these are all girls? What about gender diversity?

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  Robertvd
January 25, 2020 10:03 am

Gender is behavior. You mean sex diversity.

Greg
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
January 25, 2020 1:00 pm

No your gender is whether you are male or female. It is determined at the moment of conception and detectable some time later. If someone is not happy with what life has given them and wishes to pretend they are of the opposite sex : it’s a free society ( or so they say ). They can opt to attempt to hide that with genital mutilation surgery and alter their metabolism with synthetic hormones. That will not not alter their DNA , their chromosomes or whether they have periods.

It was quite clear what Robert meant. The finger waggers are all girls. If you want you could complain that there does not seem to be any transexuals in the group, but that is such a microscopic proportion of world population that is hardly surprising.

Slacko
Reply to  Greg
January 25, 2020 4:32 pm

No, Greg. Sex is whether you are male or female.

> “… I don’t give a damn about being politically correct …”

Well then, stop conforming to the leftist dictionary. They change the language to keep you confused. Break out of it.

Greg
Reply to  Greg
January 26, 2020 8:52 am

Slacko, the word gender existed long before it was hijacked by the left in an attempt redefine it and deny the science of biology.

Gender is not a lifestyle choice, or how you “feel” from one minute to the next. It is an immutable biological fact. A binary bit of information with two possible states. If you think it means anything different to what sex you are, you are the one conforming to the leftist dictionary. It seems you do not even realise it.

best wishes.

Kneel
Reply to  Greg
January 26, 2020 9:30 pm

Of the two:

“Sex” is the biological reality. If your genes are XX you are female, if XY you are male. A very small number of individuals will be XXY – hermaphrodite.

“Gender” is a linguistic construct, mainly used in the “romance” languages, where all items have a gender. There is male (“he is…” etc), female (“she is…” etc) and neuter (“it is…” etc). Some idea can be had as these concepts have “bled into” english, at least for some things eg, “Look at that boat – she’s gorgeous!”, but in normal usage english only uses “gendered” pronouns for living things, while inanimate object are generally neuter (with notable exception, eg above).

HTH

January 25, 2020 6:20 am

If all the faces were white, or all the faces were black, any reasonable photographer would have cropped out the person on the left of the image. She is separated from the others and the building behind is discordant. If she had been left in, I can imagine that a progressive commentator would interpret the gap between the group as symbolic and racist…..

I wonder what the reaction would have been if it was one white kid cropped out?

John
Reply to  Mark
January 25, 2020 6:35 am

They probably used Photoshop to crop, would have been just as easy to PS the discordant building.

Mike Bryant
Reply to  Mark
January 25, 2020 6:39 am

I like the building… at least the editor left part of her coat in the picture…

Mike Bryant
Reply to  Mark
January 25, 2020 6:48 am

and… concerning the aesthetics of the picture, the editor should have removed the short one with the how-dare-you-ruin-my-childhood smirk.

Susan
Reply to  Mark
January 25, 2020 9:10 pm

The explanation was that the picture was cropped to remove the building and that it was done in haste. Quite likely.

Editor
Reply to  Mark
January 27, 2020 7:27 am

This was my thought as well…cropping the individual on the left makes for a more picturesque image (NOT because of the melanin content of any of those pictured). And, a generous person might conclude that was reason.

A person inclined to view things through the lens of identity-politics would certainly come to a different conclusion, though.

rip

fretslider
January 25, 2020 6:22 am

I bet this was down to the usual problem.

They just don’t think anything through.

Still, this is helpful when it comes to state sanctioned leukophobia.

Reply to  fretslider
January 25, 2020 1:56 pm

“They just don’t think anything through”! You’re absolutely right. The people who don’t think anything through don’t just have (to us) poorly thought out political ideas. They also screw up other things.

commieBob
January 25, 2020 6:27 am

One of the things you consider when you’re making a graphic is where the viewer’s eye moves. In the case of the uncropped image, my eye immediately falls on the African girl. In the case of the cropped image, my eye moves to Greta. Besides, the cropped image is probably a better picture.

As far as I can tell, cropping the image had nothing to do with racism.

RHS
Reply to  commieBob
January 25, 2020 6:50 am

It didn’t have to. However, the group the story is targetting takes offense at every possible turn.

Mike Bryant
Reply to  commieBob
January 25, 2020 7:00 am

Last time I checked the AP was a news organisation. That picture tells a story. They have decided to leave out part of the story. It doesn’t matter why they changed that story. It only matters that they did.

Reply to  Mike Bryant
January 25, 2020 8:25 am

Yes, it tells a story. The story of “climate change” is that Western (mostly white) nations are supposed to sacrifice their standard of living – not Africans, not Asians, not Arabs.

The same story telling technique was used for the remembrance of the civil rights march in Birmingham – where they cropped out all of the white people. Only blacks fought for civil rights.

Mike Bryant
Reply to  Writing Observer
January 25, 2020 8:50 am

Wow… excellent point.

Mark Shulgasser
Reply to  Mike Bryant
January 27, 2020 9:37 pm

The ‘story’ is that there are more private security people than Greta supporters present.

MarkW
Reply to  commieBob
January 25, 2020 7:03 am

Doesn’t matter whether it’s a reasonable decision or not. Had it been any other group, the media would have been all over the cropping as proof of racism.

Tom in Florida
Reply to  commieBob
January 25, 2020 7:08 am

Perhaps she was wearing too much cold weather gear for the warmist agenda.

Scissor
Reply to  commieBob
January 25, 2020 7:10 am

That makes sense, though the picture is not very good in the first place.

I note that often Greta is cold. When she was in Denver she was visibly shivering. She’s often seen bundled up, wearing scarves, gloves, covering her hands within long sleeves. I don’t know how she can think that the world is on fire when she is often herself freezing.

But on this race thing, couldn’t she just identify as black? I heard this morning that Elizabeth Warren is 1/1000th Corona virus.

Greg
Reply to  Scissor
January 25, 2020 7:59 am

Why are you trying to demean her heritage, I’m sure she’s at least 50%

Crispin in Waterloo
Reply to  Scissor
January 26, 2020 1:32 am

You have a point there Scissor.

How do we know if some of the four remaining people do or don’t identify as “black”? Race is a nearly meaningless term and obviously “colour” is subject to opinion. There is only one race – the human race – but people are of many hues.

I agree the photo is better cropped as the girl on the left is distanced from the others. Think of the negative comments that would be generated if the five were in the photo and the “gap” was noticed!

When people are hung up on “race” they run down many a blind alley. We are all human race, planet Earth. The rest is conjecture and vain imagination.

Johann Wundersamer
Reply to  Crispin in Waterloo
February 6, 2020 2:50 am

Ah no, Crispin – there’s only 1 human KIND.

That kind breaks down to

1. Negrid

2. Europid / including Slavic, Near + Middle East peoples

3. Mongolid / not to be confused with “mongoloid”

Maybe separate

4. Melanid / ~ from Papua Neu-Guinea stretching over the Pacific
____________________________________

It doesn’t do us any good if we begin with kinda 1984 Newspeak ourselves.

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Scissor
January 26, 2020 4:25 am

Gretas anorexic no bodyfat so she will feel the cold far more, My bet is shes eating very little still or may be bulimic to deflect attention.
the pic of her meeting chaz at Davos whn she was sideon and not hiding under the usual long n baggy top was a giveaway, rake thin and her heads looking too big for the body.

Reply to  commieBob
January 25, 2020 7:30 am

CommieBob … As far as I can tell, cropping the image had nothing to do with racism.

Uh huh, if a better picture is wanted how ’bout some creative photoshopping

comment image

that DOESN’T change the substance of the picture like removing a member of the group does. The editor that cropped the one young lady out in order to get some artistic better picture took the lazy route and wasn’t thinking about what it was he was doing.

LdB
Reply to  commieBob
January 25, 2020 7:52 am

Come on they were just cropping to make the tree much bigger in the frame 🙂

Greg
Reply to  commieBob
January 25, 2020 8:05 am

I was skeptical when I first read your comment but I think you are right. Greta is not the focus in the first image, too small and badly placed. In the second her head is at 1/3 in 1/3 down a classic ratio when framing a shot.

If that analysis is correct. It reveals that this St Greta PR promo shot with no intent of just reporting the event or respecting those who attended.

Curious George
Reply to  commieBob
January 25, 2020 8:51 am

“In the case of the uncropped image, my eye immediately falls on the African girl. In the case of the cropped image, my eye moves to Greta.”

The uncropped image is probably a better picture.

Trying to Play Nice
January 25, 2020 6:44 am

Is Greta 4 feet tall? No wonder it’s so easy to make her look like a little child.

LdB
Reply to  Trying to Play Nice
January 25, 2020 7:56 am

She is only 4ft 10 inches .. so that would make the other girls mid 5foot.

Scissor
Reply to  Trying to Play Nice
January 25, 2020 7:57 am

Word is that she is 148.624938287 +/- 0.000000023 cm.

Of course it depends on the time of day and whether she is wearing footwear and the hardness of the floor or whether the floor has carpeting and at what latitude the measurement was taken and whether the measurement was from a transcription on a wall, door, or whether a solid measuring stick or measuring tape or ribbon or a whether an optical device was used to take the measurement.

Mike Bryant
Reply to  Scissor
January 25, 2020 8:58 am

I don’t think it’s possible to measure her height, and forget about averaging it.

Scissor
Reply to  Mike Bryant
January 25, 2020 9:07 am

Yeah, maybe they should measure her height at different places on her body and average then subtract from standard heights to arrive at a height anomaly.

Reply to  Scissor
January 25, 2020 11:04 am

I laughed so hard I almost cried at this one–you have a great sense of humor. I could almost bet it would go over the heads of most alarmists–and especially Greta’s, height notwithstanding.

Mr.
Reply to  Scissor
January 25, 2020 10:38 am

Her height at ages 2, 3, 4 were calculated from remnant isotopic soap ring artefacts around the bathtub.

(Selected of course from the thousands of other soap rings around said bathtub)

Jim B
January 25, 2020 6:45 am

It was clearly because she was wearing too many coats.

Peter Tari
January 25, 2020 7:05 am

No racism here. Miss Nakate simpy doesn’t fit in the row. She said “Thanks for the global warming”. Or was she sarcastic?

Sheri
January 25, 2020 7:16 am

commieBob: I’m sure that’s the ONLY photo taken so that’d why they had to crop it, and hire a REAL, QUALIFIED photographer thereafter who could take more than one photo at an event.

She’s cropped because she’s wearing a parka. Think, people. Race had nothing to do with it.

commieBob
Reply to  Sheri
January 25, 2020 10:04 am

The other thing is that she has the wrong facial expression. She’s almost smiling. She lacks the proper reproachful, concerned, i’m-more-woke-than-you, eurocommie glower.

John Michelmore
Reply to  commieBob
January 25, 2020 2:11 pm

That’s exactly what I thought!

John the Econ
January 25, 2020 7:21 am

Isn’t it obvious? The “Climate Change” agenda which is mostly promulgated by wealthy white western elites and that will disproportionately affect people of color is clearly a white supremacist plot. /sarc

MrGrimNasty
January 25, 2020 7:24 am

Why is cropping a photo unacceptable – it visually presents and balances much better without the slab building on the left. Would it have been unacceptable if it was a white bloke omitted? Daft article, trying to score points/raise a stink out of nothing.

Wharfplank
Reply to  MrGrimNasty
January 25, 2020 7:45 am

And if the shoe was on the other foot?

mikewaite
Reply to  MrGrimNasty
January 25, 2020 8:57 am

Missing the point I think .”balances much better”. I don’t think it was meant to be a piece of visual art. Surely it was supposed to be a document of record. Either that young person was a member of the Greta delegation, in which case eliminating her is misinformation and gives rise to questionable motives, or she was not, in which case removing her would be not inapproriate.

MrGrimNasty
Reply to  mikewaite
January 25, 2020 11:11 am

All media/publicity presentation is about pleasing aesthetics, fitting a picture into the available space in a column inch or a web page.

If anyone seriously thinks some hack thought I’m cutting that woman out because she’s the wrong colour, you’re more deluded than the climate catastrophe merchants.

Mike Bryant
Reply to  MrGrimNasty
January 25, 2020 12:25 pm

OK Doomer…

Ghowe
Reply to  Mike Bryant
January 25, 2020 6:54 pm

I also use….OK Gaia-er. Thanks for the laugh MB!

mikewaite
Reply to  MrGrimNasty
January 25, 2020 2:22 pm

I do not think that, Mr Grimnasty. I assumed that this was meant to be a photo of possibly future documentary value. After all it was is a matter of public record that the young lady involved was associated somehow with the Greta party . Now it will appear to future researchers that she was not, if the photos are the only evidence.
To mess about with it for “aesthetic” purposes smacks of the “homogenisation ” and manipulation of original data of which the warmist establishment is so frequently accused.

Reply to  MrGrimNasty
January 25, 2020 11:06 am

I don’t think so–I think the black girl got her feelings hurt and that is where the “stink” came from.

Mickey Reno
January 25, 2020 7:25 am

I suspect the building in the background is the reason for the cropping. It sort of ruins the composition of the photo, with the mountains and blue sky forming an “idyllic” frame for the people, except for the young lady on the left side. The photographer in this case was not paying much attention, as along with the building corner, the bright sunlight hits the forehead of the black girl, too, and the reflection off her skin is pretty shiny. Whereas all the other faces appear to be somewhat shaded.

The amount of photo-shopping (is that even a verb? Well it is now) that needs to be done to keep the young woman in the photo, keep the idyllic background and also eliminate the building corner is much greater than that of doing a simple crop. But it could be done. If you crop the left side of the photo just at the lady’s right side edge of her luxuriant black hair, you could color in the last little bit of sky in a duplicate operation, and be rid of the unsightly building and roof line. The mountain horizon disappears behind her head, so nothing would need to be done about that. And the strange extra head that appears to be growing out of the girl’s right shoulder would also be eliminated. For all that, Excepting the photoshopper (is that even a noun? Well, it is now) no one would ever suspect the image to have been altered. It would just appear that the photo had been taken from a slightly different angle. No one’s feelings would have been hurt. We should not presume malice on the part of the photo editor, without proof, The person who cropped the photo may not have had access to a full fledged image editing application, but rather just some limited photo editor such as found as a default photo applet on a phone or computer. Probably, it was just a simpler, albeit thoughtless and hurtful decision to crop.

If the young black lady in the photo happens to read this thread, let me just say that I’m sorry this was done. I think your image makes a beautiful addition to that photo, however poorly it was composed by the photographer. I hope you know that it’s a fine thing to work hard towards the goals you think are important, and try to improve things in the world.

But to my thinking, altering the chemical makeup of the atmosphere and denying the people of the world all the benefits of fossil fuels seems quite wrong and even Quixotic. It’s also important to keep using your brain to make sure you’re not going in a wrong or destructive direction, as I think Greta Thunberg and her family are doing. I hope one day you realize that carbon dioxide is a very good thing to have in the air, and that we all need it to survive. That’s a literal, absolute truth, not some bit of political Kibuki theater, as is so much of world politics and the climate change alarmist movement. I hope you learn that CO2 plays a crucial role in the biosphere, in keeping plants alive, and ultimately, feeding every living thing on the planet. We are all made of the CO2 in the air. Almost all fossil fuels are just the decomposed remains of formerly living things. There is lots of good evidence that CO2 is is not driving climate change at all, and even more showing that the water on our planet, the clouds it makes, the ocean currents, the energy transfers that occur when water changes states (liquid, vapor, ice) and the amount of sunlight hitting the surface of the Earth because of those clouds, drives nearly all climate change. Maybe you can find a better use for your idealism and energy, and think of more practical ways to help your fellow people?

Krishna Gans
Reply to  Mickey Reno
January 25, 2020 9:45 am

A good photographer should be able to compose a picture without placing that house in the background.
2 steps to the left and a camera turn to the right isn’t to difficult.

ScienceABC123
January 25, 2020 7:28 am

The old Stalinist Soviet Union would be flattered.

Jacques Lemiere
January 25, 2020 7:30 am

frankly speaking … why does this matter..??

MarkW
Reply to  Jacques Lemiere
January 25, 2020 8:37 am

How’s that line go? Force them to live by their own standards.

Scissor
January 25, 2020 7:35 am

In the following Twitter video, Vanessa, the black climate activist complains about the cold in Davos (~0.4 min). She begins crying when describing being “scrubbed” (photo and message) at about 4 min. Other than that, she doesn’t say much as she speaks so slowly. She ends with, “the world is so cruel.”

https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1BRJjqgyMLpGw

To me is seems like the young activists are narcissistic and mentally disturbed. If they weren’t climate activists, they might be anorexic, so maybe its a good thing for them.

Scissor
January 25, 2020 7:41 am

The young women immediately to the left of Greta is Luisa-Marie Neubauer, who is associated with Soros’ One Campaign. Though she frequently is seen in pictures most places that Greta goes, we are told that Greta has no handler, and certainly Neubauer isn’t one.

I doubt that we will he Neubauer with Greta in Africa, or India or China.

Wharfplank
January 25, 2020 7:43 am

Step aside, Vanessa, this is woke white-folk work.

n.n
January 25, 2020 7:57 am

Diversity, perhaps. Maybe someone woke to the need to break formation of a close association (NYT style guide), not of color, but other considerations.

Dodgy Geezer
January 25, 2020 8:01 am

“… Cropping the African girl out of the image, for who knows what reason, is simply unacceptable…”

Er…NO. Cropping an African girl out because you object to her race is racism. Cropping an African girl out because you think the picture is better balanced is professional aesthetics. Cropping an African girl out because you disagree with her politics is propaganda. Cropping an African girl out because you do not like women is sexism…..

Learn to make these fine distinctions. Otherwise you are no better than the liberal leftists who scream that anything they don’t like is unacceptable and ‘problematic’….

MarkW
Reply to  Dodgy Geezer
January 25, 2020 8:40 am

As it says in “Rules for Radicals”, the best way to defeat someone is to force them to live by their own standards.

If we refuse to be as bad as the liberal leftists, then they win.

Ed Zuiderwijk
January 25, 2020 8:04 am

Climate activism is obviously the pastime of Privileged well-to-do White People.

Johann Wundersamer
Reply to  Ed Zuiderwijk
February 6, 2020 3:45 am

Ed Zuiderwijk,

Climate activism is obviously the pastime of Privileged well-to-do White People. –> Climate activism is obviously the pastime of Privileged well-to-do People.

Chaamjamal
January 25, 2020 8:11 am
Greg
January 25, 2020 8:11 am

A spokesperson for AP told BuzzFeed News, “There was no ill intent. AP routinely publishes photos as they come in and when we received additional images from the field, we updated the story.

Disingenuous BS from AP.
So the cropped version came in “before” the uncropped one? Why did they feel the need to change it? My bet is that AP cropped it to focus on St Greta. AP are in no way impartial on climate reporting . They are signed up to the crusade.

Emrys Jones
Reply to  Greg
January 25, 2020 8:47 am

Plus they like ‘cute’ and ‘interestingly weird’, the Ugandan girl is neither.

More to the point, the ‘fabulous four’ are leaning in together as a group, whilst the Ugandan girl is definitely apart from them. Perhaps that is the racism here?

Greg
Reply to  Greg
January 25, 2020 11:48 am

More disingenuous BS from AP.
https://blog.ap.org/announcements/ap-statement-on-cropped-photo

We regret publishing a photo this morning that cropped out Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate, the only person of color in the photo. As a news organization, we care deeply about accurately representing the world that we cover. We train our journalists to be sensitive to issues of inclusion and omission. We have spoken internally with our journalists and we will learn from this error in judgment.

So clearly it was one of their journalists who cropped the photo but they will still not say “we cropped her out”. Apparently, it was “a photo that cropped her out”. Hmm, nasty photo. I hope the photo has been told not to do it again.

john
January 25, 2020 8:15 am

Here’s Vanessa’s video tweet:

https://mobile.twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1BRJjqgyMLpGw

Greg
Reply to  john
January 25, 2020 11:33 am

Did she say she was invited by “the Arctic Base Camp” ??

“does this mean I have no value ?”
Seems like a narcissistic millennial deprived of her moment of fame in the Greta photo op.

Johann Wundersamer
Reply to  john
February 6, 2020 3:58 am

Did she say she was invited by “the Arctic Base Camp” ??

People know people, people know places.

NorwegianSceptic
January 25, 2020 8:54 am

Maybe they cropped the image to leave space for a PS’d skinny and malnutritioned polar bear? (Oh, wait – they did not find one…..)

Reply to  NorwegianSceptic
January 25, 2020 9:18 am

It’s quite funny that the website climatekidz.net features a fat, content polar bear on it’s “about” page.

Also interesting is the website hides behind a curtain of privacy so you can’t see who is bankrolling these people.

Johann Wundersamer
Reply to  NorwegianSceptic
February 6, 2020 4:10 am

Norwegian,

Davos. Swiss zoos, Swiss zoos polar bears.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Swiss+zoos+polar+bears&oq=Swiss+zoos+polar+bears+&aqs=chrome.

Less skinny and malnutritioned. Anyway.

January 25, 2020 9:14 am

Who is paying for all the children and young adults to attend Davos?

I assume it’s the same people who paid for Greta and Vanessa et al to attend COP25.

Johann Wundersamer
Reply to  Redge
February 6, 2020 4:19 am

Redge, another Climate Mystery.

It’s about CO₂. Then why ain’t it COₚ₂₅.

Scarface
January 25, 2020 9:26 am

She was smiling and looking happy. The other four were in worry-appearance mode. So, cut!

Sad world we live in…

Scarface
January 25, 2020 9:33 am

And what on earth is Greta carrying, a fire extinguisher? To show here CO2-vision capabilities?

Johann Wundersamer
Reply to  Scarface
February 6, 2020 4:24 am

Scarface, seems just a convenient thermos flask.

January 25, 2020 9:35 am

Dear Vanessa,

I urge you to read what Paul Ralph Ehrlich thinks about African people in his book “The Population bomb” and what he suggests to do to you and your people in order to solve what he believes to be a problem.

You have to know that John Holdren, an Ehrlich Malthusian disciple was Obama’s science advisor :
– they are all Malthusian. The climate swindle they are pushing is just a pretext to make people accept their Malthusian agenda.
You have to know, for instance, that the WWF was founded by Prince Philip who is also a Malthusian and that
also is Prince Charles, Ted Turner (the founder of CNN) among many others Malthusians who have infested the MSM, NGOs, the UN, etc. and pretend to be your friends :
– you will understand what kind of disgusting agenda they have.

You should be terrified by these Malthusians and their agenda, not by the gentle climate we are enjoying since decades.

Reply to  Petit_Barde
January 25, 2020 9:42 am

Good post.

Also, add to the list David Attenborough and Population Matters AKA Optimum Trust (who had a spreadsheet buried in their website stating exactly where the cull would begin – the funny brown and yellow people, not the white people)

Ron
January 25, 2020 9:42 am

climate activists want the entire world to be like Africa!

Robert of Texas
January 25, 2020 9:43 am

That’s just weird. Obviously these Global Warming activists need to be forced into Diversity training or they will be attacked by Social Warriors. (<– I really wish that was sarcasm, but I am pretty sure it isn't)

n.n
Reply to  Robert of Texas
January 25, 2020 10:52 am

Diversity is a color judgment (e.g. racism, sexism, classicism, and other low information attributes) that progresses through affirmative discrimination. They need to run, not walk, away from the bigotry and its advocates. That said, social justice (relativistic) anywhere is injustice everywhere.

graham dunton
January 25, 2020 10:50 am

I did follow this, and have forwarded to many others.
So, is Greta Thunberg a fraud?

Is her entire climate change crusade based on a lie?

Click here or visit GretaInc.com now to see the world premiere of our exclusive documentary, Greta Inc. — you won’t want to miss it!
Yours truly,
Ezra Levant

https://rebeldonations.com/greta-thunberg-inc-rebel-news-keean-bexte-documentary/

Joey
January 25, 2020 10:53 am

Reminds me of how the media used to deliberately crop out the hammer and sickle flags when the ANC was “marching against apartheid” in South Africa.

Richard
January 25, 2020 1:31 pm

So at 23, Vanessa is still a ‘child’ activist? Does this speak to the immaturity of warmists?

And as to the charge of racism in the movement- don’t you realize there are no ethics in activism? You can do or say anything circumstances required because right and wrong, truth and lie, are all fluid concepts to be adjusted as needed.

Davis
January 25, 2020 2:41 pm

Nothing new.
The totalitarian dictators of the world have been doing this for years.

astonerii
January 25, 2020 3:03 pm

“Cropping the African girl out of the image, for who knows what reason, is simply unacceptable.”
Even for a legitimate reason one it becomes unacceptable?
You now have 0 credibility on this subject…

Mike Bryant
Reply to  astonerii
January 25, 2020 6:34 pm

And Aston erii IS the epitome of credibility, of course… run along, your mother’s calling you.

January 25, 2020 3:27 pm

Nothing new in the pro-AGW alarmists ignoring the bigger picture

January 25, 2020 3:33 pm

Let us not forget that media platforms are stages, just like in dancing, acting, cheer leading.

Artistic decisions are made. I’ve been there. Everybody does not make the cut.

The cropped photo is a better photo — it removes some of the distracting foreground-building structure, enables chopping out lots of the sky up top, gets a tighter clustering of faces, produces a more close-up effect, with a more consistent cast of faces, placing Greta at a more favorable focal point in the frame.

The photo is composed to place Greta in a “sweeter spot” of the overall composition. No other crop would keep out unwanted arms or hands or body parts, or frame Greta as the focus as well. If this was the best photo they had, then they had to make it work the best they could.

Let’s not play the racism card too quickly here.

A more politically correct choice would have been NOT use the photo at all. But they might not have had another photo to use for the purpose of capturing Greta.

It’s not racism — it’s Greta mania. Vanessa was at the wrong location in the scene at the wrong time.

I failed to get cast in a dance commercial once, because I was too tall and too old, in comparison to the other more youthful-looking people auditioning. I simply looked too different, too overpowering, not the right look.

Consistency, balance, and focus are important aesthetic considerations in creating a fantasy. It’s not just about using any old picture you might snap.

When you are around stars, you need to be prepared to get cropped out for such reasons.

Craig from Oz
January 25, 2020 4:51 pm

Eric writes;

“There is no suggestion Greta Thunberg was aware of or endorsed the modification of the image.”

Well considering there is plenty of suggestion that Greta Thunberg neither writes or is aware of her own Facebook page I would offer that what Greta is or isn’t aware of is a bit of a moot point.

Patrick MJD
January 25, 2020 7:18 pm

Vanessa was smiling, the others were not.

Ian Coleman
January 25, 2020 7:20 pm

The picture was probably cropped to better frame Greta. I just don’t believe that the cropper did it for any other reason. The poor guy (girl?) figured that no one would see the original, and got sandbagged when Vanessa made a big deal about it.

Here’s an interesting assignment for anyone who’s interested: Ask Google how tall Greta is, and he is ha no opinion. Ask Google how tall any other celebrity is, and you immediately get a boxed, bold font answer, so why the reticence about Greta’s height?

I have a theory abut that which I’m also confident is incorrect, but I nourish it anyway. It is this: Greta’s height is the result of giving her braking hormones to forestall puberty. (Accusations of this practice have been made in women’s gymnastics, to keep girls short.) Much of Greta’s appeal is in her childlike appearance, which her handlers would like to preserve, so she has been medicated to keep her prepubescent. (Yes, I know. This theory is whimsical to the point of idiocy. I just thought somebody might be interested.)

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Ian Coleman
January 26, 2020 4:34 am

her prior admitted and ongoing( as far as I personally see it) self starvation/anorexia due to not wanting to grow up and have to BE an adult, also encouraged by the parents and the rest who are using her, is quite enough to delay or cease hormonal growth without meds to do so.

January 25, 2020 7:29 pm

We mustn’t forget that this would not have been the only photo taken. It must be one of many. Any professional or even amateur photographer today has a digital device that is not limited like old-fashioned film. The cameraman undoubtedly took several if not dozens of snaps, from several angles and compositions. This is the one that was chosen for publication? Awkward poses, awkward expressions. Maybe that AP or other photographer needs to find a new line of work. It also means that Vanessa was clearly intended to be part of the composition __ it was no accident. The published version did not crop itself, so some editor had to make that decision. However, poor Vanessa needs to understand that newsy photo-ops and news editors don’t care about peripheral, uninteresting bystanders when reframing photos for effect. I’m sure many WUWT readers have been in such situations, eased aside or excluded. I have been. That’s life, get used to it. Our lives and our worth are measured by more than whether or not we get our “15 minutes of fame.” We needn’t start hurling accusations of racism or any other -ism to explain this editor’s decision, and the AP should not have to explain or apologize to the perpetually offended.

Reply to  Pflashgordon
January 26, 2020 3:10 pm

As an extra in a movie, you can go to great lengths to travel to the audition site, get hired, go through the grueling day of waiting for hours on end for technicians to get the lights and set right, wait for the director to finally call you in and cue “action”, … do multiple takes over and over again to get the perfect sequence filmed, and then when the movie comes out, you see that your twenty-seconds of fame on the big screen were cut, because, … well, that’s how creative editing works.

So, sorry, Vanessa, it’s not about you. It’s about Greta and Greta ambiance, and about every way to emphasize this ambiance. As someone pointed out, Vanessa looks happier than the others, for one thing, which is an inconsistency.

Also, in the pre-cropped shot, Greta is dead center, which any photography book will tell you is usually not the best place for your subject of focus. The cropped shot, on the other hand, puts Greta closer to the left 1/3 of the shot, where here face is closer to the top-left intersection of vertical/horizontal thirds, which is a much stronger composition.

Who knows where that original shot came from. Who knows under what circumstances it arose. I’m doubting that a pro even took it.

Lizzie
January 26, 2020 8:10 am

In the photo Nakate tweeted, it’s interesting to see the sitting arrangement. People who form a panel tend to center themselves as a group, often toward the center point of where the moderator is located. In the photo Greta has her back turned from Nakate and her bottle resting on the stool next to her left hand. No idea if she is left handed, but the positioning looks exclusionary. The two on the far right are not turning toward the camera but toward something to left outside of the photo, causing Greta to twist her hid away from her body. Hard to tell from a brief snapshot but it does make one wonder about the social dynamics in this group.

Lizzie
Reply to  Lizzie
January 26, 2020 8:36 am

Sorry – it should be twist her “head” – couldn’t find a way to edit. My guess is that it is less overt racism and more attempting to make Greta the center of attention, leader of the pack. She is a constructed activist meant to message, shame the western world. That the media was unreflective about who they cut out in this effort: unsurprising.

Lizzie
January 26, 2020 8:37 am

Sorry – it should be twist her “head” – couldn’t find a way to edit. My guess is that it is less overt racism and more attempting to make Greta the center of attention, leader of the pack. She is a constructed activist meant to message, shame the western world. That the media was unreflective about who they cut out in this effort: unsurprising.

mr bliss
January 26, 2020 10:33 am

Is it because I is 23 she asked. Because no one really listens to someone that old in the climate debate

Mark Shulgasser
January 27, 2020 9:43 pm

What is revealed about Greta’s subconscious state by that vivid and artificial red water bottle? What is she signaling so clearly yet as if accidentally?

Johann Wundersamer
Reply to  Mark Shulgasser
February 6, 2020 4:44 am

Mark Shulgasser, she is signaling so clearly yet as if accidentally

that vivid and artificial red water bottle in fact is a convenient thermosflask that she won’t let go of.

You can retrace that, Mark – think of a cold Shulgasse in winter and the only warm beverage you get in Shul is in that red thermosflask.

Johann Wundersamer
February 6, 2020 12:53 am

Eric, think.

Eric, what has an “Ugandan Climate Activist”, at snowy Davos, to fear from “climate change”. Earnest.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Google+maps+Uganda&oq=Google+maps+Uganda+&aqs=chrome.

Landlocked Uganda, where’s the sea level rise!

Landlocked Uganda, enclosing ever mild Victoria Lake!

Capital Kampala, 1.200 m above sea level !

https://www.google.com/search?q=kampala+uganda+above+sea+level&oq=Kampala+sea+level&aqs=chrome.

Ain’t there something very weird going on inside “climate activism”!