Regardless of your opinions about her specifically, it’s a simple fact that positive societal change doesn’t happen by asking nicely. Look at every civil rights movement ever. Nothing got done until people were inconvenienced and companies lost money.
No change doesn’t happen by asking nicely, but I think some joined up thinking by these groups would get them further than performative protesting and getting arrested. If you want change then you lobby politicians on the positive benefits of change, and businesses on the potential profits to be had from implementing it.
You: Hey government, here’s my vote!
Giant Corporations: Hey government, here’s $1 trillion
That’s unrealistic. A supreme court justice only costs an RV and some vacations. You only need a few billion to buy control, assuming your interests are aligned with the other billionaires and they don’t negate your spending.
I’ve seen lobbying donations of $30,000. Our country is ABSOLUTELY fucked.
Bye America 🇺🇸 (more like buy America amirite)
Why do you assume the two are exclusive?
Because they are. Groups like PETA, or Just Stop Oil are clowns who hurt their own cause. Performative protesting might win people a participation prize but to everyone else it’s just “look at meeeeee!”. At a certain point it actually becomes toxic to the cause. I know if I wanted to harm environmental campaigning then I’d invent Just Stop Oil.
Meanwhile big business are sending lobbiests in to change politician’s minds, to make arguments that appeal to their rationality, or self-interest. THAT is what environmental campaigners should be doing - lobbying, extoling the benefits of environmental action, changing minds. Getting arrested in front of cameras over and over just becomes pathetic and performative.
No offense. Just a genuine question. Where do activists like Greta get income or the money to travel or just for day to day living? Especially considering she has been doing this since a young age.
Pls don’t take my comment as in a bad light. I’m the same age as her so I always wondered. The answer could be NGO’s collecting donations but I’m not sure.
There’s a few large orgs like Extinction Rebellion that are really organised. Greta probably takes the train which isn’t that expensive in Europe and then couch surfs because that’s what being a hippie is all about
Bad. This girl does more good to the cause than hurt. We need more of her and less silly people to change minds.
Her being portrayed by the media or the memes as the “whiny girl seeking attention” is also worrying as well. It really distracts from the real issue and diminishes her work as well.
Honestly I think she distracts from the real issue. Frankly, I can’t think of a worse person to motivate people to take action.
I mean the scientists have been loud and clear. So have some politicians, but that’s not a special “story” for the media. So it just happened that a very vocal (at the time) little Girl got a lot of attention, because it seemed so special.
But how does what she is saying distract from the real issue? That’s not an attack, I’m genuinely curious what you think the real issue is and how she distracts from it…
Hell, I would support my kids doing exactly this.
I think climate activists would just be better off doing what everyone else does - lobbying. Identify politicians who represent areas who would benefit from pollution controls, or green investment or whatever and push the message. Performative acts in front of cameras might feel good but it’s a blunt tool to change policy. Some protestors such as “just stop oil” campaigners are so stupid that they actually help the causes they supposedly oppose.
Yeah but here’s the problem
They don’t own massive fossil fuel companies that make them trillions of dollars
Good. This girl does more harm to the cause than help. We need less of her and more serious people to change minds.
Genuinely curious: what does a “serious person” do to change minds here?
Work with legislatures or even boycott a business. You push for actual change that is reasonable and meaningful. Instead of trying to push electric down everyone’s throats, push hybrids. Push plug in hybrids. We have the ability to do that now.
Well, those are two very different things. One is essentially for politicians and basically amounts to “just get Congress to do better” (a whole lot easier said than done) and one is an act that essentially has to be championed by a person or organization and then implemented by a masse of people. Greta has called for boycotts before, so under this definition she’s good under your boat.
I’ve read other comments of yours, and many of them are reasonable (more reasonable than the average user at least) and not worthy of downvotes. But your solutions seem to be missing a few steps between “be where we are now” and “just get everyone to drive a hybrid”.
Greta calling for a boycott, just would make people buy the product.
Bud light recently was boycotted and look how effective that was.
I’m not missing a step, you increase fuel taxes, end subsidies, end fracking and make hybrids tax advantageous.
The market will sort itself out very quickly.
Okay, well you just added several steps right there, and you’re still missing some.
Who increases fuel taxes and subsidies? How do we as a civilization get that done?
Your state senators and state representatives at the local and federal level. Taxes are done by the government. Remove subsidies are the same people.
Okay. How do we influence those state representatives to pass that legislation?
We need more like her who take the threat as a threat and act like it’s a threat.
Being “serious” or calm about it is not working, and catastrophically so.
She just babbles and has no solution to the problem. She’s addicted to the media attention.
As voters we need to push politicians to make changes and in America that is through taxation and not bans.
Biden has pushed stupid legislation that won’t accomplish anything.
You want to reduce ice cars? Increase gasoline taxes and remove subsidies. Gas would double in price with would reduce the miles people drive and the size of their cars.
The problem is it’s a global problem and everyone needs to pitch it.
Addicted to the attention? I know nothing about her except her age and her stance on climate change
She doesn’t go off topic, she doesn’t do talk shows. Maybe she loves the attention deep down, but she stays on mission…She doesn’t abuse the privilege. She’s allowed to enjoy the process, I hope she does.
I challenge you to follow your convictions to that extent
She doesn’t abuse the privilege
Like when she threw the fit that the train didn’t give her first class. Yep, doesn’t abuse her privilege at all.
Hmm… seems like you should thank her.
Because she participated in that protest, she got arrested, a news source wrote about it, and you got to bring up good points about how we need to take more action.
Yeah she
babblesspeaks about the issues, but since she’s not (yet?) an elected official, what else would you have her do?Personally I’d like to see her go away. She does nothing to help in my opinion and gives credit it’s a crazy conspiracy. She just comes off as an idiot.
The way you make change is vote for people that want to make real changes. Not stupid crap like carbon credits. People that have real ideas.
You talk to your friends about it. I’ve got several people to switch to teslas and solar power. It requires logic and facts.
Just babbling like an idiot turns people off and they don’t think a thing but made up conspiracy.
She literally formed the largest climate protest movement in the world, while you sit here and spread dumbass conspiracy bullshit about her.
I never said anything about a conspiracy. I said she an idiot who really isn’t helping.
Ah yes, the person who has rallied up more people (current and future voters) globally around the climate issue than anyone else as of late has done nothing to help. I think what you mean is that she annoys you.
She damages the vision.
I don’t know anyone she’s rallied. She’s universally made fun of this country.
What has changed since she’s been ranting? Nothing. She wants the focus on her and not the issue
You’re still advocating individual car ownership as a sustainable future…buses, trams, trolleys, LRT, trains. 6000lbs (2200kilos) just to get a few groceries is over kill.
Maybe you don’t live in America but for the foreseeable future, that is the solution. The first step is a reduction in using fossil fuels. Public transportation would take decades to build out to a useable level in America.
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Not just in Lemmy, but I think there’s an increasing divide between the demographic I’m going to call “has only ever lived in a major city” and “everyone else”, especially online.
A shocking amount of people (to me) have never once in their life lived in an area with less than like 500,000 people. To many of these people, it is incomprehensible to imagine that a lot of people have legitimate needs for cars. They have good intentions, and many of them are otherwise smart people, but they really struggle to imagine how and where many Americans live, and what all goes into things like the transportation of goods and services.
Public transportation is great! But without what would be the largest investment in infrastructure in human history by several magnitudes there’s simply no way to just get rid of 90% of car ownership or whatever.
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I would like to see more public options but at this time, that isn’t going to help much. California has been trying to build high speed rail since I was a kid. Still hasn’t done shit. I think hybrids are the gap technology until we can get electric cars more affordable. The 1% will always act like it’s everyone else and even if we increased fuel taxes. It won’t phase them.
She’s a hero, she’s the reason why everyone is talking about climate change - even my kids are trying to make better choices and saying they’ve learned about it because of her, they’ve never heard of you.
Yeah people here make fun of her.
So what changes did your kids make because of her? I’m curious because most her rants are just we are killing people. What actionable item came from her rants ?
They are vegan, they get involved at their school on environmental improvements, they make sure they don’t waste etc. and they make sure to highlight the plight of the future to others.
I honestly don’t know how you can look at Greta Thunberg and underestimate the impact she’s had on public discourse on climate change.
In before trolls have a go at them for being vegan, this very respected recent meta analysis published in science clearly finds that going vegan is the number one thing you can do to help most climate change factors https://josephpoore.com/Science 360 6392 987 - Accepted Manuscript.pdf
Personally I’ll never go vegan. To each his own.
I have seen zero impact due to her work. Zero.
All I see if both sides making fun of her rants.
She is the reason my kid stopped participating in climate events. She didn’t want to be associated with her.
You have never seen any impact because you’re trying to mash your hands over your ears and close your eyes. I literally just told you the an impact she’s had on my family and you still don’t recognise an impact.
Of course, I’m sure anecdotes mean nothing to you, so look further at the awards, media attention, speeches, international demonstrations that started with her. Zero impact? Jesus, we are having this conversation because of her.
Honestly, if you can’t imagine that this particular household name, face of Time magazine and organiser of global protests has had any impact at all, you probably also believe that the moon landing was faked, the election was stolen, the earth is flat, and there’s no helping your unhealthy relationship with bad takes.
Jesus, we are having this conversation because of her.
Yes, how damaging she is to the cause. Due to her it’s been hard to get any politician to listen because of her nutty behavior.
While it seems to have swayed you, she has t swayed American discussion on the topic.
Unfortunately, that says more about American discussion - America has moved beyond left Vs right to reality Vs “alternative facts”. For example, climate change denialism, large vaccines cause autism, the election fraud nonsense. Unfortunately, given that opportunistic morons like America’s republican party have politicised and denied climate change, I’m sure they’ll be a segment of the population that will blame anything, including Greta.
So yes, I do agree with you that the large anti science wing of America wouldn’t warm to her, but they never would have.
