Don’t Shoot the Messenger…
by Coast Watcher
The sheer
number of vicious media attacks against a 16 year old girl should
rightly earn condemnation from the whole of society. Cyber-bullying
is a well-known and diseased phenomenon that sprang out of the
Information Age, and it’s in full flow against climate activist Greta Thunberg.
It comes as
no surprise that most of the attacks against Greta originate
from Big Business--specifically the nuclear and fossil fuel
industries most affected by curbs on their climate changing
activities.
When Greta
announced she would cross the Atlantic aboard a racing yacht instead
of taking a polluting airline flight, this comment (read "threat") was
uttered by pro-Brexit businessman and Trump ally Arron Banks: “Freak
yachting accidents do happen…”
As well as
Trump, Banks has ties to the UK Independence Party and its decrepit
former leader Nigel Farage. The successor to the UKIP is the Brexit
Party, which has 29 seats in the European Parliament, and
Banks has financed both. Most of
its Euro MPs
are climate change deniers.
The stench of right-wing politics doesn’t
end there. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and the Alternative for
Germany Party are also responsible for sustained attacks on Greta.
Across the
Atlantic, the Heartland Institute--with its ties to the Koch family
and their huge private energy
organization--are patronizing in the extreme. Said one of its
so-called “policy experts” Gregory Whitestone: “It is time for
her (Greta) to go back to school to learn what she doesn’t know and
to unlearn so much of what she has been taught.”
Brendan
O’Neill, editor of the Koch-funded website Spiked wrote: “There
is something chilling and positively pre-modern about Ms. Thunberg.”
In other
words, O’Neill is drawing comparisons between Greta and another
teenage girl who set her world on its ear—Joan of Arc.
These old
white men even lower themselves to attacking and sneering at Greta’s
Asperger’s Syndrome, a condition
Greta herself is unashamed of, calling
it her “Superpower.”
Thankfully
most of the world sees these vicious attacks for what they
are—attempts by reactionary old men to discredit and nullify the
pro-environment movement. Pushing back against the haters is British
political columnist and activist Owen Jones:
The bile thrown at Greta Thunberg is motivated by one thing alone: this incredibly intelligent, eloquent, and compassionate 16-year-old has terrified some of the most hateful and reactionary so-called ‘grown ups’ on earth. She’s achieved more [at age] 16 than they ever will.
Guardian
columnist Aditya Chakrabortty states that “[Spiked] has ‘run out
of ideas.’”
Andrew
Mitrovica defended Greta in a column on Al-Jazeera English when he
referred to her attackers as “scientifically illiterate bullies.”
He writes:
She disdains celebrity. She makes no claims to heroism. She rebuffs efforts to idolise her. She isn’t calculating or preoccupied with fame or ego. There is no artifice about her. She speaks plainly, without affectation or embroidery.
A word from
Greta Thunberg herself. Asked if there is still time to reverse the
crisis facing the Earth, she said:
We still have time. But that time will not last for long so we need to do something now and we need to do it quickly and we need to do it drastically.
Philosopher
Howard Zinn once said, “We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic
actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when
multiplied by millions of people, can quietly become a power no
government can suppress, a power that can transform the world.”
So
here is the real reason for the attacks, the heart of the reactionary
arguments: they are terrified of Greta Thunberg. They know that a
movement like Greta’s is something they have little hope of
stopping. They know the population of our world is becoming
increasingly aware and vocal in its condemnation of the sheer
destruction to the environment
being caused by fossil fuel
companies every day. It doesn’t stop these
companies
from trying to discredit and
demean Greta’s achievements, but they are on the losing side--and
they know it.
Related Articles:
https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/why-is-greta-thunberg-so-triggering-for-certain-men-1.4002264
https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/why-is-greta-thunberg-so-triggering-for-certain-men-1.4002264
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/19/greta-thunberg-attackers-climate-crisis-activist
https://www.vox.com/
Bio: Coast Watcher is watching all sides and keeping score. There will be no "winners" in the climate crisis if we don't all stick together and tackle the problem before it's too late. So don't shoot the messenger--boost the signal!
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Once It's Out in the World, Plastic Clogs Our Oceans, Our Landfills, and
Even Animals' Stomachs. Keep Plastic Bottles Out of America's Parks!
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Ding dong, the ban is dead! The ban that kept water bottles out
of America's most beautiful parks, that is. The six-year policy put in
place by the Obama administration gave our national parks the right to
refuse to sell H2O within their borders. This was a highly effective
strategy that reduced pollution and kept our public lands clean.
But the Trump administration has reversed this policy, once again siding with big business. Why? Because the beverage industry has been lobbying to repeal it since the ban went into effect.
Only 22% of the plastic produced since the 1950s is still in use today.
The rest is in landfills, littering our soils and choking animals like
seabirds and fish that mistake it for food.
The Obama-era policy wasn't an outright prohibition; rather, it gave
national parks the option to refuse to sell plastic bottles inside their
areas. Many, including Zion and Grand Canyon, decided to do so. Let's make sure that these national parks continue to keep plastic out!
It's not surprising to learn that the Trump administration let big
business win at the expense of everyday Americans and the environment
yet again.
Not coincidentally, the ban reversal was announced just after now-Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt was named its deputy, back in 2017. Bernhardt had previously been a lobbyist for a firm that represented one of the largest water bottlers in the US — Nestlé. Although the ban wasn't obligatory, it made a big difference, generating environmental consciousness among the millions of tourists who visited our national parks and helped to keep the recreational areas clean. It is a policy that is definitely worth keeping. Thank you for all that you do,
P.S. Plastic water bottles have no place in our national parks. Tell U.S. national parks to keep environmentally-destructive plastic water bottles off of their lands!
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