Who is Greta Thunberg? Obviously, I know who she is but why is she Time's Person of the Year? There are countless people who have made climate change their life's work but somehow this teenager from Sweden is the face of the movement. How did that happen? When some accomplished person starts lecturing me, at least I can see that they are accomplished. When Warren Buffet calls for higher taxes, I may disagree but I understand why he has the platform to say this. His success as an investor earned him a platform to opine about how his taxes are too low. So what did Greta do to get her platform? She ditched school. Lots of teens ditch school and that is a pretty low bar as far as accomplishments. Why would some Swedish teen rise to such heights on a topic where she has no special knowledge? Why not Al Gore or any one of the frequently stated 97% of scientist who say climate change is real?
As someone who believes taxes are too high and government spends too much, who would be a better spokesperson for that cause: Arthur Laffer or a random teen from Nebraska? For some reason, the climate change folks have chosen the random teen over the a PhD in the subject. Why is that? Greta is not trying to convince anyone with her knowledge of the issue but rather with the emotions she can evoke. The evidence has failed to achieve the goal so now the guilt trip. You have stolen my childhood.
Greta is a pawn, a useful figure to pull heartstrings. She is not the first. Back in 1992, there was Severn Cullis-Suzuki.
Severn has since gone to Yale where she earned a BS in ecology and evolutionary biology. Gee, she sounds like a better advocate. Well, except that her 1992 doomsaying didn't come to pass. Back then, the big concern was the ozone layer of the atmosphere and global warming was only just getting traction as a topic. We don't hear much about the ozone these days. Huh.
Greta and Severn were plucked from relative anonymity because they were useful pawns for the environmentalists. Kids are often used as pawns. Kids parrot what their parents tell them.
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