Out of genuine curiosity,
What do you folks from across the Pond think about the Sainted Greta and her "zero carbon’ arrival in America so she can speak at a climate change confrence?
She will probably not be invited to the White House to meet Trump. He don’t like being upstaged and outsmarted by a 16 year old with Asperger Syndrome.
PS> She will probably beat him from getting the Noble Piece Prize he so covert as well, which will make him hate her even more.
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I hope there will be a resurgence of the use of fast sailing vessels for travel and more.
As for Ms. Thunberg, her commitment and focus are admirable for anyone let alone a teenager (whether you share her politics or not).
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From reading, it appears one expression of autism is excessive focus on a single idea or object. Perhaps she is actually showing the effects of her condition?
@tomahawk I don’t speak for everyone on this side of the pond but the algorithms that determine what news I should read hasn’t said anything specifically about her. I didn’t even know what side of the pond you were talking about until I Googled her name. I do recall hearing about the school walk-outs in Europe but didn’t click on those stories because I figured it would be the same as a story about a priest preaching to a choir.
IMHO, good for her. The people of the U.S. are mostly for freedom of speech even from a motivated young woman with selective mutism. And since you asked, I think she should go to India, China or SE Asia where they really have a problem with people, companies & countries nastying up their surroundings. The U.S is getting cleaner except for our blooming homeless camps that are popping up everywhere. And unfortunately the EU countries are getting more rundown with all the litterbugs you guys are letting in who couldn’t care less about recycling & beautification. Since the U.S homeless & EU immigrants aren’t going to listen to her she should sail to Asia when she is finished here.
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She is worried about climate change and human cause of that, not litter in the street, or politics in general.
The school strikes she instigated is activating youths all over the world, incl. the US.
BTW; if you are looking for clean streets and civic discipline there are no better examples than Japan and Singapore.
Well good luck to her all the same & too bad about how you describe her feelings on climate change & the environment on the local, minute level. If a populace isn’t concerned about the trash at their feet or the waters that their children play in we can imagine how concerned they are with ice caps at the poles or the atmosphere several miles high. And you are right about Singapore & Japan. Two excellent examples for the rest of the world & 2 other places where she doesn’t need to go protest against.
I think you misunderstand what her campaign is for, or against. That she is concerned about the human contribution to climate change, doesn’t mean that she does not care about clean air, water and streets.
Fortunately that is not a major problem in Sweden, or the rest of Scandinavia, since it has been taken serious for many decades already.
As to no need to go to USA to campaign against greenhouse gas emission, I think you are misinformed again. She is visiting UN General Assembly, which happen to be held in NYC.
Besides, USA is the world’s worst emitter of greenhouse gasses per capita by far. And second only to China in over all emission, with only 1/3 of the population.
Next she will go to the climate conference to be held in Chile later in the year. (How she will go there is a open question)
I wasn’t implying she was coming to the US or Chili to protest against our environmental policies. I’ve read 4-5 articles about her in the last 12 hours & the only protests that she has done was on the steps of Sweden’s government building which is similar to preaching to the choir as I said. Climate change & carbon emission reduction is a front page topic in Sweden just like it is in Norway, the US, Chili, Singapore & Japan.
When tomahawk referred to her as a Saint in his title the first thought that came to my mind was Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa didn’t get to be a Saint by spreading the idea of fighting poverty to educated, wealthy white men in business suits in her native Europe but by going to Calcutta where the idea never occurred to most. tomahawk asked for an opinion & I gave two. Good luck to her & I hope she goes to do her environmental activism where there’s none or very little currently. The steps of Sweden’s government building, the UN General Assembly & beautiful, clean Chili has heard it all before.
Another voice from the East side of the pond:
Greta is a poor girl, misused by her parents and outside ‘advisors’.
I never heard her saying something substantial beyond her perpetual “all must change” (at least, this behavior is in her personal favor). When I see her, I see a young ‘Sheldon Cooper’ of the sitcom ‘The Big Bang Theory’.
She fits perfectly the hysterical hype European politicians and their sycophant journalists created, to cover their inability to ‘make the main European economies great again’.
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arent they different, the Japanese dont drop litter and Singapore has an army of cheap workers picking up after them?
your saying the USA is worse than China re greenhouse so your saying c02 is not a greenhouse gas where China is a larger emitter
As Sand Pebble says…
She should go campaigning in Asia and places that burn dirty coal to produce electricity
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Nothing against her & the US & Chili both have room to improve which we are doing every year (burning less coal) but she’ll just be beating a dead horse by giving a speech at the UN General Assembly. I was beat over the head about the environment growing up in the public school system & now my kids are getting the same indoctrination which is fine I guess. But when I travel to other countries I’m amazed how nasty some places are. Sweden, the US & Chili are covered, we’re working on it already.
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Given her age, it certainly appears to be so. I remember seeing a news blurb in a sailing publication reporting the event featuring this girl I had never heard of, hitching a ride on a sailboat to attend a climate conference. It was touting her mode of transportation as having no carbon footprint. That’s hilarious hypocrisy in its purest form.
The sailboat she rode on is the Malizia II. It’s a 60’ one design ocean racing yacht, a multi-millionaire’s play toy which cost over 4 million Euros to build, using 3 tonnes of carbon fiber in the process. Manufacturing carbon fiber is 15 times more energy intensive than producing steel.
This caper reminds me of wealthy Hollywood stars travelling to climate change affairs by private jets and stretch limos so they can pontificate to the masses about reducing their carbon footprints.
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No, I say that China still has the over all highest emission of greenhouse gasses (not only CO2) in the world,with USA as #2.
But because they have 3x as many people in China, their emission per capita is WAY smaller. (2017 figures: USA 16.24 tonnes per capita, China 6.98 t./cap. In both countries the t./cap. figures are falling)
Here is detailed and non-biased statistics for you to play with if you want to know more about it:
BTW; We are talking about greenhouse gasses that causes global warming, not local pollution by SOX, NOX etc., which is what IMO 2020 is about.
Nor about particulate pollution, water pollution and litter, which is what you can notice when visiting polluted cities etc.
The boat has no shower or toilets, and those aboard including Thunberg’s father and crew members planned to eat freeze-dried food throughout the trip.
What the hell? Was she just supposed to hold it in for two weeks? All ocean racers have a toilet aboard. The high-tech boats have them made out of carbon fiber.
I agree that this whole thing smells like she is being well used by her parents. Or maybe this is all a ploy to get her into a really good college. I can imagine the application essay now.
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According to news reports seen before they departed from UK the boat does not have a toilet. They use a bucket.
Whether she is being manipulated and used by her parents, or anybody else has not been an issue that I have seen anything about any other place than here.
Here is an interview she gave to a UK news channel before departure:
Does it sound like she is being force by anybody to do this?
As usual you’re being disingenuous. No one is suggesting she was being drugged and held captive by thugs pointing guns. At fifteen, you really believe she woke up one morning and came up with this scheme all by her tiny little self?
She’s a child. If you don’t think she’s being manipulated by adults, please send me a hundred bucks. I could use the cash and it’s for a good cause, I promise.
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I had to look up the IMOCA 60 designs. No rule requires a toilet aboard. Many of the “buckets” used are still made of carbon fiber and have a built in seat shaped like a toilet.
Perhaps mariners are just more cynical. Or at least more practical.