Greta the great

IF you do not know the name Greta Thunberg, you have not been paying attention.

Greta is 16, comes from Sweden, speaks several languages, has supportive parents and is confronting the issue of climate change with every moment that she is alive.

This is the sort of child that would make any parent proud, a teenager who is actively involved in a global discussion.

Isn’t that what we want from our young people? Apparently not.

Greta, pictured, came to prominence through action. She sat outside the Swedish parliament in protest of the lack of action on climate change.

In 2018 she joined with other Swedish students to instigate the first student climate strike. This action has become a phenomenon replicated around the world, much to the dismay of politicians and conservative commentators who have been saying that young people should “stay in school” and protest “on the weekend”.

So it’s no surprise that Greta has garnered so much criticism and vitriol from some politicians and commentators.

But considering her age, it is a little disturbing. Her critics are not engaging in debate. They are criticising her. They are confronted by her youth and capacity to cut to the chase.

Rather than simply ignoring her, they are lashing out and demonstrating their inability to argue with her view of the future of our planet.

Greta has been called many names by many commentators, including “mentally ill” on Fox. She has been criticised in the New York Times: “Her politics rests on two things. First is simplification … Second is sowing panic.”

Ironically, “simplification” and “fear” are the mainstays of 21st century political campaigning — “Stop the boats”, “Make America Great” and “Debt and Deficit Emergency”.

Simplification and fear is how you win elections, so why can’t these same tactics be employed to draw attention to the climate emergency?

“Shock and awe” was good enough for the invasion of Iraq, surely they’re good enough to rally interest in saving the planet.

This week Greta spoke in New York City at the UN Climate Action Summit. In order to get from Sweden to New York, she sailed on a boat for 15 days, her commitment to creating a footprint close to carbon neutral.

When she got up to speak, she was shaking.

This was not the gentle Swedish child the world thought it knew. This was an impassioned young person on a mission.

She opened her speech with a confrontation: “This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!”

What a great way to start a speech. It directly addressed all the old people who have criticised the young climate strikers, disarmed their opposition with a furious agreement.

“Yes, I should be in school. Now let’s talk about why I am not there!”

This young woman was speaking in her second language and delivering an urgent message on behalf of her generation.

She is not driven by commitments to big money lobbyists and fossil fuel interests. She is hard to ignore, because her motives are so pure. This is why some are so scared of her. This is why they attack, rather than debate. Our Prime Minister was in the United States this week but he was not invited to speak at the event because our country is not committing to greater action on the reduction of our emissions. We talk about climate change in Australia but we’re not prepared to do anything more than is the absolute baseline of action. We expect other nations — like China — to do more and because they’re not doing anything more we are refusing to doing anything more too. This is the childish argument. The proposition that we will only act when others have already acted demonstrates a disturbing lack of leadership. Where is the urgency in our national dialogue? For years we’ve been told that young people don’t care about anything. They sit behind their keyboards. We’ve been told they’re too lazy to get involved in social change. Today we know that everything is different now. Our PM spent this week hanging out with Donald Trump, criticising China, opening a box factory in America and visiting a new drive-through McDonald’s. If you still think that young people don’t care, you’re the problem. Get out of their way.