Crass Clarkson has a point, Greta
Oh, dear. a 59-year-old man bullying a pigtailed schoolgirl is never a good look. Yet that hasn’t stopped Jeremy Clarkson having a ding- dong go at Greta Thunberg.
Those of a delicate disposition should go to the kitchen and pop the eco-friendly kettle on now. everyone else can goggle in disbelief at The Grand Tour star telling the 16-yearold environmental activist to ‘ shut up and go back to school’ and to ‘stop frightening’ other children.
For good measure, he also called her ‘mad and dangerous’ and stated that her ‘idiocy’ was causing ‘sleepless nights’ for millions of us. It was as if Bigfoot had suddenly rounded on sweet Thumbelina, the Big Bad Wolf snorting twin jets of nostril fire upon
Little Green riding hood. But the terrible thing is I find myself agreeing with him. Perhaps Clarkson’s language could have been more temperate and kindly, particularly when confronting an autistic-spectrum schoolgirl who is only trying her best to save the world.
Yet many would concur that some of Miss Thunberg’s own recent statements have been scorched by the hot wind of hyperbole, too.
at the UN Climate action Summit in September, she fulminated about ‘ people dying, entire ecosystems collapsing, the beginning of a mass extinction’. No wonder the little kiddies can’t get to sleep at night!
Few dare to criticise her. Yet, while many are drawn to Greta’s undoubted zeal and big heart, others find her apocalyptic rhetoric alienating. and it is increasingly discomfiting to see such a young girl being treated by so many adults as an untouchable guru.
I haven’t always felt this way about her. There was something stirring, noble even, about Greta’s recent voyage across the atlantic in pursuit of a better life for future generations.
If the vision of this plucky schoolgirl on a boat didn’t encourage you to think twice about recycling and composting, then you must have a heart made of non-biodegradable plastic, you brute.
But she has made her point. So perhaps now is a good time for Greta to go back to school, resume her studies and find a positive way to do something about climate change in the future. anything else is just hot air.