Links tagged “greta”

Former Extinction Rebellion spokeswoman Zion Lights

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Zion Lights: "In 2018, I joined Extinction Rebellion UK, the precursor to Just Stop Oil, the group behind this recent spate of destructive direct actions. ... One of the founders of XR had watched a few of my media appearances where I spoke about climate change and stargazing. She liked that I relied on data in my talks, and asked me to join the XR Media and Messaging Team. I was catapulted from being a local participant to spokesperson for the whole organization." ...

"In a TedTalk, sociologist Janja Lalich identifies the key elements of a cult: “A cult is a group or movement with a shared commitment to a usually extreme ideology that is usually embodied in a charismatic leader.” Roger preached martyrdom—he pushed everyone to sacrifice more in order to “fill the jails”—and used fear and control as tools for wielding power. I’d often be asked by reporters if XR was a cult, and I’d say no. But it was. It’s not just Roger Hallam who inspires terror and devotion among his climate-change flock. Those qualities typify the climate change movement. ... In June 2020, I finally left XR. Soon after, XR put out a statement saying that I was a climate denier and that the media should not speak to me. ... Here’s the truth: if we stopped using oil today, thousands of people would be thrust into an even worse energy crisis, and the wheels of society would stop turning. We do need to replace fossil fuels—but with real alternatives, not the radical erasure Roger wants."

Sophia Kianni, the self-proclaimed “Gen Z Climate Activist” was a hit at COP27, the climate change conference where hundreds of important people fly their private jets to scold the rest of us about the environment. As she noted on Twitter, “You can be an advisor to the head of the United Nations and still wear a cute outfit!”

Climate Depot's Morano comment: "Wow. Greta who? After Greta declined to attend COP 27 and called the UN climate summit a "scam" full of "greenwashing" and "lying", the UN tossed her aside quicker than a private jet commute. The replacement Greta, known as Sophia, met with the UN Sec. Gen, conducted a meeting with Biden's climate envoy John Kerry and gave a keynote speech to the UN COP 27 in Egypt. How dare they!"

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Greta claims we must overthrow "the whole capitalist system," which she says is responsible for "imperialism, oppression, genocide... racist, oppressive extractionism." There is no “back to normal,” she said.

Michael Shellenberger: "Greta's claims are absurd. The "whole capitalist system" has, over the last 200 years, allowed for the average life expectancy of humans to rise from 30 to 70 years of age. The "whole capitalist system" produces larger food surpluses than any other system in human history. And the "whole capitalist system" has resulted in declining greenhouse gas emissions in developed nations over the last 50 years. ... But capitalism is plainly better than any other system of economic organization yet devised. High levels of inequality are the result of more rich people, not more poor people, who are much better off under capitalism than feudalism or communism. The business cycle of booms and busts provokes manias and depressions, but it is much more efficient, and less oppressive than governments deciding what should be produced, by whom, and at what price. ... Capitalism is far better for the natural environment than feudalism or communism. Under feudalism, subsistence farmers rely on wood and dung for cooking fuels and must farm large tracts of land to produce a small amount of food. The industrial revolution not only liberated most people from back-breaking farming but also reduced the amount of land required, thanks to fertilizer, irrigation, and tractors. ... 

Left-wing parties, from communist to socialist to social democratic parties, used to be the parties of the working class. Now, across the Western world, they are the parties of educated elites."