Greta’s Famous Last Words
Greta Thunberg has the longest single intervention in the BBC documentary “Climate Change.. the Facts,” and it has pride of place as the last item, just before Attenborough’s summing up.
For those who don’t read every comment under every article, here’s a summary of what I know about her:
Greta’s mother is an opera singer, and a bloody good one, as you can see here.
She wrote a book about the failure of the Swedish government to a) provide for the special needs of her daughter and b) to prevent incipient climate collapse. Her book came out in August 2018. In October her daughter started her strike for the climate. In December the paperback edition came out with a photo of her daughter on the cover, available in Swedish, Italian and German. A forthcoming follow-up written by mother and daughter together is destined to be translated into English, as well as a number of other languages.
Whether Greta has inherited her mother’s operatic talents I don’t know, but the Attenborough documentary is an interesting variant on the time-honoured music hall formula: it’s not over until the skinny girl has a hissy fit.
Is it fair to attack a sixteen year old for the use made of her image by a soulless media machine bent on nothing but the pursuit of profit? (Oh. It’s the state controlled BBC. So make that: “..a soulless media machine bent on nothing but ingratiating itself with the government of the day.”)
Yes it is. She could have demanded to see the content before allowing her image to be exploited in this way, she who hobnobs with popes and presidents. As the world’s foremost expert on the perils of climate change, to whom even the great Monbiot has sworn eternal allegiance, she would have realised that she was lending her name to a pile of steaming orang utan poo that only an olfactorily challenged nonagenarian could have let pass. She could have said: “No, as a responsible proponent of scientifically based protest against the rape of our planet, I cannot countenance lending my name to the falsification of a graph from IPCC AR5 SPM by an unnamed graphic designer at the BBC Science Unit. Nor will I support the thesis that thousands of dying fruit bats signal the end of the world, given that similar hecatombs were reported in Australia in 1791. And as for the forest fire in Montana ten years ago, the only thing distinguishing it from a million other forest fires in the past few hundred million years is that the victims had a video camera attached to the windscreen of their 4X4.”
Greta could have raised these or any number of other objections to having her name associated with this silly, easily forgettable bit of lightweight propagandist dross. All she had to do was spend a few minutes on the internet ascertaining the facts. But she didn’t. Instead, she let herself be filmed saying:
When I was younger, [!] I had lots of plans of becoming different things, everything from an actor to a scientist. But then my teachers in school told me about climate change. That was sort of an eye opener to me. The more I read about it, the more I understood how dangerous it was for everyone. I stopped going to school…
… It happened so fast. It is amazing that tens of thousands of children all around the world have done the same thing as I did… saying “why should we go to school, if there’s no future?”And “why should we learn facts when the most important facts don’t matter?”
I’ve read the transcript of the programme available here several times, yet I missed that one, the one where the person who gets star billing in a programme entitled “..The Facts” says “why should we learn facts when the most important facts don’t matter?”
And then gets invited to harangue parliamentarians, who vote a motion about the “climate emergency” based on “the facts” presented by someonewho believes that facts (and going to school to learn them) “don’t matter.”
And then Attenborough sums up the programme with:
There’s a message for all of us in the voices of these young people. It is after all their generation who will inherit this dangerous legacy…
Well that’s a fact. Or is it? I don’t know. Do you? Does anyone? And what does it matter anyway, since facts don’t matter? Why did Attenborough say that? What am I writing this for? Why are you reading it? Are we all mad?
Climate Scepticism 
St. Greta is a sad case that of what happens when soulless people raise a deeply vulnerable child and then allow her to be manipulated by soulless fanatics.
A society is in trouble when horses are appointed to positions of great authority and when the people in charge take the eloquent rantings of a child as actionable directions.
We have a similar case in the US.
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“Climate Change – the Facts that Don’t Matter” might not have had the desired ring to it.
The ending is the most important part of the programme to deconstruct. Thanks for paying attention to it.
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This is desperately sad that elements of the media take part in the exploitation of young people. Here in the UK I believe a young boy of about 14 by the look of him was going around the TV studios last weekend. If a child says it then it must be true? As this is Britain class raises its head. A very well spoken young man. Not a pupil from a sink estate comprehensive. If it is said in a middle class accent it must be true. I despair that so many adults fail to see how they are being manipulated by this juggernaut of extremists. Please continue to publish the facts so we can challenge the accepted dogma.
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Greta is an unwitting Jesus, say Catholic anarchists – and that’s a fact.
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Jesus spoke to and served the poor. St. Greta serves the wealthiest elites and her mother’s narcissistic personality.
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Far be it for me to be acerbic about our Aspergic latter day Jesus, the Great Berg Hunt, but as she can turn water into a decent vintage Bordeaux, I’m guessing she won’t be needing the royalties from her book and will be donating all profits to the climate ravaged world’s poor?
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St. Greta is quite different from Christ.
Christ preached against the powers corrupting his society.
St. Greta is celebrated by this society’s leaders and promoted by this society’s leader controlled media.
Christ acted directly to reduce suffering and promote healing. He lived amongst the poorest, violating religious laws to care for lepers and other afflicted. St. Greta lives amongst the wealthiest and lives a luxury life of world travel and fawning exposure.
St. Greta, if her demands are met, will harm billions of people and increase their suffering even as she continues living as one of the elite.
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St. Greta, the False Profit. There are plenty of them. I think she’s number 666.
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I believe criticism of Greta is overhyped. She is not anything like a Jesus figure. The comparison with St. Joan is much more apt. Perhaps we should be less like the English and blame more those exploiting her obvious talents and not metaphorically burn her at the stake. Ignoring her would be more profitable. Criticism only gives her the glare of further publicity. Her weaknesses are only too obvious, yet are being ignored.
Are you sure that Greta was given the chance to review her contribution to the programme?
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Very well said, Alan.
I got myself involved in a typical Twitter spat on this just before reading it.
Hunter has said some vitally true things too. To be like Jesus is to have a laser-like ability to see through the hypocritical schemes of the rich and to pay the price for telling it like it is. With perfect love for all, enemies included. Most of us fall well short on that.
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JAIME
I read somewhere that the family is indeed giving the book royalties to charity.
There’s more information about the forces behind Greta at this article:
http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2019/05/07/greta-thunberg-pr-and-the-climate-emergency/
which comes from this article
http://www.theartofannihilation.com/the-manufacturing-of-greta-thunberg-for-consent-the-political-economy-of-the-non-profit-industrial-complex/
We’re used to dividing the Green Blob into an official bit (the green parties, functionaries, subsidised NGOs, politicians and their relate business interests) and the unofficial grassroots bit (Greta, Extinction Rebellion, etc.) Note that the two excellent sites from which the above articles are taken accuse Greta and XR of being part of the green establishment. So we’ve got the makings of a three way split here. We also have unlikely allies, since, at a quick look, these deep green ultras seem to be competent and well-informed.
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All I know is that if third parties elevate anybody to the absurd status that Greta Thunberg has been elevated, rational people with a sense of humour are going to take the piss – remorselessly and mercilessly – not directly at her, personally, but at the mask which third parties are desperate enough and/or stupid enough to create on behalf of this young lady and which she may or may not personally enjoy wearing. The evidence thus far suggests that she is not at pains to reject the increasingly absurd praises being heaped upon her by the mentally unstable and by smart operators using her to advance their agenda.
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“But then my teachers in school told me about climate change. That was sort of an eye opener to me. The more I read about it, the more I understood how dangerous it was for everyone.”
And yet…
One of the traits of a person with Asperger syndrome is a tendency to be highly detail-oriented, according to this website:
https://www.aane.org/asperger-profile-strengths/
* Ability to notice small details of an idea, theory, number pattern, book, film, object or visual image.
* Ability to perform repetitive tasks where accuracy, rules and routine are important.
* Strong work ethic; commitment to quality and accuracy of work.
What if, at some point, Greta Thunberg decided to check out the claims of climate science by herself, with that kind of intense focus?
What if she then started to notice certain discrepancies, fudges, deceptions, exaggerations, claims that did not add up when subjected to painstaking scrutiny? And then decided to conduct her own personal audit of the science?
Well, who knows where that might lead? 🙂
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While I agree the critique of St. Greta may be over hyped, it is really not so much when compared to the praise.
The best strategy in my opinion is to let her speak. The more she speaks the more the holes in her story become impossible fir anyone with active brain waves to ignore.You are correct:
She is much more like Joan of Arc than Jesus, on many levels.
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Greta the Saviour
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This is a lesser known Attenborough nature documentary.
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Given her age and the way her mind is wired, we must allow for the possibility that Greta will radically change, as Alex has said. She will not get the same level of coverage from then on. The moment she realises that, and still does what is right, she will become much more like Jesus. And the Catholic anarchists and many others will lose interest. Ironic, isn’t it.
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Will she get a Nobel and an Oscar for her performances?
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Here is the American anti-Greta.
She is certainly not St. Greta entertaining the Davos crowd or calling on kids to abandon their futures.
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Oooops on that, sorry. Although it is interesting…
Here is the correct link
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