Pressing outrage button on climate activists is foolish and shortsighted

WHEREVER Greta Thunberg is right now I hope it is quiet and somewhere that gives her enjoyment. It is the least the 16-year-old deserves after a sustained period of almost literally carrying the weight of our ever-heating world on her young shoulders.

I’m not sure I’m “allowed” to say all that though. There is a narrative surrounding Greta. People learn to their cost that it is unwise to deviate from it. This is a sign of our increasing intolerance of not strictly toeing a particular line, and how social media is used to either stop or punish those who deviate from a particular narrative.

Therefore I do feel the need to establish early doors that I believe Greta is an amazing young woman. Incredible too. There should be no end to the superlatives applied to her. She has almost single handedly brought the climate change issue to proper international attention. More importantly she has managed to drive home the message that urgent action, of the type not previously witnessed, is required by governments all over the world to fix our overheating planet.

Greta, bearing the mantle of world leadership on this issue, has led her generation on to the streets to protest how the older generations have not cared for the planet in the way in which we should. They are correct. We should all hang our heads in shame for that. In the midst of all the fear of what we are facing in climate terms, and fear that politicians will not act fast enough, it is heartening to see a generation so motivated and fierce, even if the reason for it is so stark.

“This is all wrong,” she told the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations this week. “I shouldn’t be standing here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to me for hope? How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.”

I couldn’t agree with her more. We need her and she’s an extraordinary human being but she is, to my mind, still a child. As a parent I think of the pressure there is on her. I think of how much we have all invested in this 16-year-old; that it is a personal tragedy for her that she, through necessity, has to be our leader.

As an adult I feel guilty that we are also the ones that have stolen her dreams and childhood by never properly caring about the climate and putting pressure on our politicians far before this eleventh hour. It is too easy for many of us to ignore this particular fact, and make this drama all about Greta facing up against the climate-denier-boor that is Donald Trump.

Enter RTÉ’s Ryan Tubridy who got into all sorts of trouble when he addressed that issue of Greta’s vulnerability this week.

It’s just aswell he is not on social media given what was said there about him. Ryan essentially put forward the idea that Greta was too young to be on the global stage, and that he worried it was not good for her mental health or her wellbeing.

He spoke of his own daughter and what he would feel if her saw her, at 16, with her face contorted in pain, in agony and in anxiety, as Greta’s was at times during her UN speech. It got to a “tipping point” for him where he felt she needed to be brought home and watch a movie or go for a walk with her parents.

Ryan mentioned how a conservative US pundit had spoken of Greta being mentally ill. Rather clunkily he added on to that sentence the fact that Greta has Asperger’s syndrome. I’ve listened to the segment a few times to make sure my first impression was correct. It appeared clear to me that his heart did lie in the right place, and he was suggesting there is no doubt that this young woman has been triggering in an extraordinary way for some men.

They seem to find her youth, her gender, and the increasing power she has garnered an absolute affront. It is tragic to see how threatened they are by her and how she has galvanised a global movement behind her to try and avoid climate armageddon. This is nothing new — women with power, be they young or old, have always been a threat to these types of men.

But I do not believe that this is what Ryan Tubridy was saying — openly or with any kind of coded agenda. Someone in his position could definitely put more effort into bringing home the reality of what we face within a decade unless we take drastic climate action. But the avalanche of criticism that was brought down on his head this week holds the dangerous suggestion that no one can deviate from the orthodoxy — apparently not even to suggest concern for a teenager doing a magnificent job, but doing it while under intense global scrutiny.

CLIMATE change is the most important issue we face today. But the high stakes and history of climate denial, mean even a whiff of dissent make it particularly open to the pile-on mentality.

Of course if you don’t pay proper attention to what someone has actually said, including paying attention to their tone, and refrain from ascribing motives they never have had in the first place, you will indeed miss that heady rush of anger and the satisfaction of that rushed comment of outrage posted online. But honestly haven’t we enough to be outraged about in the world at the moment without seeking further annoyance where none was intended.

It’s understandable that people who have been far ahead of the rest of us in trying to sound the alarm bell on climate, and were left shouting into a void, would fear anything that might be seen to damage Greta’s cause or standing. But immediately pressing the outrage button to those who are actually on side in terms of the youth climate movement led by Greta, such as Ryan Tubridy, is foolish and shortsighted.