Thursday 30 June 2022

Greta & the childrens crusade: it's over

We all saw Greta in action back in 2019-20 and - promoted by whatever adult agency was lurking in the background - how she captured attention and captivated gullible politicians; and how the 'Greta phenomenon' briefly led children out of the classroom, to stamp their feet a bit in public and demand that the grown-ups do, errrr, something.  Now, it seems, that's all over; and leftie-greens are, as so often, left to puzzle over how the Revolution didn't quite happen - again.  Here's a convoluted piece from the Grauniad, Where have all the young climate activists gone? which offers the thesis that they have gone quiet because they want to avoid being coopted for ‘youth-washing’ by nasty politicians and corporations.  (That's 'youth-washing' as in greenwashing, not as in ... and get yer bloody hair cut!, much as though some of them need a bath.)  Oh, and they realised they were distracting the world from the plight of the Global South, and other piteous gems: 

... climate politics was awash with ideas around children, the future, and intergenerational justice ... For a time, it seemed that a climate movement was emerging in which children acted simultaneously as the spark, inspiration and energy. This wave seemed unstoppable. But that moment has passed. [Now] media focus and activists themselves are placing less emphasis on age; it is often incidental, and less central to activists’ strategy ... a critical repositioning in parts of the UK climate movement, recognising climate breakdown is not a future issue, but a devastating present reality ... world leaders and corporations were “youth-washing” by co-opting child climate activists  -  inviting them on to platforms and into private meetings to burnish their own images; but their demands - from urging for financing for loss and damage, an end to the racist Home Office or an end to capitalism itself  -  were not heard ...

(An end to capitalism itself?  Surely not!)  Finally, avoiding the obvious possibility that it was all a fad, the piece concludes by clutching at straws: 

It’s a good thing that young activists are now viewed less as angelic saviours, and more as political actors in their own right.

So that's alright.  It also cites an earlier piece of detailed navel-gazing by the earnest folk at Novara media - who naturally offer a convoluted leftie analysis; but at least they also have the intelligence and self-awareness to recognise that the sheer nastiness of 'progressive' politics had a role to play in causing the whole thing to fizzle out.

*  *  *  *  *  *

Longtime C@W readers will know my 30,000-ft view on this.  In the real world, Peak Greta might be thought to have happened in mid 2019 when for example the desperate Theresa May strikingly committed the UK to 'Net Zero by 2050', way ahead of the pack, causing some people to credit Greta with this result.  But actually, the tectonic plates really shifted at the end of 2018 (when Greta hadn't yet got much further than her truant picket line in Sweden), when a key UN committee backed 'adaptation' and 'resilience' to climate change as being officially Green.   At this point, every traditional steel-n-concrete industry on the planet realised that instead of non-stop opprobrium and decline, there could be plentiful government-underwritten contracts in this for them, too!  The banks weren't slow to draw the same conclusion and Bingo!  Net zero carbon quickly became the only game in town.  Nothing to do with Greta, except that the timing looked like she might have had something to do with it.  But correlation doesn't mean causation, eh?

And now Putin has de-railed much of this, at least for the time being.  Hell, lignite-burning is coming back into fashion!   And the armaments industries. 

None of it looks like a youth movement now.  Where will all that enthusiasm and energy find an outlet?   I guess we will have to wait and find out.  Can't see them all joining the Young Conservatives though, Boris.

ND

26 comments:

dustybloke said...

But, Mr Drew, don’t you realise the EU made Scottie’s whinge irrelevant “ I canna change the laws of physics “. Russian gas is now GREEN! GlobalWarming solved with a single timely edict…

AndrewZ said...

The thing about "Net Zero", as opposed to actual zero or any specific quantity of emissions, is that it can be endlessly fudged. Governments can make the official figures show whatever they want, simply by adjusting how CO2 emissions and offsets are counted. They can use the same trick to channel contracts and subsidies towards any interest group that they currently favour. I confidently predict that the "Net" part of "Net Zero" will involve a level of creative accountancy that will make Enron look like rank amateurs.

Nick Drew said...

it can be endlessly fudged. Governments can make the official figures show whatever they want

indeed, AZ - biomass being the best example. Over 50% of "renewables" output across Europe is from biomass, a very large proportion of which actually increases CO2 (at least in the medium term). But it still gets the 'green light' - and the green subsidies

Anonymous said...

Subsidies is the only game in town now.

Leaving aside the core element of your article - the green agenda - just work out how much government spending is actually a subsidy in one form or another.

Farmers want EU subsidies replaced. Universities want Horizon funding replaced (there is another thread on Dominic Cummings here). But the biggest subsidy of all is the employment subsidy called Universal Credit where people are paid to go to work. In-work "benefits" are growing each year.

The whole of Westminster is now engaged in how much money we can throw at the next bandwagon.

Elby the Beserk said...

For everything there is a season....

Who remembers the "Occupy" movement, which was going to change Capitalism and the West?

Indeed, BLM all over the media in 2020 and 2021 --- what happened to them? Apart, of course, of their leaders having got very wealthy. And, of course, large sums of money unaccounted for.

Greta was always going to be history...

Elby the Beserk said...

And (of course) - follow the money...

dearieme said...

When capital punishment is finally restored I hope its first victims include the sort of people who say things like "ideas around children".

Don Cox said...

"The whole of Westminster is now engaged in how much money we can throw at the next bandwagon."

Free bread and circuses.

Don

E-K said...

Children were human shields, as were blacks gays and trans for a Marxist putsch which took full force under lockdown.

The recent Boris losses in by-elections are because of his failure to take on Woke above all else.

He was elected in the Red Wall because people were shit scared of Woke.

E-K said...

And it is also proven that Sweden suffered a death rate during our lockdown which was half our own.

A disastrous policy both economic and in terms of our own neglect of health which cannot be proven. But what I DO know is that 17 people close to me have died since and none from Covid, many of them under 60 years of age - my own brother's decline towards suicide starting during the lockdown.

If at all possible can the organisers of this blog allow me to meet the Anon who calls me "the whiner"

Don Cox said...

"He was elected in the Red Wall because people were shit scared of Woke."

We still are, and it's hard to see Sir Kneel taking a stronger line against it.

Don

Bill Quango MP said...

Do not know about those Covid figures.
The LA Times had Sweden as the worst country in Europe for deaths and related death.
It’s a proper medical review. Though appears quite hysterical to me.

Uk was worse than Sweden
Germany was not.

Japan, which had a lockdown, but less severe than the Europe’s ones, has only 200 official deaths.

It’s very hard to know.

Even now, right now, the usual people are demanding installed air conditioning in every public place, in the uk.
Germany had air conditioning as part of Covid measures. So this is the demand. If it saves one life, etc.

No sense of what this would cost.
How it would be powered?
Who would pay for the energy bill for it?
How many air con units would be needed
What about buildings that cannot allow for it? Historic buildings? Listed buildings?
What price rises would occur as a result? Not just in the cost of the units required, but in the cost of goods and services to pay for it
How many installers are there?
How much training is needed.
How quickly, given unlimited funds and unlimited ability to breach planning regulations and noise and safety concerns, could it be done?

There is never economic discussion. Not on mask or vaccines or lockdowns or energy costs, or even wars. It’s mostly feelz and tea lights.
Though I suspect you all know that already. Which is why you are here.

[Back in the day, when this sort of thing was my job, aircon for a retail unit was first on the list of desirable extras, and the most likely to not be approved in the final budget.

Having the highest initial costs, most difficult installation. Plus very expensive permanent running costs, whilst being the most regulated and hardest to have maintained, for a non-essential piece of kit.

That in the uk, only really is of benefit for a few weeks a year. Whilst a heating system is good for a few months a year, every year.]

Elby the Beserk said...

E-K said...
And it is also proven that Sweden suffered a death rate during our lockdown which was half our own.
12:23 am
=======================================
And their kids were allowed to go to school and play with other kids.

The damage done to the young by lockdown will only truly become apparent in some years.

The damage done by the jabs is already becoming clear, with significantly high excess mortality, long-term disability and the insane (once in a trillion years) Standard Deviation in falling births all over the world. Given that the spike protein attacks the ovaries and testes, and that the lipid nanoparticles join in with their unique toxicity, all I can say is - watch them graphs.

https://dailysceptic.org/2022/06/29/whats-behind-the-worldwide-drop-in-birth-rates-nine-months-after-the-vaccination-rollouts-to-younger-people/

Don Cox said...

I hope you're right about falling births. The planet is grossly over-populated with humans.

Don

BlokeInBrum said...

Don, you're right about falling birthrates being good for the planet. Rising standards of living in rich Western countries have pushed birthrates below the rate of replacement.

Unfortunately, Western governments have been running massive deficits for decades. They require a rising population so they can tax and spend. Which means that we are going to be replaced with immigrants from Africa & Asia.
You may have noticed the glacial pace of border enforcement in the UK and America, which can only be deliberate.

Don Cox said...

"You may have noticed the glacial pace of border enforcement in the UK and America, which can only be deliberate."

I think it's deliberate because if the government starts treating the would-be colonists roughly, there will be an outcry and demonstrations. And it wouldn't work anyway. Neither the native Americans nor the native Australians solved the problem of invasive colonisation; nor did the natives in England succeed in keeping out the Danes, Vikings and Normans.

Don

Anonymous said...

Off topic but yet another Tory MP in trouble for sexual misbehaviour. With Labour it's usually money, with Tories it's usually sex.

I'm convinced that for the last 20 years CCO (or whoever controls them) have only approved candidates with skeletons in the cupboard in order that they can be better controlled.

(Of course they also only approve candidates with the right views on diversity ("a strength") and uphill gardening.

Someone like the late John Stokes would never be selected now.

Elby the Beserk said...

Don Cox said...
I hope you're right about falling births. The planet is grossly over-populated with humans.

Don

1:48 pm
=====================================

No it's not. What we have been witnessing in Europe for some years is happening worldwide. You are making the mistake of believing what the media says. Still?!!!!!!

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/demographic-experts-warn-that-the-world-should-fear-population-collapse-and-not-overpopulation/

"While the United Nations predicts that humanity will continue down a path of massive population growth until the year 2100, peaking at over 11 billion, a demographic study published in The Lancet found that the world is only a few decades away from a sharp and consequential population decline.

In an October 2020 study titled “Fertility, mortality, migration, and population scenarios
for 195 countries and territories from 2017 to 2100: a forecasting analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study,” researchers theorize that while the human population will continue to grow until 2064, hitting approximate 9.73 billion – right now the population sits around 8 billion – due to low fertility rates the population is set to fall by over a billion in the remaining part of the century.

The study, which recently gained massive attention on social media, predicts that by the year 2100, with fertility rates well below the replacement level of 2.1 child per woman, China will have a population of just 773 million compared with the current figure of 1.39 billion. Such a drop represents a decrease in population of nearly 50 percent."

Don Cox said...

Never believe things you read in The Lancet. It isn't a scientific journal, it's a newspaper for doctors and comes under the heading of "media".

A 50% reduction would be good, but anyone can predict anything. The future's not real until it's over.

Don

Matt said...

@Don Cox

As people get richer, they have fewer children. We were on track to eradicate poverty worldwide until TPTB hit us with the Wu-Flu and associated reduction in living standards. Median prediction for this was around 2040.

So, it was entirely plausible that the world population would peak around a generation after poverty was gone which is about 2064.

That's not to say that The Lancet is anything other than a woke medical equivalent of a red top newspaper.

visc said...

Out if interest I wonder what does actually qualify as a "scientific journal" rather than an exercise in group think these days given Ioannidis flagged the problem over 17 years ago.

Elby the Beserk said...

Matt said...
@Don Cox

As people get richer, they have fewer children. We were on track to eradicate poverty worldwide until TPTB hit us with the Wu-Flu and associated reduction in living standards. Median prediction for this was around 2040.

So, it was entirely plausible that the world population would peak around a generation after poverty was gone which is about 2064.

That's not to say that The Lancet is anything other than a woke medical equivalent of a red top newspaper.

8:37 pm
=======================================

Aye. Shooting the messenger. And indeed, a core part of the Green movement is a profoundly misanthropic Malthusian. Al the doom-laden prophesies of the Greens about food production and climate change have been completely thrown out of the window by significant decade-on-decade production of grains around the world.

Caeser Hēméra said...

With regards to improving food production, always important to note the refrain about past performance not being indicative of future performance isn't only applicable to financial systems.

Other than a streak of misanthropy, I'm pretty agnostic as to the direction of the overall global population, but I'm also wary of the "something will come along" view, mostly as at some point "something" doesn't come along and you've ran out of road.

The primary issue with Europe, including the UK, is that social nets are based upon eternal growth of the tax base to fund todays promises. So that is either more people working, or the average taxable income per capita rising, and realistically the latter isn't happening.

So a falling population means either importing taxable bodies, or cutting safety nets, at some point in the future that is going to be a crisis point.

Anonymous said...

Thank $DIETY that we are importing medical doctors and engineers from the arse end of the world. If they were itinerant goat herders they'd contribute no tax and end up taking more in benefits.

Anonymous said...

"Thank $DIETY that we are importing medical doctors and engineers from the arse end of the world."

Yes, and you can monitor their progress in the medical "fitness to practice" tribunals.

"I'm pretty agnostic as to the direction of the overall global population"

In 1950 the populations of Europe and Africa were about the same at 500 million. IIRC African population is about 2bn now while Europe's is the same.

I saw an Oxfam appeal yesterday because of drought in Kenya and Ethiopia.

When we all stumped up for Live Aid in 1985, Ethiopian population was 40m. Now it's 118m.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/ethiopia-population

Here's The World's Most Important Graph.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D1aMx_fU4AEgzTE.png

"I believe that children are our future..."

Anonymous said...

In reference to Anonymous above re. the latest Tory MP sex scandal, and the theory that "CCO only approves candidates with skeletons in the cupboard so that they can better controlled."

"Controlled" of course by the Whips, so it is somewhat ironic that the current miscreant was originally appointed as Deputy Chief Whip.

But everyone knows that if this man had not been so appointed, the Remain media, led by the BBC, would have gone into their usual screaming hysteria mode, with accusations of homophobia, bigotry, deep-rooted Establishment prejudice, blah, blah, blah -- you can write the script yourselves.

The fact is that the Remain media are out to destroy Johnson by whatever means, fair or mostly foul. What is needed now is a tough enforcer in No. 10 who can push back against the onslaught, while the PM gets on with what he is paid to do, which is governing the country.