Of the thousands of pupils and students starting back to school and college this September, surely none is more well-known than Greta Thunberg. The 17-year-old Swedish environmental activist returned to her studies after a self-proclaimed ‘gap year’ during which she has achieved global recognition for her cause to counteract global warming and climate change with a progressive green agenda. 

In this time, she has spoken with numerous world leaders, appeared on TV wherever she goes, crossed the Atlantic by boat (twice) and addressed two UN climate conferences. She has been praised around the world for her efforts and along with numerous awards has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize two years in succession.

And yet, apparently in nearly equal measure, she still attracts enormous amounts of criticism, condemnation and personal abuse. Despite high-profile supporters like UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, US Democratic party Vice-Presidential nominee Kamala Harris, as well as many respected academics, she has attracted the scorn, ire and mockery of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump. 

Maybe it is no surprise, given her desire to end our reliance on fossil fuels, that she has made an enemy of OPEC, but it was still shocking to hear Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro call her a “pirralha”, the Portuguese word for “brat” or “pest.”

Among those who dismiss her efforts as the simplistic, misguided mutterings of an overwrought teenager are a legion of white professional men who, shall we say, are somewhat beyond the first flush of youth. To put it another way, she has really got up the nose of a lot of old white guys. 

Many of them are probably now breathing a great sigh of relief that she has gone back to school, where doubtless they believe she belongs. But the question I really want to address is why this should be the case. What is it about Greta, what she is, what she has done and what she stands for, that has really outraged so many middle-aged, middle class men?

Maybe it is because she is young? Certainly, adult men are used to giving orders and direction to young people, not being lectured by them. There is more than a whiff of inter-generational conflict in Greta’s words. She openly and clearly holds the current generation of adults responsible for creating the problem.

Maybe it is because she is female? If men do not like being told off by a teenager they will be really incensed when that teenager turns out to be a mere girl. Greta has surely exposed something of the latent and often blatant misogyny that pervades the modern world.

Maybe it is jealousy? Greta has been undeniably successful in what she set out to do. From a lone fifteen-year-old sitting alone outside the Swedish parliament building on her ‘school strike for climate’, she has evolved into a powerful influencer on the world stage. Even some who tend to agree with her may have their noses out of joint because, as David Attenborough has said, she has accomplished in a short period what others have been talking about for decades. She has also benefited from the ability to communicate globally in the social media age but, as we know, that is a double-edged sword, with the capacity to generate trolls, fake news, defamatory stories and hate-filled messages. She has suffered from that too.

Maybe it is because she is authentic? We are used to politicians and public figures presenting themselves as air-brushed and perfected, best-versions of themselves. To appeal to the public it is seen as weakness to be mortal, damaged or indeed human. Greta has been entirely open and transparent that she is on the autistic spectrum with Asperger’s Syndrome, has been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, has exhibited selective mutism and has struggled with depression. Some people who rail against her cannot seem to cope with such honesty about our common human frailties.

However, I think there is at least one more reason why Greta elicits such anger and condemnation in some quarters. In her address to the UN 2019 Climate Action Summit in New York City she challenged the leaders of the world by angrily asking, “How dare you?”  She accused them of stealing her dreams with their empty words and in a telling phrase against the backdrop of what she sees as the mass extinction of life on earth, the destruction of her future and indeed of humanity, she said. “…all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth!”

Maybe this is the reason Greta and all she stands for produces such negative, angry and hate-filled responses in some quarters. Maybe it is because she is right.

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See also:

Make America Greta Again – 2 Sept 2019

“Everything is Getting Much Worse, Much Faster, Everywhere” – 11 August 2019