phratry , the Washington Post had itself a Sunday night . The paper inexplicably put out a puff piece on the “ anti - Greta , ” a German teen peddling indulgent climate abnegation who ’s being supported by a mathematical group of old lily-white guys at the Heartland Institute .
It drive two reporters to do one of the most egregious slice of both sides climate journalism in recent retentivity , and the paper even dispatch a photographer to shoot artsy trope of said teenager , Naomi Seibt , in the woods . The whole software system is just absolutely craze in its velvet baseball glove plan of attack to what is , frankly , a non - story since say stripling is barely a pip outside the insular heavens of old climate denier . But it does do one table service : It shows the denialists are all out of ideas and are now just trying to make anything stick .
https://gizmodo.com/the-climate-crisis-is-about-right-and-wrong-1841190385
Photo: Getty
The whole Washington Post piece is barren as hell . You canhate - read it if you must , but the gist is that Seibt pushes tired theme about solar activity causing climate modification ( it ’s not ) and that it ’s “ ridiculous to believe ” that carbon pollution has a large influence on the mood ( it does ) . It ’s all part of the same slurry of shit deniers have pushed for decades . The only remainder is the person is a adolescent instead of the common bunch of blowhard older men .
Before I go on , let me say the Post generally does fantabulous climate news media . This story is not one of those piece . It breezily place up Seibt , a 19 - year previous YouTuber , as the “ anti - Greta ” despite her having nowhere near the compass or following of Greta Thunberg herself . An estimated60,000 untested adult and supportersturned out to find out the 17 - class old climate militant speak in Hamburg on Friday , an audience larger than Seibt ’s entire followers on YouTube . The only athletic supporter of Seibt the Post quotes is James Taylor , a mediate - aged man who runs the climate - denying Heartland Institute .
The genuine narrative here is that the mood denier are flailing . The Heartland Institute , infamous forrunning billboardscomparing those who empathise canonic clime science to the Unabomber , has never been a bastion of rational thought or moral clarity . But it has managed to stay pretty relevant for years thanks to the media insisting on both - sidesing climate change until late ( the Seibt patch being a notable exclusion , which is why it ’s so obnoxiously uncollectible ) . And with Donald Trump in the White House , climate self-abnegation and delay clearly still holds tilt in the student residence of power .
But the reality is that the mathematical group and its climate - denying brethren have always been on a collision course of action with irrelevance because a ) climate variety is very veridical and very dangerous , and b ) people were throttle to wake up to that realism at some point . That stop get in in the past twelvemonth as the world was biff by razz wildfires , abnormally strong hurricane , and disabling heat energy wafture . At the same time , mood scientist have gotten more verbatim with their warning . Add in Thunberg as adriving voiceof moral clarity , and popular unseasoned politicians like Representative Alexandria Ocasio - Cortez pushing for sound climate policies like theGreen New Deal , and you have an asteroid - grade extinction event for the ideas of denier on the horizon .
By comparison , clime self-abnegation is largely thepurview of onetime ashen folks , a retentive but dwindling demographic . That a group like the Heartland Institute is trying to prop up someone like Seibt is the open sign they ’re just throw diddly at a wall to see what sticks .
But chances are it ’s not going to solve . late research evince that presenting the moral vitrine to give up contaminate our atmosphere — as Thunberg and other spring chicken activist do — has the potential tounlock a societal tipping pointin party favor of climate activity . And there are uprise signs that we may well be there . In the U.S. , the earth drawing card in mood denial , the percentage of people who inexplicably question the skill behind the climate crisis has flow to the lowest levels ever record while those alarmed is at the highest levelaccording to pollingby Yale and George Mason University . Largely young , diverse climate activists have ferment out in the millions for marches and smash worldwide andpressure is mountingon the world to play . Even the finance industry isstarting to turn awayfrom fossil fuels .
The foul-smelling perfume of desperation of deniers render to make their “ anti - Greta”A Thing sure seems like this is denial ’s last gasp . And places like the Post should know well than to give them CPR .
climate crisisclimate denialGreta Thunberg
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