In Defence of Greta: Why We Have to Stop Ignoring Reason

"It has been proven that Greta Thunberg is making a real difference to climate change . Every time she comes on the TV approximately 1 million people switch it off." Unknown.

In a short space of time, Greta Thunberg has firmly implanted herself in the collective public consciousness. But, as her fame has grown, so have the attacks.

However, the teenage climate change activist has not only been belittled in a multitude of disparaging ways, but such criticism has often been largely irrelevant to the message she is actually trying to convey.

Dislike her comments made about our reliance on fossil fuels?

Let's just make a cruel barb about her strange accent, and how rude she can be.

Uncomfortable by her strident demands that we have to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions?

She's autistic - let's focus on that. After all, people with autism do tend to see the world in binary, 'black and white' hues: That's why she's being so simplistic. The real world is a million shades of grey: Let's see if she's still spouting her reductive nonsense after she's actually had to work for a living.

Want to overlook the fact that she's highlighted that we're living in an almost unprecedented age of extinction?

Well, she's Swedish - their record on environmental issues is hardly exemplary; target in on that.

Prefer to bury your head in the sand to her claims that we're not only destroying our world, but also her future, along with that of every other child her age?

She's a kid - I mean, really, what does she know?

And as for her criticism of the Trump administration for withdrawing from the Paris agreement, a landmark treaty aimed at combating climate change, and intensify the investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future?

Well, that was only a way for other countries to check the economic might of the USA, wasn't it? It was simply a cheap, anti-American political conspiracy. A conspiracy Greta is obviously part of.

(Sarcasm Alert) It's almost as if people would rather mock the messenger than actually listen to the message she is trying to convey. Funny that.

The fact is, although it's easy to mock her, no-one should be.

The reasons not to listen to her are puerile, and - quite frankly - insulting.

She might be autistic, but it doesn't mean her 'black and white' thinking is wrong. It's not based on a mental illness, but on scientific fact: The Earth's climate is warming. Of that there is no debate. Since the end of the nineteenth century, the average surface temperature of our planet has risen by 2.05 degrees Fahrenheit (1.14 degrees Celsius).

And that figure doesn't come from one source; it's from a variety of bodies, and experts, the majority of which have no political affiliations or connections. All of whom are satisfied that the climate of our planet is not only rapidly accelerating, but also that, unlike previous fluctuations, the current warming is certainly down to human activity.

Autism doesn't come into that equation.

And, besides, if you're going to either ridicule someone based on a mental condition, or exclude them from a debate because of it, then - quite frankly - shame on you.

And, a teenager at that? Double-shame on you.

Next...

She might be a 'foreigner' but that doesn't mean she's trying to nefariously dismantle the capitalist economy. She's pointing out that we need to do things differently - she's not some sort of 'sleeper' agent trying to destroy our divine freedoms to live how we like, and consequences be damned. She's trying to do something about saving our world.

And her obsession with the Paris Agreement? Yes - when it comes to this treaty, America did shoulder a lot of the burden.

However, being one of the biggest countries on the planet, it's also one of the largest polluters. The targets weren't arbitrary, and the US wasn't unfairly targeted - the figures were based on each country's size, and industrial output. An output we need to curtail if we want to combat climate change.

Thunberg is not being anti-American by criticizing Trump's withdrawal from the Treaty; she's being pro-World.

And, we begin to go down a slippery slope when we decide we can ignore someone just because they hail from a different country. Although we might like to believe it's true, not every expert speaks with an American or British accent. Her nationality has exactly zero bearing on the words she's speaking.

And, so what if she's a child? Haven't we all been saying for years that the 'younger generation' are too apathetic? Suddenly they're not, and we want them to go back to being silent again? Really - make up your minds.

More pertinently, does her age automatically make her wrong, or negate the actual truth of what she's saying? No. The evidence is there, and the relatively junior age of the person exclaiming it doesn't alter it. It doesn't matter if Greta Thunberg is 9, 19, 49, or 99: There's an overwhelming body of scientific proof that we are destroying our planet.

Worse, we don't seem to particularly care.

So, let's just drop the whole 'anti-Greta' rhetoric and joke-making. It's not only mean, it's also baseless. The quips about her age, her nationality, her demeanor, or mental illness are cheap and nasty, and say more about your own preconceptions, and ignorance, than it does about her.

So, let's be grown-ups, and leave that stuff outside. And let's begin to look at what's she actually saying.

While we're at it, can we do the same with everyone who we don't politically agree with as well?

Because it's not just Great Thunberg.

It's any expert.

(And, yes - I do see Thunberg as an expert. She might be a child, but just listen to one of her speeches; she's done more research into climate change, and given it more thought, than any politician I've encountered.)

If the current protracted, and bitter, Presidential election is showing us anything, it's that we're living in age where many are happy to discount reason, or scientific evidence, if it doesn't fit with our political ideologies. Forget about the proof - it's the age of the demagogue where soundbites takes precedence over the science. Of reason. Of evidence.

And poor Greta is only one of casualty of that.

Last night (Thursday 5th November 2020), President Trump addressed the nation, claiming that the Democrats are "stealing" the Election by means of wide-spread postal-voting fraud. This is a fluid situation, and various avenues of litigation are soon to be opened; perhaps history will prove such allegations are merited.

However, at the same time, this is a narrative that the President has been peddling for a long time now; postal-voting = electoral fraud. Since April 2020, he has posted more than seventy (70) tweets casting doubt on mail-in voting.

But there is almost no evidence that the system is corrupt.

According to a report from the Brennan Center for Justice, postal electoral fraud is very rare in the United States - the rate is less than 0.0009%. It has not been a determining factor in any previous election, and there is - as yet - little evidence to suggest it's been a major issue in 2020 either.

(There's also an irony here: The President has himself voted by post in the past. As he lived outside the state he was registered in, Florida, he requested a postal vote.)

Yet, the idea that Joe Biden is stealing the Election by way of fraudulent postal-voting has been taken up by the incumbent President's supporters. Despite there being almost zero evidence of it. Social media has labelled posts claiming this as being 'misleading', yet the idea is still trending. Fervently so.

Regardless of the number of 'Fact Checkers' debunking these claims, they still prevail. Blind political allegiance hasn't just supplanted reasoned proof; it's stamped all over it.

However, none of this is remotely new. We've been living like this for some time now.

Every major, and important, topic has become polarized, reduced to 'them' versus 'us.' Reason, and truth, doesn't always lie in the middle of those two poles, but it does lie somewhere. This year, it's been buried under a mountain of cheap jibes, unfounded allegations, and unwavering political bias. Even the most provable supposition can be ignored with the withering dismissal, "fake news."

And 'experts'? They've been treated with disdain, their voices reduced to being no more important than that of a court jester. They've become the biggest 'fakes' of all.

You can substitute 'postal-voting' with 'Black Lives Matter.' Or with 'Covid-19.' Or with 'Greta Thunberg.' The actual arguments being forwarded are being drowned in a sea of cheap vitriol, and being countered with unfounded, ideologically-driven narratives.

Just take the hot-topic of the year, Covid-19.

Despite there being widespread scientific consensus that 'lock-downs' do slow the spread of Cornoavirus, many still oppose them. No - they're not ideal, far from it. Economically, they're unquestionably a disaster. Yet, the science suggests 'lock-downs' are effective in slowing the actual transmission of the virus. If you doubt that, just compare New Zealand's infection rates with those of the US or the UK.

Yet, we've got people in those latter countries not only vehemently opposing 'lock-downs', but also still declining to wear a mask, the bare minimum that can be done in combating Covid-19. Why? Because they don't believe the science. And why? Because it's been discounted and devalued in the pursuit of political (and economic) ideology.

I've lost count of the number of scientific experts who have been personally attacked, and therefore de-legitimatized, because they've had the temerity to objectively explain the mere science behind Covid-19. And to sensibly point out that keeping businesses, and schools, open may not be in a nation's best (physical) health.

To be honest, it's been heartbreaking to watch various individuals who have committed their life to science, and who never sought the media spotlight, being wheeled out, and then shot down because what they're saying is too much of an inconvenient truth.

The comparisons with Greta Thunberg are stark; ignore the science - attack the person saying it. Dismiss them; file under 'fake.'

I am a passionate advocate for free speech. And, in this digital age, it would be impossible to reverse the freedoms we all have. Nor would I want to. As much as it personally offends me to see intolerance, or bigotry, or falsehoods, being posted on YouTube, or Twitter, or Facebook, I would never want to deny the people behind such posts the freedom to voice such issues.

However, opinion, or political ideology, is not fact.

Soundbites are not reasoned debate. Having the loudest, or wittiest, voice does not inherently make that voice correct. Simply labeling something "fake news" does not automatically make it so. But, it's been a year where such voices have been amplified.

And, if truth and reason haven't been entirely silenced in 2020, they've certainly been quietened.

Never more so than when it comes to Greta, and the climate change debate.

I care about Black Lives Matter, about Covid, and about the Presidential elections. But climate change is one that matters most to me, personally.

I am a father, and I am appalled by the world my generation will leave my children, and those like Greta. For climate change is a clear and present danger we are doing little about.

Increasing global temperatures will mean widespread displacement, that will - ultimately - impact the global economy. Environmental refugees will be a common sight within twenty years.

A changing climate means more unpredictable, and more destructively violent, weather patterns.

There is already a growing body evidence to suggest that climate change affects mental health. Given that the Western World is already facing a mental health crisis, it seems absurd to only add more fuel to this particular fire.

I could go on. And on. And on...

And none of this is "fake news."

Yet, despite the evidence, what is the climate change debate centering on?

Much like any other important political issue, whether it's Covid-19, or postal-voting, the focus is on petty, juvenile, and downright cruel insults aimed at undermining the people speaking up. People like Greta Thunberg.

There is almost no reasoned argument about any of the issues she has raised; her opponents just take aim at her.

At her age. At her mental illness. At her nationality.

Perhaps this has been thrown into sharp relief by the bitter, polarizing American election, and in the way that thoughtless, damaging, and ill-founded comments about the integrity of the voting process have not only been thrown about, but latched onto without serious consideration given to their validity.

Or in the way that the Black Lives Matters movement has been so readily dismissed as being the work of provocateurs whose only motive has been to cause civil unrest.

Or in the way many countries has mishandled the Cornoavirus pandemic in which the science has too often been dismissed.

But it's all highlighted how easily we've all stopped listening to reason, to the arguments behind an issue, to the evidence being presented, To what people - like Greta Thunberg - are actually trying to say.

We don't have to agree with any 'expert.' But we do need to hear them, properly, before we can dismiss them. We need to think about what they're saying. We can't simply instantly ignore it all because someone wearing a suit loudly tells us it's nonsense.

Or un-American.

Or bad for the economy.

Or some nefarious plot.

Or "fake news."

If I have one hope for 2021, it's that we do start listening. And, for the future of Greta, and all our children, we really do need to when it comes to climate change. The clock is genuinely ticking. Joe Biden has stated he will re-join the Paris Agreement if elected. It's a start, but that's all.

We all need to do more. Much more. Most of all, we need to listen.

I pray we can leave behind the era of ill-founded soundbites, and blind political allegiance, and petty, personal, mudslinging.

And just listen.

Beyond this election, that's what I'm going to do more of.

I am going to volunteer for local groups that are committed to positive action for the environment. I am going to do all that I can to streamline my own life, and make it more sustainable. I am going to donate what I can to charities that put protection of the planet at the center of their activities.

Most of all I'm going to listen. I'm going to cut through the vitriolic, baseless, personal rhetoric, and listen.

Listen to people like Greta Thunberg.

I know I'm not going to agree with everything she says.

But I'm going to give her, and people like her, my attention. My consideration. I'm not going to dismiss her, or anyone else, because I simply disagree with the politics behind it. I'm going to bypass the 'fake', and burrow my way to the 'real.' I'm going to hear them.

Beyond this election, I hope we can all do the same.

Just listen.

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