August 26, 2019

I've got another example of the eco-shame-contortion genre.

Yesterday, we were looking at "How Guilty Should You Feel About Your Vacation?/And what can you do about it?" by Seth Kugel (in the NYT), which I called "a terrible, execrable column." And today, I'm confronted with another example of what I'm going to recognize as a genre because I'm expecting to see more and more of these awful columns. Progressives who want to claim that they are good when it comes to the problem of climate change want to resist what it really means for them as they live in this world with their desires and comforts and money and longing for their little corner of luxury. What's really causing them anxiety is flight shaming.

From today's example of the genre, "Most of us are hypocrites on climate change. Maybe that’s progress," Kate Cohen (in WaPo).
Greta Thunberg puts most of us to shame. The 16-year-old Swedish climate activist is en route to the U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York, on a two-week, comfort-free journey by solar-powered sailboat. She doesn’t fly, because flying is bad for the climate. She helped popularize the Swedish movement of flygskam, or flight shaming, which asks Swedes to travel according to their beliefs....
That is to say: Don't fly. Come on. If you believe what you say you believe, you know damned well that you should not fly. Not for business. Not for pleasure. Nothing! The world is at stake. Stop. Just stop. But no. Articles must be written, and I intend to become a connoisseur of this ludicrous genre.
Greta’s like an emissary from the future calmly stating that now is the time to panic. Who could argue with that? Not me. I recently swore off plastic straws on account of my own 16-year-old’s disapproval, even though his straw-shaming (sugrörskam?) consisted only of a single, sharp “Mom!” and a slow, disappointed head shake as I plucked my absolute-last-plastic-straw-I-swear from a coffee shop counter. If Greta were my kid, I’d be a vegan now, too.
If you can't argue with that, what are you doing? It sounds like arguing with that. Or are you saying you know perfectly well that your behavior is immoral — no argument there — it's just that you're choosing to do it anyway?
But she’s not my kid. So although I believe that climate change is an urgent threat, I travel and eat without thinking much about my carbon footprint. According to Greta, I’m probably not evil; I just don’t know better: “People keep doing what they do because the vast majority doesn’t have a clue about the actual consequences of our everyday life.” That’s not quite right; we do have a clue. But believing one thing and doing another is how most of us behave.
You're not thinking much, but you are thinking out loud. In WaPo. And presumably not ashamed to say what you are saying.

The article goes into an anecdote about her father buying an SUV, even though he cared about the environment. He'd indulge himself unless the government outlawed SUVs, and he'd be happy to vote for someone who'd outlaw SUVs. The idea is don't ask people to be moral; impose what you think is moral on everyone. Cohen gave her father a hard time about his attitude:

Eventually, though, I let the SUV-skam go. Children and visionaries (and especially child visionaries) abhor hypocrisy, but I was old enough by then to appreciate it. I’d rather my father be a hypocrite than be wrong.... Even if my father never lives up to them, those values shape his politics.... When you look at it this way, hypocrisy in well-meaning people is just the lag time between belief and action.... ... I don’t dismiss climate activists who live in mansions or even fly private jets to climate conferences. Their advocacy will help shape a new generation, which will then turn around and judge their personal behavior as hopelessly retrograde....
Well, that didn't take much contortion! I'm sorry, that wasn't ridiculous enough. All she's saying is, I know the difference between right and wrong and I'm not going to do what I know is right. She didn't engage with the problem of shame. She just came right out and announced shamelessness. Shamelessness and pride — pride that she's better than those people who don't even know the difference between right and wrong and the people who think we don't always need government compulsion, that there's a place for private morality.

136 comments:

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

The Greta fad is no better than illiterates flocking to a child preacher at a tent revival. Best response is indifference.

tim in vermont said...

" I don’t dismiss climate activists who live in mansions or even fly private jets to climate conferences.”

There would be precious few left! Maybe Ed Begley Jr, who has a generator on a bicycle in his kitchen that he uses to run his toaster.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I've been saying for years the religious climate alarmists need to walk the walk. Move into the woods and live in a carb-board box. Oh wait - no cardboard box for you.

MayBee said...

Greta was interviewed on CBS This Morning. They asked her what she thought about the US's carbon emissions efforts. She said "not much", but she had a certain look in her eye....like she wasn't ready. So the interviewer asked why, and she said "because they are still going up."
Which is true in its way, but they are way down overall. So I don't think Greta knows what she is talking about any more than the kids who plastic straw shame their parents.

gahrie said...

Somebody remind these people what happened the last time there was a Children's Crusade.

Skippy Tisdale said...

"Greta’s like an emissary from the future"

Emissary from the future is just a euphemism for tool.

MayBee said...

If my kid plastic straw shamed me, he would quickly find what it takes to reduce his own carbon footprint when I don't give him rides any more and tell him he can no longer use products with plastic components.

rhhardin said...

It's climate lag. You get it from jet travel.

jaydub said...

I'll wait for David Hogg's take. He's my go-to child philosopher.

Heartless Aztec said...

Sod off the lot of them.

Fernandinande said...

Greta Thunberg puts most of us to shame.

False!

She helped popularize the Swedish movement of flygskam, or flight shaming, which asks Swedes to travel according to their beliefs....

Swedes believe they should travel by plane:

View Sweden's Air Traffic: Passengers from 1960 to 2018 in the chart:

Jeff said...

If Greta's sailboat were capsized during a storm, would it be shameful to laugh heartily?

Charlie said...

I'm already sick to death of Greta and she hasn't even gotten here yet.

Balfegor said...

I'm so conflicted . . . on the one hand, I love watching these people squirm. But on the other hand, I like flying overseas, and their guilty enjoyment of environmentally destructive air travel helps keep overall costs down.

StephenFearby said...


Linked to by RCP (#1 most read in past 24 hours):

5 things the media won't tell you about the Amazon fires
Jesse Ferrell, AccuWeather
AUGUST 25, 2019

"...ORIGINAL BLOG 8/23:

This week, traditional and social media have gone crazy covering the fires in the Amazon (specifically Brazil), and the images and video like those we shared are compelling. But there's a lot of misinformation out there, and there is some good news: It may not be as bad as some in the media are reporting. This is serious stuff! We need to stick to the science. Here are five things that the media (which rarely gets it right on science) aren't telling you:..."

https://outline.com/ENAFSS

gahrie said...

They asked her what she thought about the US's carbon emissions efforts. She said "not much", but she had a certain look in her eye....like she wasn't ready. So the interviewer asked why, and she said "because they are still going up."

The U.S. is the only country in the world that met its Kyoto goals. But we did it by switching to natural gas instead of wind and solar, so it must not be mentioned.

Tommy Duncan said...

Remember this?

Freshman New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded to The Post’s report on her giant carbon footprint by saying she’s just “living in the world.”

Can't we all just live in the world?

Charlie said...

Also, I don't want her to die but I hope the boat sinks.

tim maguire said...

It's not news that alarmists have, on average, larger carbon footprints than skeptics.

If you judge people by their behavior instead of by their words, there aren't 10 people on the planet who believe humans are having a dangerous effect on the climate. It's not because they don't know, it's because they don't care. "Narcissistic hypocrite" is their core character feature.

Fernandinande said...

The rate air travel in Sweden is growing has slowed this year, suggesting that the flight tax which came into effect this April may be having an effect.

As with littering, money > shame.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

'I'm only going to stop after the government forces me. & I'll support and vote for that government force'

eeeee

DanDotDan said...

I've talked with various AGW believers on this subject, asking them why they haven't changed their ways to match their beliefs. The general consensus is that their individual contributions to AGW are so small as to be insignificant. Thus, the feeling is that we need laws to force everyone to act according to their beliefs. Only when they see everyone else reducing their carbon footprints will they reduce theirs. An "everyone" includes not just Americans, but everyone around the world, especially the countries that burn a lot of coal.

jaydub said...

The U.S. is now reducing its CO2 emissions faster than any country on Earth: "Thanks to Natural Gas, US CO2 Emissions Lowest Since 1985." RC Politics

Greta Thunberg hardest hit.

tim maguire said...

Greta Thunberg puts most of us to shame.

We should all care more by traveling the world by luxury yacht. Just like Greta.

Bob Smith said...

I went to Europe a bunch of times over the last 30 years. Can I feel guilty retroactively? I promise I will. Really.

jaydub said...

Charlie: "Also, I don't want her to die but I hope the boat sinks."

It would be more interesting to see if she takes the boat home. My money is on an airplane ticket.

Bob Boyd said...

I know I shouldn't cheat on my husband when he's out of town, but it's just so much fun. Hopefully someday will have laws to force my daughter or my granddaughter to wear a chastity belt. In the mean time at least I'm better than those sluts who openly sleep with whoever they want and don't even know they're sluts.

stevew said...

I don't seek nor take advice from children about how I should live my life. Especially ill informed ones such as Greta.

stevew said...

@jaydub: "It would be more interesting to see if she takes the boat home. My money is on an airplane ticket"

I saw a report that the boat crew will indeed be heading back via aircraft.

henry said...

"Greta Thunberg puts most of us to shame. "

Nope. The climate scam is as phony as the Russia Russia Russia scam. She takes a luxury racing sailboat, but it has to fly the crew home (4 of them) and fly in a new crew (5 of them) to get the boat back to Europe. Not to mention the carbon expended in building the boat. She is like most high school aged children, woefully uninformed.

Anyone paying attention tho the idiot child should be ashamed.

Bob Boyd said...

If Greta's sailboat were capsized during a storm, would it be shameful to laugh heartily?

Imagine the carbon footprint of the rescue mission.

Freeman Hunt said...

"The Greta fad is no better than illiterates flocking to a child preacher at a tent revival. Best response is indifference."

This.

I feel conflicted because I hate flying, but articles like this make me want to fly all the time.

Fernandinande said...


"According to our calculations, a cruiseliner such as Queen Mary 2 emits 0.43kg of CO2 per passenger mile, compared with 0.257kg for a long-haul flight (even allowing for the further damage of emissions being produced in the upper atmosphere)."

Brian said...

...solar-powered sailboat...

I've seen this phrase before and it just irks me. It's not a solar powered sailboat. It's a wind powered sailboat. The wind makes a sailboat go, not the sun.

Yes she's got solar panels on it, and yes there are batteries to run the electronics, etc. but it's not really "solar powered" is it? Most sailboats have solar panels on them of some form or another. It's quieter and lighter than running a generator.

I still don't understand the fascination with this girl sailing across the Atlantic. Lot's of even younger children do it as part of their regular family life.

It's not monastic and it doesn't require any major sacrifices and it doesn't "mean" anything significant in human history. Humans have been sailing across oceans for millennia! Well before global warming.

For an example of a family (of 6) that has sailed across the Atlantic (and most of the way through the Pacific!) in a "solar powered sailboat", check out Sailing Zatara on Youtube. The patriarch of that family is a redneck from Texas though, so the New York Times won't be giving him a call I'm sure.

And for a real solar powered sailboat, check out the engineering behind "Top Secret" a 58 foot sailing catamaran with electric drives.

SeanF said...

jaydub: Charlie: "Also, I don't want her to die but I hope the boat sinks."

It would be more interesting to see if she takes the boat home. My money is on an airplane ticket.


Oh, no. I believe she'll be taking the boat home.

However...the crew that will be sailing with her on the way back is a different crew than sailed with her on the way over. The new crew was flown here, and the original crew will be flying back.

Honest.

traditionalguy said...

Religious legalism is always having great pride in favoring strict rules in front of the public but doing the opposite in private. It is raw slavery shackles voluntarily put on by idealists. That Paul guy who created Christianity said setting men free from that insanity is why Jesus died and rose again.

mccullough said...

Basically she and her father want to live the good life and have everyone else not in their tribe bear the brunt of their policy preferences.

Adults shouldn’t use children in their propaganda. This columnist uses Greta and her son.

Freeman Hunt said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tim maguire said...

she's better than those people who don't even know the difference between right and wrong

And thus is liberal hypocrisy fully normalized. It doesn't matter that the people who engage in wrong-think act better than the people who engage in right-think. Thinking rightly is what really matters.

Jersey Fled said...

Inst linked to an article this morning citing U.S. as reducing it's CO2 emissions faster than any other country and now has its lowest total emissions since 1985.

Greta is unimpressed.

U.S. reductions are the result of fracking and resultant change from coal to natural gas. You may recall that Obama/Biden fought fracking tooth and nail for the totality of their time in office.

In other news, Greta's voyage is said to include four transatlantic flights (crew + relief crew for return trip) and a diesel powered chase ship.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

We need carbon-guilt deposit machines installed at all commercial airports.

Do you feel guilty for your part in destroying the planet?
Do your part. Or, assuage your guilt.

Flying - deposit here
Using straws - deposit here
Using a washer and dryer - deposit here
Living in a home - deposit here
Using plastic bottles - deposit here
Buying packaged food - deposit here
Driving a car - deposit here
Flying - hello - flying - deposit here (ding ding ding)

All proceeds help Al Gore keep the lights on.

Jersey Fled said...

Correction: instapundit

Lucid-Ideas said...

To quote Glenn Reynolds, "I'll start acting like it's a crisis when the people telling me it's a crisis start acting like it."

Birches said...

"I can do whatever I want as long as I feel sufficiently bad about it." This whole thing is not very far off from, "I declared Jesus my Savior and I feel really bad about screwing my secretary everyday, but I'm still a good Christian."

chickelit said...

sugrörskam!

I don't know Swedish but I know enough Nordic etymology to recognize "suck-tube-shame." (sug= suck; rör = tube; skam = shame.

BTW, anybody know what "shame-lips" are In German?

LA_Bob said...

We really haven't progressed much beyond the times of witch-burning and bloodletting, have we?

Or surely not as much as we think.

Tomcc said...

Indeed, we are returning to old world fundamentalism; well, not all of us- just the cultural elite. "Unto us a child is given".
Someone upthread mentioned the possibility of Greta's boat capsizing, and I thought, "yeah, and have them send solar powered boats and helicopters to rescue them!"
But then Jersey Fled @ 11:31 burst my bubble. It almost suggests the entire event is being staged for publicity purposes...

tim in vermont said...

it seems to me that a lot of these illegals pouring over the border are seeking asylum from their low carbon lifestyles in Mesoamerica. Wouldn’t it be better for the climate and the planet to keep them there?

tim in vermont said...

"Inst linked to an article this morning citing U.S. as reducing it's CO2 emissions faster than any other country and now has its lowest total emissions since 1985.”

All after rejecting Kyoto and the Paris Accords. One word.... fracking.

tim in vermont said...

On of the reason recent college graduates are so bad at critical thinking is that they have been fed so much obvious bullshit and assured by people in positions of authority that it was true. So thinking for them is like putting blindfolded. We can’t all be Chevy Chase.

William said...

Professor Althouse ("Ann")--

Why do you persist in throwing these oh-so-predictable garbage stories from the WashPo/NYT at us, your poor unenlightened readers.

We all know what they will say: the world is going to end in three weeks, Orange Man bad; racist. Show me something new, something that will expand my view of things. Don't keep throwing up the same old stuff (this is a family blog, after all).

How about a S.O.S. tag? Then regular readers will know that they don't have to read it because the mainstream media is just doing what is always does.

Just one old man's (--> person of age) opinion.

chickelit said...

All proceeds help Al Gore keep the lights on.

The Church of Gaia is corrupted by carbon indulgences.

jaydub said...

Turns out Greta's sail boat, the Malizia II, is a 60 ft racing yacht costing something more than $4.4Mil, but has no kitchen, bathroom facilities or privacy, so typical Swedish luxury. It's being co-captained by Pierre Casiraghi (the grandson of Monaco's late Prince Ranier III and actress Grace Kelly,) which also makes it just like any $4.4Mil yacht loaned to the typical 16 YO to make a political statement. The yacht is sailing from Sweden via the UK, purportedly in order to follow the route of the original Mayflower. Buckingham Palace denies rumors that during the UK stop the yacht will also pick up Prince Andrew, who apparently offered to crew when he learned there was a 16 year-old girl on board.







44.4

tim in vermont said...

William, here is a real time counter of the number of blog posts written today worldwide. I bet you can find one you like!

https://www.worldometers.info/blogs/

joshbraid said...

This is so relevant to the NYT's slavery propganda (follow me here, just keep reading).

I was at George Mason's place, just down the river, yesterday. You know, the man who inspired the Bill of Rights in the American constitution and who wrote the human rights part of the Virginia Declaration of Independence around 1765 or so.

He strongly believed in "all men are created equal with unalienable rights" and thought slavery immoral and evil. Really, he did.

He also had 96 enslaved people working for him on his plantation. And, he didn't free them when he died.

It is easy to preach morality emphatically and then live differently. Greta and her bunch are just one more example. I am sure they applaud the "1619" propaganda by the NYT yet they live EXACTLY the same lifestyle as the rich planters from 18th century Virginia (where most of the elites came from). I am sure Greta would have used enslaved people to sail her ship 250 years ago and rationalized it the whole way.

Of course, the evils of slavery are real while the alarmism of climate change is (now demonstrably) false.

Pianoman said...

Another anecdote: Saw one of my second cousins this weekend as part of a family gathering. 23 years old, just graduated from college. He told me he was gradually becoming a vegetarian, and the reason was "climate change". The conversation had to do with Incredimeat / Beyond Meat / protein-based meat-tasting stuff, and went sorta like this:

Me: "Well, a cow is basically a conversion device. It turns plants into meat."
Him: "There's better ways of doing the same thing, and they taste just as good. We shouldn't have so many cows."
Me: "You're into the 'Green New Deal' cow fart thing?"
Him: "Yes, there's too many cows and the methane is contributing to climate disruption."
Me: "So you think cattle farming should be cut back in the U.S."
Him: "No, I think it should be stopped. Worldwide. We don't need beef any more, we have Beyond Meat."
Me: "There's a difference in taste between Incrediburgers and Double Doubles, you know."
Him: "It doesn't matter. It's more important to stop all greenhouse gases, and methane is a big one."

It's kind of a form of eco-shaming: If you eat a burger, you're killing the planet. And those people who believe in it are going to change their behavior based on the beliefs.

James Lindsay has pointed out the parallels between Intersectionality and Middle Ages Catholicism. This is starting to look similar. Eating beef would be equivalent to sinning, and you must repent of your sins by consuming soy protein instead.

In a way, it's good to see the Left recognizing their hypocrisy, and having the guts to do something about it. They are forced to live with the policies that they support. Also, the Deplorables will get a good look at how silly they really are, and will continue to turn away from the Progressive agenda. These are all good things.

Glad you're going to stay on this trend. It has the possibility of staying with us for a while.


MikeR said...

The discussion would make some kind of sense if giving up straws or plane flights would actually make any difference at all. But they don't. Plastic straws aren't the problem; the vast majority of plastic waste is from things like Chinese fishing nets. Plane flights release a lot of CO2, but the vast majority of CO2 growth in the next several decades is going to come from developing countries like China now and India later and Africa after that. What we do in the US literally makes no noticeable difference, and Africa isn't going to agree to slow their move out of deadly poverty to slow global warming slightly.
This is an article about people doing virtue signaling, and feeling bad that they aren't signaling consistently.

doctrev said...

Yeah, at least child preachers have the excuse of actually believing they speak to God. The number of miracles in which Christian faith topples even the mightiest empires are now justified as historical fact, though certain kinds of Christ-haters would deny it emphatically.

This is pure fraud, meant to seduce the most gullible and idiotic partisans into worshiping a mentally ill child substituting for an actual god. That LLRs empower this charlatan out of blind conviction or sociopathic cynicism explains why they presided over a losing effort in Iraq, and why society at a minimum must drive them with violence from their high-paying overlordship over us.

jaydub said...

Does anyone else find it ironic that the Malizia II is made of 3 tons of carbon fibers?

tim in vermont said...

I bet those millions of buffalo never farted.

Achilles said...

Is she the next Karl Marx?

She couldn’t be pushing a more Marxist line.

Big Mike said...

I don’t dismiss climate activists who liv e in mansions or even fly private jets to climate conferences.

I can, and I do. So does every other sane person.

buwaya said...

My abuelita would have called her a maniatica.
As in suffering from a mania.
Mania in Spanish is the same as in English, just differing in pronunciation.

Clyde said...

I’m going to Hawaii in a couple of months.
#NotSorry

BarrySanders20 said...

BleachBit-and-Hammers said...
"We need carbon-guilt deposit machines installed at all commercial airports."

White people: 50% surcharge

Like Stripes, "Black guys, help the white guys" figure out if you should be paying. Swedes for sure.

Real American said...

I'm not a hypocrite on the climate because I know that these chicken littles are fucking scam artists and charlatans who don't give a fuck about me, the children, the earth or the future. if any of this stuff was actually a concern, they wouldn't have to work so damn hard to prevent people from speaking out against their sacred "science." They care about power and are using this hoax to get more of it. IF they truly meant this end is nigh bullshit, they'd fucking off themselves. There's no such thing as "carbon neutral" and this movement will end up where most of this socialist garbage does - in mass graves.

And Helga isn't an "emissary from the future" but rather a relic from the past. She's selling end of the world prophecy, like so many throughout the centuries have, to sadomasochists who are lapping it up because they're dying to be shamed for living so well. Fuck them and fuck her.

GingerBeer said...

To accommodate Miss Thurberg's juvenile stunt, two crew members will fly cross Atlantic to return home, and 2 replacement crew will fly cross Atlantic to NYC as well. No word on whether Elton John has purchased indulgences, I'm sorry carbon offsets, for them.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

"I intend to become a connoisseur of this ludicrous genre." - And also a contributor, as Althouse continues to urge "don't fly" and "don't travel" from the seat of an SUV hundreds of miles from Madison, Wisconsin. Of course, I enjoy these posts as much as the others, sometimes even more.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

often Our Most Gracious Host finds these articles/actions/dispositions
irksome in some way.
Quite often they are from the Left.
Are Lefties more irksome than normal people?

Arashi said...

So above, it is stated that the racing yacht that is being used to transport this Swedish person to the US has no toilet facilities. If that is correct, then the people on board must just pee and poop over the side? Do they at least have TP? Or would that be an afront to gaia, and they just use their left hands? Do they at least remember to do their business downwind?

Maybe a whale could take the boat out and then sharks take care of the occupants. You know, gaia getting back at the evil humans.

BarrySanders20 said...

Every widespread religion tries (or used to try) to prevent people from speaking out against their dogma. Each uses shame as part of the hold on the true believers. Each encourages or creates a duty to proselytize to attempt to draw converts. Heresy is dealt with severely because it poses an existential threat to the group.

Yes, climate warmists are practicing a religion.

Ken B said...

So medieval. In the Middle Ages there were several child “seers”, usually pubescent girls, who had visions and drew pilgrims from all over Europe.

They too grew rich on donations btw; plus ça change ...

Michael K said...

At least others commented on the nonsense "Solar powered sailboat." and the crew flying back and forth. This child is autistic and the whole thing is child abuse.

Meanwhile, Michael Mann refuses to disclose his data for his climate bullshit.

Tomcc said...

The older I get, the more I'm convinced that God's greatest gift to man is not free will, but our ability to rationalize our behavior.

doctrev said...

Ken B said...
So medieval. In the Middle Ages there were several child “seers”, usually pubescent girls, who had visions and drew pilgrims from all over Europe.

They too grew rich on donations btw; plus ça change ...

8/26/19, 12:09 PM

This isn't 100% true. Anyone who claimed to be speaking the word of God, little girl or no, would be guaranteed a visit at minimum from a priest. It wasn't unheard of for the Inquisition to get involved. Contrary to popular belief, such involvement was not usually punished with death, unless it gravely offended Christian theology or promoted violent rebellion against secular rulers. Inquisitors were usually quite able to sift truth from lies, and decide if they were dealing with the mildly deluded or the truly blessed.

It's actually dramatized very well in the smash hit video game Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Well worth the price for the Royal Edition, especially on sale.

Michael K said...

Remember, Al Sharpton began as a child preacher.

Quayle said...

Having abolished all other traditional forms of immorality (see e.g. 10 commandments) they now have to invent new ways to be moral.

This is what one great and wise teacher called “building your house upon sand.”

bleh said...

If my 16 year old tried to shame me for using plastic straws, I’d tell him to get a life. Then I’d tell him to actually research what accounts for the majority of trash in the ocean and report back to me.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

My own enviromental-hypocrisy awakening began one morning in Olympia when I noticed a Ford Explorer with an Earth First! bumper sticker. It's been a rich vein ever since.
This spate of articles where Progs acknowledge their own hypocrisy is a good thing, though. They're probably just a step or two from saying oh, fuck it.

doctrev said...

If I had a teenager who tried to shame me for overusing plastic, I would agree, then promptly sever their credit card privileges.

Paco Wové said...

"She couldn’t be pushing a more Marxist line. "

Careful, you're going to summon up Robert Cook with talk like that.

tim in vermont said...

Extinction Rebellion leads to extinctions:

Trigger warning: This article discusses threatened extinctions from wind turbine mortality. If you are subject to cognitive dissonance, don’t read it.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/06/26/why-wind-turbines-threaten-endangered-species-with-extinction/#26b5930864b4

Insect die off update:

The decline of insect populations may be worsening the threat to endangered bird and bat species.

“There is strong evidence that many insect populations are under serious threat and are declining in many places across the globe,” notes Extinction Rebellion. “A 27-year long population monitoring study in Germany revealed a dramatic 76% decline in flying insect biomass.”

What Extinction Rebellion does not mention is that scientists in Germany say wind turbines appear to be contributing significantly to what it calls the “insect die-off.”


The stuff about other species, like golden eagles is stomach churning.

tim in vermont said...

On the bright side, the wind turbine idea has been successfully applied in the killing of wasps.

https://youtu.be/OMIvgwUlrYY

Jupiter said...

Michael K said...
"This child is autistic and the whole thing is child abuse."

This is entirely accurate, and the fact that more people don't realize it is worrying. This 16-year-old girl has been lied to by almost every "adult" she has ever met. They have utterly corrupted the schools and the media, and as a result she believes a tangled hot mess of mutually contradictory strands of nonsense. Someone needs to tell her the truth.

RK said...

"The article goes into an anecdote about her father buying an SUV, even though he cared about the environment."

I'd always thought, back in the day Al Gore was running around giving his Inconvenient Truth speeches, that counting SUVs and luxury vehicles in the parking lot would be a good social study.

If the media had been highlighting progressive hypocrisy twenty years ago, I think there'd be more intelligent articles about climate change today. But this is where we are now: progressives just beginning the process of pulling their head out of their ass.

Sebastian said...

"flight shaming, which asks Swedes to travel according to their beliefs"

I already travel according to my beliefs, so I am way ahead of them on the virtue curve.

And shame on anyone who takes moral instruction from a deluded teenage girl.

tim in vermont said...

Wasn’t it Obama who said that ‘sin’ is acting in a way not supported by your beliefs? Lol. Repent! We have eaten from the Apple of technology and have been cast from the Garden! And as the song goes, “We’ve got to get ourselves, back to the Ga ah ar den!”

But it’s not a religion!

~ Gordon Pasha said...

Paul Joseph Watson puts the Greta phenomenon in context

https://youtu.be/qpSQuc69R9c

DavidUW said...

It took the de-christianization of the west and progressive corruption of history classes to render 50+% of the population unable to recognize this as a religion,complete with indulgences. As I say to the these people, sorry I already have a god. And to the nanny staters sorry I already have a mom...

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bill Peschel said...

I'll believe it's a crisis when the bitter climate clingers propose banning private jets, which would have a great effect on CO2 with minimal inconvenience on everyone but the .0001%.

bagoh20 said...

"...now is the time to panic."

You just can't say that enough.

Laslo Spatula said...

"I've got another example of the eco-shame-contortion genre..."

How can that sound so much like porn and yet not be porn?

Dang.

I am Laslo.

FullMoon said...

My own enviromental-hypocrisy awakening began one morning in Olympia when I noticed a Ford Explorer with an Earth First! bumper sticker. It's been a rich vein ever since.

Here in Silicon Valley, there were a lot of those itty bitty cars for awhile. Now, majority SUVs or full size cars. A lot of Teslas for balance.

MayBee said...

AAT said...
William, here is a real time counter of the number of blog posts written today worldwide. I bet you can find one you like!

https://www.worldometers.info/blogs/


this may be my favorite comment ever

n.n said...

Technically, there is no contortion. It is Pro-Choice.

JaimeRoberto said...

When I'm on a road trip, by SUV, I like stopping at Chik-Fil-A and drinking through a plastic straw. Then I pause to wonder what the poor people are doing.

narciso said...

in season of ash, one of the character is anti war activists, a little like diana oughton, who joins earth first in the 90, and ends up in jenin, at the start of the intifada,

D 2 said...

It shall be prohibited. OR It shall be mandatory. Thus spake the totalitarian. Doesn't matter if it is about straws, flying, etc.
There can be no choice - that implies a marketplace, which means competition, which would be outside state planning of resources, and making it impossible to deliver "equal outcomes" for all (or in the 21st century parlance, social justice)

Shame works, but can lead to persecution via the mob of State. Snitch on those that don't fall in line, get an extra ration. The personal is political and you will nod when expected, pray as directed.

Seeing Red said...

I’m supposed to base my life on a 16 y o on summer break or a teacher? Lololol

Did she get her tubes tied?

320Busdriver said...

If everyone stops flying I will be forced to retire....on the other hand Audi is bringing the RS6 Avant to the USofA next year. Now THAT is bound to be a fun way to destroy the environment.

Amexpat said...

A good portion of my income now comes from working with US tourists coming to Scandinavia. I'd say around 80-90% are concerned about global warming but feel no shame about flying to Europe.

One woman, who was going on a cruise boat expedition up to Svalbard to see the polar bears before they disappeared, complained to me about a friend who shamed her on Facebook by pointing out the irony of her journey. I diplomatically held my tongue.

Joe said...

Greta Thunberg chose not to take a flight that was going to happen anyway. She's likely less than 100 pounds, including her luggage, so her taking that flight would arguably have reduced it's emissions. Instead she takes a boat, the owners of which FLEW IN A CREW to take it home.

So it's clear; Greta not taking take a flight meant that at least three people took one instead.

This means Greta is an idiot.

chickelit said...

Shame works, but can lead to persecution via the mob of State. Snitch on those that don't fall in line, get an extra ration. The personal is political and you will nod when expected, pray as directed.

State-rewarded snitching is the Chinese way of socialism, coming soon to Silicon Valley.

chickelit said...

Skamscam

narciso said...

human sacrifice to the sky dragon, highly suggested,


https://babylonbee.com/news/cnn-our-ratings-would-be-higher-if-trump-wasnt-killing-viewers-by-the-millions/

Quaestor said...

Little Miss Thunberg is the latest incarnation of Sysiphus. She should learn that flight shaming a climatista is impossible, but she won't because she's a hopeless tard under the perpetual sway of people who see nothing wrong in such exploitation. Progressives, particularly the climate Millerites, don't do shame. Ever. At least not on their own behalf. What they're into is proxy shame — expressing shame on behalf of someone else, preferably someone who's dead and can't tell them to fuck off.

narciso said...

shes the daughter of two eurocrats, and she's cruising with the grandson of grace Kelley, of Monaco, their white privilege is off the charts,

Gusty Winds said...

People (liberals) don't follow their carbon footprint morality, because they know it's all a big hoax.

Curious George said...

"I feel conflicted because I hate flying, but articles like this make me want to fly all the time."

It makes me want to fly in a private jet. Well, that and the private jet part.

FullMoon said...

She's only a pawn in the game....

Roughcoat said...

Once upon a time while island hopping in the Aegean my wife and I met a married Dutch couple and hung out with them for a few days. They were nice and very funny, making hilarious and snarky comments and observations about other European nationalities. E.g., French hippies were inevitably thieves and intolerably filthy/smelly, Germans were bores and cluelessly offensive, etc. But the greatest snark was directed at the Swedes, whom they deemed to be the "most arrogant and unfunny people in Europe."

stlcdr said...

As mentioned, a return sailing crew is flying over to sail the boat back. Likewise, I’m sure the crew who takes her over will be flying back.

buwaya said...

"I diplomatically held my tongue."

I have spent a lifetime diplomatically holding my tongue.
It gets wearisome.

CWJ said...

"According to Greta, I’m probably not evil; I just don’t know better:"

But she does know better, so she's evil. The sentence is nonsense. Self-serving nonsense.

Martin said...

Adults taking orders from 16-year olds about things that, honestly, nobody understands very well?

We're doomed. I wish there was a market where I could short a whole culture.

Every time Trump says or does or tweets something outrageous, something like this appears and makes me realize that the alternatives are far worse.

MayBee said...

Is her family flying over? I thought so.

Bill R said...

Oh sweet Jesus. Greta is taking a racing, custom built sailboat across the Atlantic as a publicity stunt but ostensibly to save energy. How much energy goes into the production of a million dollar boat? To a first approximation, a million dollars worth. That would include the building of the molds, the production of the fiberglass, the air conditioned offices where dozens or hundreds of engineers design the sails, hull, and solar powered engines. After a few voyages, the high tech sails are stretched out and useless and headed for the landfill.

I once met Steve Dashew, a boat designer. Dashew switched from sailboats to powerboats in his seventies. He and his wife could no longer supply the sheer muscle needed to handle a seventy foot sailboat. He said the first fillup was a shocking expense but in total, the power boat was more economical by far. Replacing all of the worn out gear on the sailboat was more expensive than buying fuel.

Then there's usage. The million dollar sailboat can only make 12 trans Atlantic round trips per year. In practice, fewer since she will be regularly laid up for maintenance and weather. On each crossing she can carry six people or so. The total annual passenger load is about 60 people or fewer.

An airliner costs about 100 times the cost of the million dollar sailboat but the airliner can make a round trip almost every day and carries 300 people on each trip. On an annual basis that's 90,000 transatlantic trips versus 60.

There are no energy savings in this stupid stunt. Quite the contrary.

narciso said...

no need to pretend:


https://dailycaller.com/2019/08/26/trump-skips-climate-change-session-g7-empty-chair/

stevew said...

Oh, that's good narciso, thanks for sharing.

I would argue Trump, by skipping this session, on a topic he doesn't agree with, was doing the polite thing. As if to say, Let them have their little confab without that turd in the punch bowl that I would be...

Fen said...

"She takes a luxury racing sailboat, but it has to fly the crew home (4 of them) and fly in a new crew (5 of them) to get the boat back to Europe."

Hysterical. 9 flights instead of 2 while trying to shame us?

Althouse, why am I getting this information from the comment section of a Wisconsin blog instead of from the reporter at the New York Times the New York Times?

Fen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fen said...

via narciso's link:

"The other G7 leaders agreed to give $20 million to help fight fires in the Amazon rainforest during the meeting."

LOL is that a typo? 20 MILLION?

The combined GDP of those 6 nations is $18 TRILLION.

I thought it was great optics for Trump to find more important things to do than attend this meeting, but the other nations promising a measly 20 mil to "save" the Amazon is even better.

And I bet more than half that 18 mil will be consumed by graft and corruption

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

The article goes into an anecdote about her father buying an SUV, even though he cared about the environment. He'd indulge himself unless the government outlawed SUVs, and he'd be happy to vote for someone who'd outlaw SUVs. The idea is don't ask people to be moral; impose what you think is moral on everyone.

Actually the idea is, if something harms other people, you either have to legislate against it or allow the courts to assess damages for the harm. The harms of climate change are real - damages to crops, health, habitation, and the environment we rely on at large - as well as harms that the DOD and insurance industries are closely following. This heavily marketed Koch cop-out that reduces all moral problems to issues of personal virtue is as dumb as saying that abstaining from murder and theft should be voluntary. The harms might be diffused among most of the population at large, but that doesn't make them any less personal or unethical and wrong. Duh.

Fen said...

The harms of climate change are real - damages to crops, health, habitation, and the environment we rely on at large

Hey Little Trump Hater, who are you going to legislate against? The Sun?

You have to prove human activity has significantly contributed to climate change.

You have had 20 years to do that and have failed so badly Micheal Mann won't even release his data.

Maybe we can also sue Jupiter for slinging asteroids our way? Idiot.

Fen said...

Trump Hater: reduces all moral problems to issues of personal virtue is as dumb as saying that abstaining from murder and theft should be voluntary

But abstaining from murder and theft IS voluntary.

As a Leftist, do you only abstain from murder and theft out of fear you would be jailed?

And then project your own lack of virtue onto everyone else?

Such a typical argument from the Ctrl-Left.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Not only is it proven, 66% of Americans agree that it's proven. (Even greater percentages elsewhere, one could presume).

https://news.gallup.com/poll/248027/americans-concerned-ever-global-warming.aspx

The only people who believe otherwise are the dipshits who are carrying water for and have bought into the campaigns of the same hatchet men who were paid by big tobacco to deny that cigarettes caused cancer. Your position achieved orbit into flat-earth territory long ago.

Since no one ever made money listening to or asking for your advice on anything other than how to be shipped abroad to kill brown people for the government, it's kind of funny to watch you complain about the astronomical reality that links climate to atmosphere. If you are against that relationship, maybe try adjusting your climate control settings to your preferred earth conditions in outer space. That would be interesting to watch.

In fact, I would pay to watch that.

It would be a virtuous thing to behold.

You could even wear your little uniform while you do it.

Fen said...

Not only is it proven, 66% of Americans agree that it's proven.

No, it's not proven.

And it doesn't matter how any people "agree" it's proven. Science doesn't work by consensus, you idiot.

Here: There has been NO warming for at least the last 14 years.

In January 2005, NOAA began recording temperatures at its newly built U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN). USCRN includes 114 pristinely maintained temperature stations spaced relatively uniformly across the lower 48 states. NOAA selected locations that were far away from urban and land-development impacts that might artificially taint temperature readings.

The USCRN has eliminated the need to rely on, and adjust the data from, outdated temperature stations. Strikingly, as shown in the graph below, USCRN temperature stations show no warming since 2005 when the network went online. If anything, U.S. temperatures are now slightly cooler than they were 14 years ago.


https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2019/08/23/climate_alarmists_foiled_no_us_warming_since_2005_110470.html

Take your science denying marxist cult and shove it your ass.

Fen said...

shipped abroad to kill brown people for the government

LOL you racist pos.

I volunteered to go to Somalia to save them from tribals mercs who were stealing all the food and aid we were sending.

But of course a racist like you would distort it.



Required field must not be blank said...

Dig a little deeper, and see what kind of business model is behind Greta's PR successs:

http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2019/01/17/the-manufacturing-of-greta-thunberg-for-consent-the-political-economy-of-the-non-profit-industrial-complex/

Eco-shaming is profitable business.

Scott said...

All these children on the march to save the world. I looked up the Children's Crusade (1212 CE). Didn't turn out well. They were abused and sold into slavery. Greta and other children pushed forward by adults on a variety of issues will be abused, permanently damaged, and thrown away when no longer useful.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I volunteered to go to Somalia to save them from tribals mercs who were...

Awwww... How charitable of you. Cannon-Fodder Flat-Earther Follower Fen is his generation's version of White Man's Burden. Let's give him a pat on the shoulder for civilizing the brown people for them.

Any other brown peoples you're out for bringing civilization to, through the barrel of a gun?

BTW, your hack opinion piece spoke of "U.S. warming," as if the planet's atmosphere, its carbon content, or its climate in total weren't actually global phenomena. He kept temperature the same in one country! Nice. Too bad he couldn't keep all those floods and droughts and hurricanes from happening, though. Perhaps they just happened because!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

No, it's not proven.

So says a basement-dwelling apocalyptic contract killer who never published anything and never proved anything. Who never did an experiment and probably failed any experiments assigned to him back when he was at whatever high school he failed out of in order to become a piece of cannon fodder instead.

And it doesn't matter how any people "agree" it's proven. Science doesn't work by consensus, you idiot.

And it doesn't work by lone cranks with no science education just saying "nuh uh!" - or the agitprop websites they get their "info" from - funded as it is by a conservative ad exec with a "real clearly" obvious political hack agenda.

JamesB.BKK said...

Raising and promotion of children to be nags and scolds is the worst habit of all of the terrible habits of boomers and their ilk. In addition to a return to the gold standard, the surviving individuals of the coming debt / urban collapse will return to the sound child-rearing rule that children are better seen and not heard.