Science Greta Thunberg Megathread - Dax Herrera says he wouldn't have a day ago (I somewhat doubt that)

Why is Greta Thunberg so triggering? How can a 16-year-old girl in plaits, who has dedicated herself to the not-exactly sinister, authoritarian plot of trying to save the planet from extinction, inspire such incandescent rage?

Last week, she tweeted that she had arrived into New York after her two week transatlantic voyage: “Finally here. Thank you everyone who came to see me off in Plymouth, and everyone who welcomed me in New York! Now I’m going to rest for a few days, and on Friday I’m going to participate in the strike outside the UN”, before promptly giving a press conference in English. Yes, her second language.

Her remarks were immediately greeted with a barrage of jibes about virtue signalling, and snide remarks about the three crew members who will have to fly out to take the yacht home.

This shouldn’t need to be spelled out, but as some people don’t seem to have grasped it yet, we’ll give it a lash: Thunberg’s trip was an act of protest, not a sacred commandment or an instruction manual for the rest of us. Like all acts of protest, it was designed to be symbolic and provocative. For those who missed the point – and oh, how they missed the point – she retweeted someone else’s “friendly reminder” that: “You don’t need to spend two weeks on a boat to do your part to avert our climate emergency. You just need to do everything you can, with everyone you can, to change everything you can.”

Part of the reason she inspires such rage, of course, is blindingly obvious. Climate change is terrifying. The Amazon is burning. So too is the Savannah. Parts of the Arctic are on fire. Sea levels are rising. There are more vicious storms and wildfires and droughts and floods. Denial is easier than confronting the terrifying truth.

Then there’s the fact that we don’t like being made to feel bad about our life choices. That’s human nature. It’s why we sneer at vegans. It’s why we’re suspicious of sober people at parties. And if anything is likely to make you feel bad about your life choices -- as you jet back home after your third Ryanair European minibreak this season – it’ll be the sight of small-boned child subjecting herself to a fortnight being tossed about on the Atlantic, with only a bucket bearing a “Poo Only Please” sign by way of luxury, in order to make a point about climate change.

But that’s not virtue signalling, which anyone can indulge in. As Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, and their-four-private-jets-in-11-days found recently, virtue practising is a lot harder.

Even for someone who spends a lot of time on Twitter, some of the criticism levelled at Thunberg is astonishing. It is, simultaneously, the most vicious and the most fatuous kind of playground bullying. The Australian conservative climate change denier Andrew Bolt called her “deeply disturbed” and “freakishly influential” (the use of “freakish”, we can assume, was not incidental.) The former UKIP funder, Arron Banks, tweeted “Freaking yacht accidents do happen in August” (as above.) Brendan O’Neill of Spiked called her a “millenarian weirdo” (nope, still not incidental) in a piece that referred nastily to her “monotone voice” and “the look of apocalyptic dread in her eyes”.

But who’s the real freak – the activist whose determination has single-handedly started a powerful global movement for change, or the middle-aged man taunting a child with Asperger syndrome from behind the safety of their computer screens?

And that, of course, is the real reason why Greta Thunberg is so triggering. They can’t admit it even to themselves, so they ridicule her instead. But the truth is that they’re afraid of her. The poor dears are terrified of her as an individual, and of what she stands for – youth, determination, change.

She is part of a generation who won’t be cowed. She isn’t about to be shamed into submission by trolls. That’s not actually a look of apocalyptic dread in her eyes. It’s a look that says “you’re not relevant”.

The reason they taunt her with childish insults is because that’s all they’ve got. They’re out of ideas. They can’t dismantle her arguments, because she has science – and David Attenborough – on her side. They can’t win the debate with the persuasive force of their arguments, because these bargain bin cranks trade in jaded cynicism, not youthful passion. They can harangue her with snide tweets and hot take blogposts, but they won’t get a reaction because, frankly, she has bigger worries on her mind.

That’s not to say that we should accept everything Thunberg says without question. She is an idealist who is young enough to see the world in black and white. We need voices like hers. We should listen to what she has to say, without tuning the more moderate voices of dissent out.

Why is Greta Thunberg so triggering? Because of what she represents. In an age when democracy is under assault, she hints at the emergency of new kind of power, a convergence of youth, popular protest and irrefutable science. And for her loudest detractors, she also represents something else: the sight of their impending obsolescence hurtling towards them.

joconnell@irishtimes.com
https://twitter.com/jenoconnell

https://web.archive.org/web/2019090...certain-men-1.4002264?localLinksEnabled=false
Found this thought-provoking indeed.

 

[heathercho]

CIA Agent Cooper was sperging about "checkmarks" on Twitter who thought Greta was going to be on a Coronavirus Panel.

https://archive.vn/9iQOQ

It's almost like CNN advertised exactly that....

 

[BIG BILL HELL'S]

Luddites should get the rope. We'll make it by hand just for them so they don't scream.

Fuck that noise. I want the rope to be produced by the most inefficient rope-making machine, that ideally spews out a gallon of raw toxic industrial waste for every foot of rope produced.

 

[Socrates]

Fuck that noise. I want the rope to be produced by the most inefficient rope-making machine, that ideally spews out a gallon of raw toxic industrial waste for every foot of rope produced.

It's gotta be nuclear powered with all the maintenance and operation handled by caged undocumented immigrant children for maximum bonus points

 

[Ginger Piglet]

It's gotta be nuclear powered with all the maintenance and operation handled by caged undocumented immigrant children for maximum bonus points

Nuclear powered? Too clean. Coal powered, surely. Brown coal powered even.

 

[BIG BILL HELL'S]

It's gotta be nuclear powered with all the maintenance and operation handled by caged undocumented immigrant children for maximum bonus points

Nuclear powered? Too clean. Coal powered, surely. Brown coal powered even.

Just cut out the middleman and power the thing by burning undocumented immigrant children.

 

[HOMO FOR LIFE]

I would like to be at the CNN meeting where they conjured up this idea of bringing this autistic child on board.

Must have been high.

 

[CWCissey]

So anything interesting happen? This was apparently on last night.

 

[TowinKarz]

I would like to be at the CNN meeting where they conjured up this idea of bringing this autistic child on board.

Must have been high.

They knew it would get clicks, and clicks were all they wanted.

They probably floated words like "hate-index score" and "rage interest" around when discussing possible guests that didn't make the cut before they picked the Goblin.

The outrage over the fact they got hate is as fake as the guy in the allergy medicine commercials who's supposed to be a farmer, but his overalls are just too darn clean.

 

[Spiteful Crow]

So anything interesting happen? This was apparently on last night.

She didn't even rant or rave
Sad!

 

[gangweedfan]

You probably already know this, but there's been talk from some of the usual suspects of the Corona situation being an opportunity to do things "differently" post lockdown. So I anticipate Greta being asked about the lockdown's positive effects on the environment, what the "new normal" should look like etc., which of course will involve a lot more "climate justice" etc.

you should check out sanjay guptas podcast. its basically him talking about how he wants everything to be after covid-19. even though the virus isnt a big deal anymore once cnn boomers get on a narrative they cant stop

 

[AlexGroans]

Apparently the adjusted data use Pairwise Homogenization Algorithm (PHA) adjustments to account for bias introduced by things like moving network stations, changes in recording instrumentation and observation times, and so on.

Understanding Adjustments to Temperature Data - Berkeley Earth

There has been much discussion of temperature adjustment of late in both climate blogs and in the media, but not much background on what specific adjustments are being made, why they are being made, and what effects they have. Adjustments have a big effect on temperature trends in the U.S., and...

berkeleyearth.org

(https://archive.md/I2PgY)

The algorithm, implemented in Fortran (because of course it is, fucking climate scientists), is available here.

Not saying that this all isn't suspect as hell. In fact, I saw this as I was skimming through the PHA source code files. Gotta say, it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence that their software works the way they say it does.

From the header of filnet_subs.v4p.f:

C   WARNING - POTENTIAL FOR A MAJOR ERROR IN THE PRECIP CODE HAS BEEN
C     DISCOVERED. THE ALGORITHM MAY BE COMPROMISED DUE TO THE USE OF
C     OF A SHORTCUT FOR CALCULATIONS. IT SEEMS AS IF THE ESTIMATION OF
C     THE CONFIDENCE INTERVAL AND THE CORRECTION FACTOR ARE NOT
C     CALCULATED IN NATURAL LOG SPACE AS IN THE ORIGINAL SPERRY VERSION
C     AT PRESENT THE EFFECTS ARE UNKNOWN, BUT UNTIL FURTHER INVESTIGATION
C      !!!!!! CONSIDER THE CODE CORRUPTED !!!!!!
C                                                07JUN01 CW

So the link for the PHA files is busted now.

 

[Yotsubaaa]

So the link for the PHA files is busted now.

You mean the source code files? I can access it fine.

Just in case though, I've attached a zip of the code files from that phav52i tarball (minus the benchmark/test data which make the file size huge). That filnet_subs.v4p.f code file I was talking about is in there.

 

[DungeonMaster]

I have absolutely no words. Do you know how much I despise it when people try to speak on behalf of my generation and tie everyone born after the millennium as one monumental collective? How they so desperately go and tie my generation into the most absurdly contrived narrative possible, and their fellow middleclass asskissers just lap it up. I suppose according to Shrimsley, everybody on this thread is a wealthy honkey in his fifties, howling with rage at a brave grassroots revolutionary who is just like the ones in their young adult novels and not backed up by anyone in particular, no siree!

They assume that every single young person shares the same ideas as she does. Like we're some kind of hivemind.

The narrative they've made is to get millennials (and boomers| to vicariously live out their childhoods in the most self aggrandizing way possible through Greta Thunberg. They never got to participate in a movement as children. Hell, they probably regret not being aware there was one. So now's their chance! Greta's a perfect example of grown men and women desperately trying to relive their childhood fantasies of rebelling against their parents.

So there are no revolutionaries involved. A large number of idiots are dancing to the media's tune, living out the grand adventure they missed out on through some vat-grown homunculus armoured in dialectic traps and lies. A bunch of self-important larpers is what they all are, puppeteering media and institutions to entertain their delusions.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

View attachment 1382486

I have absolutely no words. Do you know how much I despise it when people try to speak on behalf of my generation and tie everyone born after the millennium as one monumental collective? How they so desperately go and tie my generation into the most absurdly contrived narrative possible, and their fellow middleclass asskissers just lap it up. I suppose according to Shrimsley, everybody on this thread is a wealthy honkey in his fifties, howling with rage at a brave grassroots revolutionary who is just like the ones in their young adult novels and not backed up by anyone in particular, no siree!

They assume that every single young person shares the same ideas as she does. Like we're some kind of hivemind.

The narrative they've made is to get millennials (and boomers| to vicariously live out their childhoods in the most self aggrandizing way possible through Greta Thunberg. They never got to participate in a movement as children. Hell, they probably regret not being aware there was one. So now's their chance! Greta's a perfect example of grown men and women desperately trying to relive their childhood fantasies of rebelling against their parents.

So there are no revolutionaries involved. A large number of idiots are dancing to the media's tune, living out the grand adventure they missed out on through some vat-grown homunculus armoured in dialectic traps and lies. A bunch of self-important larpers is what they all are, puppeteering media and institutions to entertain their delusions.

Lol, we made the FT? Any chance of a quote because it's paywalled.

 

[Sekirodiealot]

View attachment 1382486

I have absolutely no words. Do you know how much I despise it when people try to speak on behalf of my generation and tie everyone born after the millennium as one monumental collective? How they so desperately go and tie my generation into the most absurdly contrived narrative possible, and their fellow middleclass asskissers just lap it up. I suppose according to Shrimsley, everybody on this thread is a wealthy honkey in his fifties, howling with rage at a brave grassroots revolutionary who is just like the ones in their young adult novels and not backed up by anyone in particular, no siree!

They assume that every single young person shares the same ideas as she does. Like we're some kind of hivemind.

The narrative they've made is to get millennials (and boomers| to vicariously live out their childhoods in the most self aggrandizing way possible through Greta Thunberg. They never got to participate in a movement as children. Hell, they probably regret not being aware there was one. So now's their chance! Greta's a perfect example of grown men and women desperately trying to relive their childhood fantasies of rebelling against their parents.

So there are no revolutionaries involved. A large number of idiots are dancing to the media's tune, living out the grand adventure they missed out on through some vat-grown homunculus armoured in dialectic traps and lies. A bunch of self-important larpers is what they all are, puppeteering media and institutions to entertain their delusions.

I like how humorless she looks

 

[Snekposter]

"HOW DARE YOU!" personified, I would say.

 

[CWCissey]

Greta: Climate change 'as urgent' as coronavirus

Greta Thunberg says the world needs to treat climate change with similar urgency to Covid-19.

www.bbc.co.uk

PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO MEEEEEE AGAIN!

 

[Adamska]

Greta: Climate change 'as urgent' as coronavirus

Greta Thunberg says the world needs to treat climate change with similar urgency to Covid-19.

www.bbc.co.uk

PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO MEEEEEE AGAIN!

Isn't she 18 now?

Either way, I don't care what this persons' parents or the creepy indian man who probably molested her wants me to hear since they're all fucking retarded on climate.

 

[George Floyd Sneed]

Sorry Greta, left wing billionaires found some new pets with BLM.

 

[CWCissey]

Isn't she 18 now?

Either way, I don't care what this persons' parents or the creepy indian man who probably molested her wants me to hear since they're all fucking retarded on climate.

Not yet. I think she turns 18 next year.